TVSquad

I couldn't agree more with respect to the lack of plot arc and character development getting old real fast. Also, I think they need to explain why the intelligence info stored in Chuck's head never gets outdated. It's one thing to be able to identify a person of interest, but it's completely different to know of a bomb plot months or years in advance. I don't see how the show can have any longevity unless Chuck just ends up identifying people. And if that's the case, surely the government knows who its looking for if they had the intel on it to begin with. It just doesn't make much sense.

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Not every show has layered arcs with callbacks in the first few episodes. In fact, that's the sign of a lazy show. If you want to see a show that really took serialized storytelling and arcs to a whole new level, first there's Babylon 5 which is unparallelled in its scope which started off with many one-off episodes that didn't seem to do a lot that had great significance later on.

The same can be said for Farscape. If you only watch the first ten or so episodes you would think the show was going to be a monster of the week show, but after the first half of the first season, the plots start rolling into each other and every single thing that has happened layers onto the character's past creating not only complex layered plots but also complex realistic characters.

It seems like people want shows to reveal clearly defined arcs before November sweeps nowadays and that's not necessarily a good thing.

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Where's the other reviewer? Varun, was it?

Why does TVS keep changing their writers?

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You can diffuse perfume throughout a room, but you don't diffuse a bomb. Of course the bomb can diffuse YOU if it explodes.

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that is not an easy costume to pull off ... I have to say that Yvonne Strahovski certainly pulled it off

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It's Captain Awesome, not Captain Amazing.

And I, for one, am grateful that the show didn't try to spoonfeed me as to whether Laszlo was a good guy or not. I can't believe that you consider that a black mark on the show.

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did I miss something? When Chuck was finding all of the bugs casey had put in his apt., one of them was in the frame of a picture of him and Sarah where she is dressed as Leia. At the end of the show, she poses for that exact photo with him to "give him something real"

was there a first photo that wasn't sarah?

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@Lou: the first photo was mocked up to make Sarah and Chuck look like they had a genuine relationship. Sarah noticed that Chuck tossed it in the trash after finding the bugs, so she took the second picture to give him a real memory to replace the fake one.

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@Lou - the first photo was photoshopped.

I for one, love this show. I think this reviewer is totally off and it's just a clean, fun show that shouldn't have a complicated plot line.

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Tonights episode was great, except for one problem. If you pay recognize the name of the creator, it's because Josh Schwartz also wrote The O.C.. In a certain episode of the OC, it's the new year party, and Ryan is trying to reach Marissa at a party, so he can kiss her at midnight. They had the same slow motion, same song, same camera work, as the sequence in last night's episode where chuck is going back to the halloween party.

Now in The OC, I thought it was a quite moving and romantic moment, with the music and direction fitting the story. In Chuck, the moment I heard the opening chords of the song I knew it wasn't going to work. It just didn't have the same vibe, and using the same song just really didn't feel good. I love the show, but they need to play up the action and comedy and not the sappy side.

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I think they got that idea from G4 host Olivia Munn.

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i LOVED the scene with chuck running to find morgan on halloween. i remembered the song from when they did it on the oc but actually liked it even more. it was very cute and funny at the same time.

and roast beef on a desert island? never!

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Thanks Guys,
I flip between the first half of chuck and HIMYM, so I missed that bit.

but the girl in the original pic must have had the exact costume that Sarah ended up in. not just one like it.

here's my theory... They had the actors pose for the pic, the prop guy (badly) photoshops Sarah's head

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I laughed my ass off at the OC reference. I love how the show can infuse that kind of humor for those of us who are in on the joke...and those who aren't... while probably with not the same effect, it still was completely overmelodramatic and fit with mogan and chucks sometimes melodramatic friendship.

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Robert - I think it was supposed to comedy; a tongue-in-check homage to the OC's version of the same scene...and in that way I thought it funny and a sign that Schwartz, like his best characters, is not taking himself too seriously.

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I like that this show doesn't have some overarching plot that I have to think about. After Heroes and Lost, it's nice to have a show that I can tune into weekly just for a fun episode.

Loved the being a man episode. Are you a tucker?


http://redlightnaps.wordpress.com/2007/10/24/best-new-shows-fall-2007/

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@Gordon Werner -- I think Sarah's costume would be very easy to pull off. I spent a few minutes thinking about pulling it off of her and let me tell you, it required almost no effort.

I vote thumbs-up for the Varun-free review, by the way.

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I loved the OC reference and I didn't really think they were seriously trying to pull off the same scene. I agree that Josh Schwartz probably thought it was a little funny to throw it in there.
To me, there are a LOT of similarities to the OC writing-wise. There are a lot of comments that Chuck makes that are very Seth Cohen-y. The "should I bring a light jacket" and "stakeout mix tape" comments from the last episode were lines that could very easily be coming out of Seth Cohen's mouth.
And my initial thought when I saw Laslo last night was that he was acting almost EXACTLY like the character Oliver Trask from season 1 of the OC.

I personally like this show and I think if you take it too seriously you will only be disappointed. Just have fun with it.

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Sarah's and Elle's costumes were the best parts of this episode.

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Ah come on - it included a reference to the OC - the whole Dice playing in the background while Chuck gets there just as time expires??? Ryan and Marisa season 1?? Anyone?? No love... Ok... back to work

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