Chuck vs. Goodbye (Review)

It will come as no surprise to you that I loved it. I’d ask you to let me show you why but I’m fearful that you’ll think I’m just feeding you manure so I won’t. Instead I’ll tell you why I liked it and how I see it. I’ve been honest in all of my reviews and in this, the very end, I won’t lie. In any case here goes…

Chuck vs. Sarah and Goodbye – First Reactions

Don’t Freak Out

I’ve deliberately kept myself from the spoiler I see everyone is talking about, and I think I’m glad.

Morgan: I’m over-thinking this, aren’t I?
Chuck: Yeah. Yeah, you are. Go with your heart, buddy. Our brains only screw things up.

If I can recommend any one thing, it’s time to relax, remove all expectations/preconceptions and just enjoy the evening. There’s no other way to approach something that’s meant this much to us for so long.

Goodbye, Chuck (Song)

Faith begins:

So…this is it. The beginning of the end. The story is to be concluded, and with it our friends, our “Chuck” family.

Plans, Trains, and Chasing the Dream

What is it with the Charleses-es or the Bartowski’s and trains? As I watched Bullet Train, I couldn’t help thinking of different time … a different train.

Not so long ago Chuck and Sarah boarded a train with nothing but a ticket and the determination to be together. It was the start of their journey, the genesis of dreams they had yet to imagine.

Two outstanding episodes, Honeymooners and Bullet Train, bookend the greatest journey ever. I’ve found no other characters so compelling, no other journey so gratifying, no other love story so heartwarming.

Ride the rails with me and enjoy the journey from the slow train to the Bullet Train … the final ride. 

More Finale Speculation and Spoilers

Sadly, I have no news to report.  But given the amazing and active discussion we’ve had at this site the last few days, we’ve managed to overwhelm yet another discussion page; and final page part deux is now crashing my iPad with distressing regularity.  So please, I beg of you all;  lets move the discussion to this new page.  The REAL last spoiler/speculation page we’ll ever need (?!).

Chuck Versus The Rule of Cool

The World's Coolest Nerd

I’ll let you in on a little not so secret secret.  Chris Fedak knows bullet trains probably don’t have air ducts or crawl spaces large enough for a full-grown woman to crawl through and thus drop down through a suspiciously large vent on unsuspecting bad guys in the nick of time.  He just doesn’t care.  I don’t either.  He also knows there’s no such thing as an instantly disabling tranq gun, an intersect, and that 6″ spike heels aren’t the most practical tactical footwear.  But man all those things are cool.    (OK Ladies, I get it, but Yvonne makes them look cool.)

There’s a well-known TV trope called “The Rule of Cool”.  The definition, according to tvtropes.org is:

The limit of the willing suspension of disbelief for a given element is directly proportional to the element’s awesomeness.

In other words, if the result is cool enough, funny enough, or epic enough you can get away with almost anything.  Hong Kong wire work, impossible car chases and the entire Die Hard franchise are all pretty much built on this trope.  Chuck regularly lives and dies by The Rule of Cool.  Last Friday night the Sarasect wiped the floor with the rule of cool.

Chuck Finale Preview and Beyond

Starting today we will be bombarded by spoilers and teasers and reactions for Friday’s series finale, proving that the end is near.

Here at Chuckthis, we don’t have that kind of pull, but we do have a little bit of preview ourselves courtesy of SWFG’s @MrsHekmi and TVFanatic (BTW you can read the entire interviews thing there). As mentioned these won’t be the entire on-set interviews from the second to last day on set on Chuck, but just the snippets that I felt important enough to highlight.

Be warned this will be spoiler-ific (well not really, these guys really tried to stay mum), so if you’re phobic, avert your eyes.

Kansas Gone Bye-Bye

When Sarah was “poisoned” last year in Cliffhanger, my main complaint was that although she was in jeopardy, and there were all these stakes, I didn’t feel them. There was danger, but I didn’t feel it. That was not the case this time around. I felt this, boy did I.

5.11 Chuck vs. the Bullet Train – First Reactions Thread

There’s been a lot talked about, speculated and not so much written about this penultimate (I say penultimate because I’m considering 5.12 to be an extension of 5.13) episode. Until now…

Josh Schwartz Looks Back

We’ve had our ups and downs with Josh Schwartz. From calls of his head (I’m not kidding), to begging him to return (also not kidding), it’s been an up and down journey–perhaps just as up and down as Chuck’s own journey but today, 5 years later we get to say goodbye and maybe for once be thankful to the guy that brought us Chuck and gave us these roller coaster 5 years.

So read up on Josh looking back at the last 5 years and saying goodbye to the show that gave him just as much as it gave us. (With thanks to ChuckandSarahMedia for the original scan).