Killing Mama B

"Mother is the name for God in the lips and hearts of little children." -- William Makepeace Thackeray

 The search for Chuck's mom is the apparent end-game of season 4 and that demands one ponder some questions about the next 13 episodes.  Will she be good?  Will she be bad?  Will she be an alien?  Does she club cute baby seals in their brainzies?  The witch!

In the past couple of weeks we have jumped the Shaw-arc, split up Chuck and Sarah, and now it is time we kill Mama B!

I like to think of this scenario... what if Mama B is so bad that the US government wants her dead?  That the Ring, or some other nefarious organization, is protecting her from Chuck's former bosses?  And what if Sarah, still a CIA agent, is tasked with finding and killing the mother of the man she loves, without knowing that the target is his mom?  What would Sarah do if she found out?  What would Casey do?  WHAT WOULD THEY DO?!?!?!  What if Chuck and Morgan's search for mom, and Sarah and Casey's hunt to kill mom, intersect?!  OMFGBBQ!

What if the Lochness Monster and Jack the Ripper were one and the same?!  Bullcrabcakes, or not?!

Discuss!

Split Up Chuck and Sarah

The show-runners recently said that they have learned their lesson and will not be putting third parties between Chuck and Sarah... and a collective sigh was heard throughout a tiny, tiny, barely noticeable portion of the CHUCK universe.  While I do think they had effective third parties between them, like Lou, Jill, Bryce, Cole, and Hannah, it was Shaw that put a bad taste in the mouths of the fans, like when you expect to bite into a tasty chocolate muffin but instead bite into a pooh sandwich.

BREAK THEM UP! KEEP THEM TOGETHER!

So, no third party love interests coming between our main characters.  That leaves only a couple of narrative devices to use to keep things interesting.  One would be to throw in problems every few episodes that keeps the lovers from becoming boring, while giving us new and hotter makeup moments between them.  Or... to break them up for a while, either due to their inability to perform their job while together or due to personal issues within the relationship.  Now, you COULD keep them together and leave them happy to explore their love but this is a TV show and that is not going to happen.

Seriously.

It is not going to happen.

Stop even dreaming about it.

I know, I know... you are writing your hate comment to me right now! "MAGNUS! WHY DO YOU BE SO NEGOTEEV ABOOT THE SHOW, EH?!"  Well, eff you and your French Canadian accent.

You don't like what you are hearing?  Then tell me what you would like to see happen.  Here are some potential scenarios for them:

CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE

a. Chuck and Sarah are happy and the world is perfect and the birds are singing and we get a MUSICAL EPISODE! YAY!!!!

b. Chuck and Sarah are happy and the world is perfect and the birds are singing and BLAM! Sarah dies.

c. Chuck and Sarah are happy and the world is perfect and then Sarah falls forward into a ditch and busts her face and is no longer pretty and we learn that Chuck is pretty damn shallow for a nice guy.  Hey, why not?  Remember his breakup with Hannah?  What a jerk!  IN FRONT OF HER PARENTS?!  REALLY?!


d. Chuck and Sarah are happy.  Period.  NBC cancels the show during the first commercial break of episode 1 due to general forgetfulness.


e. Chuck and Sarah burn to the ground (you are welcome Jessica).


f. Chuck and Sarah learn that though they are in love, they have problems just like any couple.  Sometimes these problems cause them to argue and get mad and sometimes Chuck has to sleep on the couch.  But they somehow always figure it out because love conquers all.


g. While reading option "f" you vom'd a little bit in your mouth.


h. While reading option "f" you felt weak in the knees and peed into your diaper like a good little girl! Yeah!

OR FILL IN YOUR OWN OPTION IN THE COMMENTS SECTION.

Detonating CHUCK - Quitting Before the Cancellation

August 6th note: ChuckTV and others have blogged about this post and decided to misrepresent its purpose.  So, for those incapable of reading... nowhere does it say that anyone I have talked to said the show IS CERTAINLY GOING TO BE CANCELED, but that it is very unlikely to be renewed.  This is a hypothetical scenario being posed for debate.  An ethical site would have been sure to represent that accurately.

To quote myself in an early response in the comments section: "No insider I have talked to knows anything for sure about the fate of the show."

TRAITOR!
I have had several conversations over this summer with various people from insiders, to industry people, to journalists and most said the same thing: the CHUCK show-runners should announce that season 4 is the final season no matter what happens with the ratings. End it now before NBC cancels the show. Construct a series finale and request that NBC pick up 3 or more new episodes for the season to finish out the story.

ARE YOU NUTS?
But is this the best thing to do for the show? If the show-runners have a five or seven season arc (depending on who you talk to), would ending the show early and on purpose damage the narrative? Would the writers be forced to rush certain scenarios and characters arcs as a way to wrap them up? Not if they are given 3 or more episodes to do it.

BSG AND LOST DID IT!
Both BATTLESTAR GALACTICA and LOST announced that their shows would end before the networks were ready to cancel them. Both shows realized their overall story arc had a finite life and that ending them was better for the series. Granted, both shows had controversial final episodes but both also milked the resolution to the story until the final hour or so of the series. CHUCK has less weight to the grander story and so it could likely spend the final three hours closing the series out on an epic note, without it feeling rushed or contrived.

CONTEMPLATION!
Can CHUCK actually increase its ratings enough in season 4 to get an extended episode order, or a 5th season?  History says no.  Most shows lose ratings every season, they don't increase them.  Sure, a few shows have actually seen ratings increases in later seasons but they were mostly procedural type shows that didn't have a grander arc.  Also, they were easily definable shows.  I still have a hard time describing CHUCK to new viewers in 450 words or less (granted, I use a lot of words).  The only other way CHUCK could either get more episodes in season 4 or get picked up for a 5th season is if other NBC shows do so poorly that CHUCK looks comparatively good.  And even then it is unlikely since it could be seen as part of the problem.  The show could also return if WB lowballs the licensing fee, but from what I hear that fee is already so low that it cannot get much lower.

CAPITULATION!
What do you think?  Should the show-runners announce the end of the show now?  Should they do so to leverage more episodes in the 4th and final season?  Or should they just go on until NBC cancels it?  Will it serve the story and the fans best to finalize the overall arc this year?  Or is it more important to serve the specific season arc and worry about getting more later?

Finally, should WB send me the entire season on DVD as soon as it is available?

Chuck You Tuesday - Episode 38 (PG and R-Rated)

This is a two-in-one episode discussing San Diego Comic Con, the CHUCK Tweet-Up, Zachary Levi's party, and the Ken-Mar tennis charity event with Yvonne Strahovski.

First few minutes contain video from the CHUCK Tweet-Up with Zac and Sarah addressing the attendees.

WARNING! If you want a family friendly experience, only listen to the FIRST SEGMENT which ends around the 21 minute mark. The rest of the podcast is for ADULTS ONLY.

PLEASE VOTE (once per month) for the podcast HERE!

Subscribe to this podcast on iTunes by clicking this link.

CHUCK Cast SDCC 2010 Interviews from Jessica

Jumping the Shaw-arc: Succeeding in the New Season

Most know that the idiom "jumping the shark" is a bad thing. Some know what it means; many think they know what it means; and many more have no clue what you are talking about when you say it. So, what does it really mean? Specifically, it references a HAPPY DAYS episode where Fonzie water ski-jumped over a shark.

Jumping the shark is the moment where you realized that the show had lost the foundation of its creativity that had kept it a quality show up to that point. It is when the writers diverted from the established logic of the show and entered into the realm of absurd-show-logic Consider it the sign that things were going down hill. The writers were fresh out of good ideas and were now just milking the episodes for as long as possible so they could keep the money coming in. People can argue when or where a show jumped the shark, but these arguments should be saved for AFTER the show has either gone off the air, or it has been in a downward slide for many seasons. Declaring that something has "jumped the shark" after one episode is ridiculous, even though people enjoy doing it.

For CHUCK fans, there is a different idiom that is pronounced very similarly: "Jumping the Shaw-arc" is when the show righted its path and rediscovered what made people love it. I know quite a few hardcore fans who were questioning their love for the show during the Shaw/Sarah romance arc, who felt rejuvenated once it ended. Though, there are still those who abandoned the show during that time who might want to revisit it in season 4. I think it is safe to say that the final six episodes of the season, post jumping of the Shaw-arc, were the type of quality, fun, drama, and storytelling we expect from this show.

So, gather up your friends and enemies and tell them the good news: CHUCK jumped the Shaw-arc. Everything is fine now. It is safe to swim in the water again. No large piece of wood will harm you ever again, nor splinter poor Sarah "Sam" Walker.

*Let me add that I loved Shaw as a bad guy and would welcome his return as one.

Zac and Josh at SDCC with G4TV

Video Games - E3 2011 - Comic-Con '10 Live

The Greatest Podcast in the World - Episode 3 (ADULTS ONLY)

We talk about CHUCK season 4, San Diego Comic Con 2010, and the CHUCK Tweet-Up as well as some other stuff.

ADULT LANGUAGE: Do not listen to this if you are easily offended or under 18.

SPOILER WARNING: Some season 4 spoilers.

CHUCK Comic-Con Panel