Something occurred to me while I was watching Chuck last night: the series has become more like Smallville has been in recent seasons. Not because Chuck's latest love interest, Kristin Kreuk, used be on Smallville (though that might be what initially gave me this idea), what's making Chuck more similar to Smallville is that they both started as fairly light-hearted shows with occasional darker or more serious moments, but they've both gotten darker and more serious as the series progressed.
On Smallville, the darker edge really started to take over when the love triangle between Lana Lang (Kreuk, again), Clark Kent, and Lex Luthor became so deadly the characters could easily slide into roles right out of a film noir, with Lana as a femme fatale, Lex as a murdered gangster, and Clark as a "hero" cop who arrests his own ex-girlfriend (they actually did that on one episode... it was better than it sounds here).
As for Chuck, the series' darker tone has come about as Chuck has progressed from "average guy with the intersect" to full-blown, bad-ass super spy. This has been jarring at points, and a little hard to get used to. On the one hand, I like the fact that the show is taking itself more seriously, and I think the writers, actors, and everyone else involved is doing a very good job with it (I even think Brandon Routh and Kreuk were great additions to the cast, and I like how Sarah is now the one willing to take a chance with a real relationship). On the other hand, it's not the Chuck (or Chuck) we're used to seeing, is it?
As Sarah (or Sam, I suppose) herself observed during last night's show, Chuck, the hero we've been following all this time has changed and the show has changed with him. In fact, the constant niggling problem I have with Chuck is the same problem Sarah/ Sam now has with Chuck: he isn't the same person we all used to like, and nor is the show. That constant light-heartedness is gone, and apparently we all have to get used to that.
With Smallville, I stuck through the tonal shift and still continue to watch and enjoy the show; which is what I'll end up doing with Chuck. It's just going to take some getting used to.
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A tonal shift for any show is difficult to pull off, especially going from a light hearted show about a goofy guy who has secrets stuck in his head and must be protected from everyone (including himself at times) to one where said goofy guy is now a bad ass. It is almost like the show woke up one day and decided to go from Hart to Hart (old school dectetive show about a married couple solving crimes and being fablous, very tounge in cheek and light in tone) to being 24. Hard to pull off, but not impossible. You say Smallville is like that, but Smallville always took itself seriously in the first few seasons, even when it was lighter in tone (letting John Schneider's charcter jam out to the Dukes of Hazard theme was funny, but then having Clark's human father die, not so much). Chuck was always more of a dramedy, and now it is trying to be a straight action thriller. Good luck with that to the show's actors and writers, as it has always been easier to go from serious to a more light hearted tone (witness Felcity switching gears from a more hard edged dramedy to a lighter romantic comedy in later years, or what The Practice invovled into over the years, to the almost out right parody of itself in Boston Legeal) than going from light hearted to more serious (The Wonder Years tried to grow up with the characters and embrace more adult story lines, but the viewers definelty didn't follow). On other note, it seems the fans are most angry not with the switch in tone (which seems to be working, if you judge by the increased viewership) but the fact that Sarah/Sam is now in a realtionship with someone that is not Chuck. In fact, the most loyal fans (the ones who saved this show with their Subway camapaign) are outright incensed. I wonder what you think of it (though you did mention that it was a good surprise to see Sarah embrace a real realtionship), and should the show's producers try to please the fans or themselves, basically (a problem the Lost producers and writers are also facing, and maybe the 24 ones if the show does end this year)? Just curious, though anything better than spending years dwelling on it and obessing over a realtionship between their leads (i.e., the fans of House and Bones) would be better, I suppose
ReplyDeleteSmallville had a super-hero seriousness/ silliness to it in the earilier seasons which got more serious over time (Clark's dad's death came when the show was getting darker and more serious).
ReplyDeleteAs for Chuck, I like the relationship between Sarah and Shaw. He's basically Brice except taller and built like Superman, and she's traded places with Chuck in wanting to mix the whole spy thing with an actual relationship while Chuck is getting more devoted to being a super-spy. Meanwhile, Shaw has apparently already married a former partner who has since died, so he's already been where Sarah is trying to be: balancing the pressures of a job that involves nothing but deception with an honest relationship.
As for the supposed couple we're rooting for NOT ending up together, no one's done it quite as good as Eureka. The show started with a potential relationship between Carter and Alison which they spun out into a love triangle involving Stark, her ex-husband. But then, everyone moved on (because it's not really believable that someone would hold a torch indefinitely unless that person is crazy), and Alison and Stark were happy together. And even when Stark died, Alsion (now pregnant with Stark's kid) and Carter still didn't run into one another's arms, because that's not realistic.
Now, while one might have some issues with Alison not getting it on with Carter at first, the show handled it in such a way that you just got over it and enjoyed the show more for being believable over conventional. Whether or not this happens on Chuck, who can say. But I actually like Shaw and Sarah together.