TVSquad

There are only so many hours of television I can fit in a day, so I'm picky and particular about what I watch. Chuck is one of those shows that I watched early last season, I liked it, but for reasons I can't think of, it didn't make the cut. Seeing as it was good enough and is clearly popular enough to have a second season, with the first season DVDs out in a couple of months, I may have to do some catching up and find a way to fit it in.

This session was great for fans of the show, as the first five minutes or so were filled with a video montage of scenes from next season. I'll describe some of those scenes in my summary below, but I'll start them off with SPOILER in case you don't want to know.

(S01E13) Breast. Opening. Ever! Okay seriously, I was a little surprised at how blatantly they were just staring, and recording, close-ups of cleavage in the opening. Isn't this American television? The home of the prude boob(less) tube? But leave it to those crafty Chuck writers to make this seeming incongruous, and gratuitous, scene an integral part of the plot later on.

The NBC promo machine, while not only splicing in cute little ad-libbed (I'm guessing here) bits with the actors, promised more new episodes of Chuck "Coming Soon." Well, I don't know how they define soon, but considering there are no more episodes written and the writers are still on strike as of this writing, it looks like their soon is my later.

(S01E12) "If you want to go through life all emotionally constipated and alone, then suit yourself. I'll let you get back to protecting the greater good, you freaking robot." (Chuck to Casey)

Last night's first of two new Chucks was about learning that the supporting characters are human, too. Casey than just a cold-as-ice NSA Agent who would probably kill everyone in the room if he was ever the subject of a roast and has mastered the art of communicating with eye winces, grunts and scowls. Ellie and Devon/Captain Awesome actually have a relationship issue, which ... Morgan? ... diagnoses?! And we get nothing on the tired "is it or isn't it?," "does she or doesn't she?" non-romance between Chuck and Sarah (thank god!). In fact, they barely had any screen time together and I think it was, well, awesome!

(S01E03) "Now that's what I call moving some merchandise." - John Casey

If you've already seen the episode, which I assume you have, you'll know the quote above comes at a very tense point in the show. The writers had two ways to go: have Casey say something very serious or have him say something so ridiculous it counters the "bad-ass"-ness of the previous scene (i.e. a microwave straight to a thug's head).

I know the picture's a little blurry folks, but isn't it worth it to know how far the cast of NBC's new pilot Chuck is willing to go to get you to love them? Stars Zachary Levi and Joshua Gomez were not, in fact, reenacting the finer points of the Kama Sutra on stage. They were recreating their comic ninja fight from the pilot. Now that's we've cleared that up, more on Chuck after the jump.

A lot of people have been asking what is to become of Day Break now that ABC has pulled it from the air. The word was that the remaining episodes were to be shown on the network's video site. If you were wondering why ABC hasn't made good on putting the new Day Break episodes up yet, TV Guide has an answer. But be warned, it's a pretty stupid one. According to an ABC rep, there are "unforeseen music clearance issues."

As John McEnroe would say, "You cannot be serious." I could understand the holdup with something like the WKRP DVD set because of music clearance issues. When Johnny and Venus were spinning records, nobody had dreamed of what the home video market would become. But given the fact that ABC has been putting a whole mess of their shows, including Day Break, online, how were these issues unforeseen? That's like your car breaking down because of unforeseen cars burn gas issues.

I have no idea what ABC is doing at this point. If the best they have to offer instead of Day Break is repeats of According to Jim and George Lopez, what's the point? The slight gain in ratings still landed them in fourth place, and isn't worth the ill will they are garnering from viewers.

I'm sure that those of you that consider yourself part of the Whedonverse already know about all the shenanigans surrounding the big Flanvention this weekend. But for those of you that don't follow all things Whedon, it's an interesting tale. These are strange days in the Whedonverse. I've only been following it through random posts around the internet, so feel free to add/correct details in the comments, but here is the quick and dirty version of the story.

This weekend there was supposed to be a huge Firefly event in Burbank. There was a banquet, panels, booths to sell wares, photo ops and autographs from cast members, all the usual convention stuff. It was to be a somewhat limited affair, so the tickets were not cheap. With the various events , autographs, hotels, airfare, etc. many of those attending had spent their way into four figures for this opportunity. Then last week things started to get really weird.

There probably isn't a Browncoat in the 'verse who doesn't already know this, but Adam Baldwin, who played Jayne on Firefly, is auctioning off autographed copies of all 14 Firefly shooting scripts. The auction is on eBay and it closes in six hours (sorry!). Right now, bids for the two-hour pilot (Serenity) are up to $2,075. It is signed by Baldwin, Morena Baccarin, Nathan Fillion, Ron Glass, Summer Glau, Sean Maher, Tim Minear, Jewel Staite, Gina Torres, Alan Tudyk and Joss Whedon (oh, if only I had a trust fund!!). The money will benefit the Marine Corps - Law Enforcement Foundation and the auction is being run by the California Browncoats.

If that's a little too rich for your blood, there's a lot of other Firefly stuff up for sale on eBay.

[Via Whedonesque]

Just as Anna, Joel and I wrapped up our previews for most of ABC's new shows for this Fall, a latecomer arrives at the TV Squad offices: Day Break. And while the same rules apply, where we're not really supposed to "review" the episode we were given (hence the "NOT FOR REVIEW" notice with the DVD), there's really nothing stopping us from giving you the preview lowdown.