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Sad News, "Chuck" Fans: NBC Picked Up the Show for a Full Season

By Dustin Rowles | Posted Under Trade News | Comments (23)

chuck_chuck_sarah_tv.jpg

After hanging precariously on the cancel bubble for years, NBC has done the unthinkable: They’ve picked up a full season order of “Chuck” only five weeks into the television season.

Why is this bad?

Two reasons, really: 1) The show, sadly, is on the decline. They’ve Moonlighting’d Chuck and Sarah, basically backing themselves into a corner. If they stay together, the show grows increasingly stale, and if they break up, then they will have Ross and Rachel’d Chuck and Sarah. It’s a no-win situation. Moreover, as much promise as the search for Chuck’s mom had at the end of last season, it’s not nearly as fun as the The Ring was. I find myself missing Brandon Routh more and more each week. And 2) “Chuck” always seemed to be at its best when it was under the constant threat of cancellation. With a full season order, I fear the creative team behind the show will rest on laurels until May sweeps, when Chuck and Sarah — undoubtedly — will get married.

It’s too bad; it was a zippy fun cute spy show for three seasons. It’s probably got a few good episodes left in it, but I’m afraid it’s exhausted most of its energy.

Meanwhile, NBC has also picked up a full season order of “The Chase,” because why not? It’s NBC. “Chase” airs at 10 p.m., so at the very least, it’ll never lose out to Fox in the ratings because Fox doesn’t air anything in that time slot. It’s the one hour on Monday nights when the network can brag that it finished third in the time slot, instead of fourth. Plus, it can’t be an expensive show to produce — how much does it cost to film a woman running?

In ratings news, a brand new episode of “Running Wilde” was down 14 percent from a rerun of “Raising Hope” last night, and yet “Running Wilde” is still on. I think Fox is officially overcompensating. Does anyone still watching “Running Wilde,” and if so, has it gotten better?

Finally, I leave you with this: Stephen Colbert’s appearance on “The View,” where he walks off the set in protest for the terrible way that Joy and Whoopi treated Bill O’Reilly.









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Comments

My respect for these cackling hens would have shot-up exponentially if they had launched a chair to O'Reilly's skull, Geraldo style.

Posted by: BarbadoSlim at October 20, 2010 6:23 PM

I haven't watched last week's Running Wilde yet, but I do believe Andy Richter guest starred. So, there's that.

Posted by: Three-nineteen at October 20, 2010 6:28 PM

So I ended up watching two hours of Fox last night by accident, and did see Running Wilde. It was... not great. I don't know what the other episodes were like, but I'm certainly not hooked. Raising Hope, on the other hand, was hilarious! I wasn't expecting to like it, but I think I'll need to watch again.

Posted by: sunset&camden at October 20, 2010 6:30 PM

Oh, and completely off topic -- Stefano DiMera has a Twitter feed. I really don't know how to react to this information.

Posted by: Three-nineteen at October 20, 2010 6:30 PM

aaaaargh. I was going to use the 6-7 hour to watch Chuck and eat dinner (between classes) but I only made it through about 15 minutes before I got totally fed up with it. I'm not sure I can take the whole season of this.

Posted by: esme at October 20, 2010 6:32 PM

I never watched this Chuck programme, but why don't they just kill off that Sarah character? Glad I could help.

Posted by: zito at October 20, 2010 7:08 PM

I tried sticking with Running Wilde but it just isn't funny to me.

Posted by: John W at October 20, 2010 7:24 PM

Oh, is it time for the Chuck backlash now?

I certainly can't continue to enjoy it now that it has the network's support.

Posted by: Tl at October 20, 2010 7:28 PM

The 2nd season of Chuck made me so happy. I wish the show could recapture that magic but it just seems impossible.

Posted by: THRILLHO at October 20, 2010 7:53 PM

I'm still going to support Chuck because even on the decline it's one of the best intentioned shows on TV. I felt the same way about Scrubs in its down years, and it sort of bounced back a little at one point, so there.

-Frob

P.S. Also, Yvonne is pretty easy on the eyes. Just sayin.

Posted by: frobme at October 20, 2010 8:44 PM

Couldn't get through the first episode of Chuck, too much tongue in cheek for me, I like my spy dramas more serious (e.g. Alias, even with the Rimbaldi nonsense).

Wanted Running Wilde to be funnier, and Todd Margaret, and I do laugh at some bits, but I can see that the shows are not going to make it.

On a bright note, just finished watching the "Pre-air" of "The Walking Dead" (look on your favorite torrent site) and it was excellent. The ending scene in Atlanta, with the horse, with The Dead, was completely different from the comic, and better! Had me chewing off my fingernails!

Posted by: TrickyHD at October 20, 2010 9:12 PM

OMG, I totally agree with you on Chuck. This season is definitely very weak so far, there isn't any real drama anymore, and the too much focus on the Chuck and Sarah relationship is killing the show for me. I too miss Brandon Routh so much, he definitely added so much tension and intrigue to the show. And huge eye candy too. ;) Any way, I'll probably continue watching as long as it's tolerable.

Posted by: Star at October 20, 2010 9:23 PM

Colbert for the win.

Posted by: nosio at October 20, 2010 9:55 PM

Chuck has lost a step but it doesn't have much to do with Chuck and Sarah getting together. It lost some charm when Chuck got the intersect 2.0 and learned kung-fu. Where he once used his geek knowledge and heart to save the day, now he just waits for some superpowers and it just isn't as fun. But don't give up on it. There may be some life left in his search for mom.

Posted by: ed newman at October 20, 2010 10:07 PM

What the fuck guys!

What's with the fucking audio ads all over the site now (hiding right at the bottom).

Makes visiting here just about the most annoying site on the film news trail...

Posted by: Justin Halliday at October 20, 2010 10:30 PM

Alright, here is what's up. I don't feel like doing a super in-depth analysis, but I think it can be summed up quite easily.

The show has drastically changed from the first couple of seasons. Chuck used to be super geeky, which was awesome for all of us who are the same way. Now that he's a kung fu master and sleeps with a super hot CIA agent, it's harder to relate with him.

Morgan was a great character because he basically did exactly what he wanted and had no responsibilities or cares in the world other than pirating video games. Now he runs the Buy More and is getting involved in a serious relationship. This shouldn't have happened.

There has been less Captain Awesome than ever, which is pretty disappointing because he was always so cool to have around. He is the exact opposite of Chuck and Morgan : a stud, cool, collected, confident, and a grown up.

The arc this season has been terrible. I could care less about his mom, who they barely mentioned in the first two seasons and suddenly felt like they needed to make the main focus of the season. I have no connection to her whatsoever because we haven't seen any of her over the past 3 years. Veronica Mars made it work because we had plenty of flashbacks featuring Lianne Mars and she was part of the story from the very beginning, meanwhile they never actually showed Chuck's mom on camera and never gave us a reason to care.

That's all for now.

Posted by: Allen at October 20, 2010 10:53 PM

Agree that Chuck is suffering this season, but please please PLEASE retire that sad "moonlighting" trope.

As anyone who has ever been in a relationship (or marriage) can attest, you can have plenty of drama and misunderstanding even if people are a couple.

It just requires good writing.

I would refer the producers of Chuck to David Mamet's letter on TV writing. Hopefully that letter will remind them that exposition kills, each scene should push the story forward, and any time you have two people discussing a third, it is bushwah.

The fact that one *acute* goal has been achieved does not render the whole show moot. You just have to establish a new problem to be solved.

They have not shown us how finding Chuck's mom is any kind of goal. Sure, they've TOLD us (and told us and told us) that finding Chuck's mom is the goal, but they haven't shown us why.

They don't have a "moonlighting problem" because Chuck and Sarah are together, they have a moonlighting problem because, just like moonlighting, they no longer have a compelling narrative.

Oh, and the previous bitching about special effects is weak sauce. Dr. Who made an art form of awful special affects, but the producers/directors still knew how to put together a compelling story.

Chuck was compelling because he represented three things to the audience: 1. A "fish out of water" trying to make his way in a new world 2. A person who had greatness but whose greatness was unseen/undiscovered 3. A person who had lost his way, but was given a chance to find it.

Each of those are pretty standard storylines, and Chuck hit them all.

Now, Chuck is no longer a person with undiscovered greatness, and he now has found his way. And each episode, he becomes less a fish out of water and more a fisherman.

He has become Brice Larkin. And the interesting part is that they have a show built around the actor who played Brice, playing Brice's slightly less reputable twin, over on the USA network in a show called "White Collar".

So either they need to figure out how Chuck regains what he lost (obvious step, take away Chuck's powers COMPLETELY, not just for an episode and maybe transfer them to Morgan??) or they need to write the show as if Chuck is just becoming Brice.

If you dump his powers altogether for the rest of the season, you regain 1, 2, and have a twist on 3. Transfer them to Morgan and you add the slapstick comedy, and can even have some tension between buddies. Loss of powers can make him feel inadequate with Sarah (an overused theme, but can be done), totally returns him to fish out of water. and could even give him another goal: Get the powers back.

Posted by: morganew at October 20, 2010 11:29 PM

While I dig what you're laying down, morganew, the writers of Chuck a) have already sorta done that story, it's how he got the Intersect 2.0 to begin with, and b) would never have the patience to do that story properly. Either they'd handle it in one of their patented one-episode-cliffhanger cum to-be-continued episodes, or, like they're doing with the mother, probably mention it once or twice an episode, or not at all (eh, who cares!), and then do a heavy master plot episode followed by more one-off mentions until the season finale. It's just frustrating and you'd wish they would watch a season of Buffy or Angel, or something.

Huh. Some of that at the end might have been misdirected from How I Met Your Mother.

Posted by: RobP at October 21, 2010 12:05 AM

I watch Running Wilde because I love Will Arnett and David Cross. It's not hilariously funny but hey, neither is The Office anymore and I watch that too. RW has a ton of charm and silly humor plus I swear I've heard at least 3 veiled Arrested Development jokes. I don't think it will stick around though - one, because it's sillier than it is hilarious and two, because I like it and FOX cancels things that I like.

Posted by: Poptart at October 21, 2010 8:36 AM

Chuck used to be super geeky, which was awesome for all of us who are the same way. Now that he's a kung fu master and sleeps with a super hot CIA agent, it's harder to relate with him.

I've often thought that Chuck was pretty much the most geek-oriented show on the air, at least for the first couple of years. You don't need to be a geek to enjoy Star Trek because you don't need to know anything that the show itself doesn't tell you. You NEEDED to be a geek to enjoy Chuck because of all the references to things only geeks know. And the ratings sucked because geeks do not, no matter how much money super-hero movies make, control American entertainment. If they're turning Chuck himself into someone mainstream viewers can live vicariously through, rather than someone geeks can identify with, then it doesn't surprise me that the ratings are getting stronger (if, indeed, they are).

Personally the whole thing just annoys me because I think the show has never been that great. The Chuck/Sarah relationship has no resonance for me because she is so lacking in personality. I have to believe two people are actually right for each other to root for them to be together, and I couldn't care less about Sarah and can't believe Chuck does, either. (I basically am Chuck, except not nearly as good-looking.)

Posted by: Todd at October 21, 2010 10:59 AM

Good points, Todd. I've been watching S1 and S2 lately and I guess I don't really agree with the points you make about Sarah... oh well.

Posted by: Allen at October 21, 2010 3:46 PM

@Todd: ratings on chuck aren't getting stronger, they're just steady. The show has a loyal fanbase.

I agree that this season is boring.

Posted by: Amy at October 21, 2010 8:18 PM

Hasselbeck jumped SO FAST on the "rude to Bill O'Reilly" thing. And everyone ignored her, LOL.

Does she not understand that Colbert's conservative persona is just a character?

Posted by: Jessica at October 23, 2010 10:11 PM