A Guest Post by Herder
Sometimes, I start to list the things I like about the show, but then I run out of digits. One thing stands out, though. It’s those moments when Chuck and Sarah have been able to step back, away from their struggle to find each other, concentrate on something else and just be comfortable with each other’s presence. Prior to season 3.5, those moments were too rare. The first time I realized how much I enjoyed that is exactly pinpointed by Herder.
– joe
“He was always a genius this one”
“Not like you”
“No, he was smarter”
-Stephen and Chuck Bartowski
Why Dream Job
Over the past few weeks we have looked very closely at what happened in Season 3, partially because of my own ambivalence about much of the first thirteen and the fact that so much has been written about it I wanted to take a closer look at what I think is one of the most important episodes in season two and speculate what if anything that it may say about what is to come. Also there are parts of it that I think put it among the best episodes of the series, I say that knowing that many are not big fans of this particular episode.
When the show is on, it is among the best on TV, but that sort of begs the question about what is it that constitutes the show being “on”. For me it is a combination of factors, first of all the relationships between the characters, the Chuck/Sarah relationship is the foremost of these, but not the only one, there is also the Chuck/Ellie, Ellie/Awesome, Chuck/Casey, Chuck/Morgan and many others. There is the comedy, the spy stuff, music and the intersect mythology too. Strike the right balance and it is great, miss that balance and you get 3.06 to 3.12.
To my view Dream Job gets that balance right without overemphasising the Chuck/Sarah relationship and, if anything it is heavy on the mythology which helps to explain what is going on in the episodes surrounding it .
Relationships
Two of my favourite Chuck/Sarah bits take place in Dream Job, the first is Sarah’s pride in Chuck when his father is praising him at the beginning in the trailer. At this point in their relationship they are very close but can’t physically express it (the previous episode was Broken Heart) so she helps him find his father and she glows to realize that he sees some of the qualities in Chuck that she does. The second is her encouragement of Chuck to take the interview with Roark Industries as himself, “you’re going in as yourself; your name, your Stanford degree, your resume, you’re perfectly qualified to go in as yourself”, this is the incredibly supportive Sarah that disappeared for much of season 3.
It also has one of my favorite Chuck/Ellie bits when he talks to her after she runs from her father (“pancakes?”) . This is one of the few times in the series where it is Chuck comforting and supporting Ellie, usually it is the other way around, it shows a bit of why these two have such a close bond, they are there for each other. There are some strong Ellie/Awesome moments too, the argument about the bachelor party hasn’t gone away but they are dealing with it and Awesome making pancakes for Ellie at the end is touching.
Chuck and Casey have a confrontation over Chuck’s going to Roark Industries at the end and it is realistic as regards the relationship between them which is not a relationship of equals at this time. Morgan has some good bits being hurt at what he sees as Chuck moving on without him and not being consulted by Chuck before he makes big decisions.
Scott Bakula is great as Stephen at first drifting between crazy and strong: “they’re watching my every move the rat bastards”, his argument with Ellie about Chuck “Roark isn’t worthy of your brother or his talents”, his talk with Awesome about why Ellie is so mad and his talk with Chuck in the bedroom “is it still my minute” “I miss getting advice from you”. Then in the reveal that he is Orion “I’ve had to die a few times over the years, an occupational hazard of being Orion” “…and we’re going to be a little bit dead if you don’t flash”. I understand the story reasons for killing him off in the Ring Part 2 but he is a real loss to the show, much like Carina he energizes the show when he is in it.
Spy Stuff
Infiltrating Roark Industries under the guise of applying for a job and the truly great picture of Sarah and Casey in disguise as nerds. In this case the spy stuff is played for comedy and then it veers into the mythology.
Comedy
There is so much, the crazy dad stuff, Chuck’s physical comedy on the ball chair, nerdy Casey and Sarah, the awkward dinner with the family, Chuck tranqing Casey -three times-, Casey’s oooh before passing out. Also the whole Chuck running with the release of Rios device, Jeff and Lester embracing anarchy by helping him, Jeff’s storm trooper sweater. And Chuck tranqing the six bad guys to save his dad. Lots of well done comedy.
Music
Three great songs that are integrated into the story and add to it. First “Around the Bend” by Asteroids Galaxy Tour, ties into the confusion of Chuck being in a new and uncomfortable situation as he walks into Roark Industries. “Luisa’s Bones” by Crooked Fingers narrates Chuck donning his mission suit and getting the pistols for the first time in the series, a big step for our boy. Finally “Daddy’s Gone” by Glasvegas narrates Ellie’s sadness that Stephen has once again ran from her life and Orion’s working on the intersect to save his son. This is something that this show does better than anything else on tv at the moment, connecting the music to what is going on on the screen. Dream Job is one of the better examples of it.
Mythology
This is a big mythology episode, both for last year and I think going forward. For last year we had the Orion reveal, Roark working for Fulcrum to create an begin, these two themes played out for the rest of that season. What I want to talk about are the mythology bits that haven’t yet played out. “God Ellie you look just like your mother”, this is the basis for many pushing for Linda Carter or Mary McConnell to play Mary Elizabeth Bartowski. “You were always good with computers and I was always good with the ladies, do you remember that Orion” this lead to a lot of speculation that Roark had something to do with Mama B leaving. The only other references to Mama B in the series up to this point were mother’s day in Sizzling Shrimp, and Chuck saying how it was when she left in Best Friend, then nothing until the Ring Part 2.
Chuck’s speech to Sarah and Casey in Casey’s apartment is, I think critical, he goes on about Roark creating an intersect and Rios being a sort of data mining program “stealing information from the government, business, everybody, anybody”. I know that some are upset that Sarah didn’t stand up for Chuck, but again remember this is the episode after she almost got fired for being too close to Chuck, I can see her not wanting a confrontation with the General about something for which there is no proof, just a hunch of Chuck’s. The first part of Chuck’s speech, the intersect was dealt with in season 2, the second part has been left unaddressed. As to Chuck’s hunches just remember he is a genius, smarter than Orion, we were told that at the beginning of the show. So my guess is that we see a return of Rios, this time in action after being in circulation for almost two years. After all the mission that they were on was that Rios was thought to be some sort of computer virus, it was never thought of as benign, it was simply lost in the concern over Fulcrum having an intersect.
The Chuck as a genius idea is something that I think will be addressed in season 4, he has Orion’s lair, he has the equipment, he has the makings of his team. Now it is up to him to put it all together and show that his father was right, he is a genius who is smarter than Orion. We have seen bits of Chuck’s genius over the years, usually it shows itself in finding novel solutions to problems (isn’t that the definition of genius) even Casey said “before the intersect you were smart”.
This is why I love Dream Job, it opened the way to the show becoming more than it had been, it combined all the elements without any of them over whelming the rest. It was written by Phil Klemmer (no longer with the show) and Corey Nickerson (not sure of his status) in such a way that it introduced ideas and plot lines without losing the things that make the show great.
So what do you think, do I have something or is this merely the rantings of an obsessed fan?
– Herder
amyabn
atcDave
Ernie Davis
Faith
joe
thinkling
Chuck This 
I think you’re definitely on to somethng. IMO the absence of mythology development was a major flaw with the first 15 episodes of S3. The balance just wasn’t there. When it returned, so did the magic. The brilliant combination of everything is what makes Chuck great.
It seems lessons were learned, and I’m optimistic for S4.
I want to highlight what you said about the music, Herder. Songs I first heard on the show, and a few others that I associate strongly (like Arcade Fire’s Ocean of Noise) dominate my iPOD playlists now. Around the Bend and Louisa’s Bones are the best of the best.
Herder, after I read this I had to go watch Dream Job again. You are right, this was a fantastic episode. I love the episodes where one scene and the music provides the prologue for the episode or the cliffhanger climax. This was my definition of firing on all cylinders. They used to do this so seamlessly. Dream Job has several of these scenes, my favorite are Chuck gearing up, Sarah and Casey dragging Chuck away as the doors close on his dad. Thanks for reminding me of a great episode I hadn’t re-watched in quite some time. Now I’m going to return the favor.
I first got hooked in Tango. It was then that the show really started to come together. This was the formula setup, where Chuck goes on missions and he somehow manages to be key to it’s success, but Sarah and Casey have to rescue him. But the thing I really noticed was how the A and B stories often played parallel and of the same theme. We see Sarah and Casey arguing with Graham and Beckman about Chuck’s future, going on missions. At the same time Ellie, Awesome and Morgan are all arguing about Chuck’s future. Chuck is a passive observer on both counts till Casey shows up and tells him there’s a mission. Then showing team B getting ready for the mission with the tango music, and then showing Sarah and LaCiudad passing each other and pausing, almost like the dance. Then Sarah’s rooftop fight was another dance. These little elements added so much for me, but the kicker was they introduced the Sarah we came to know and love. Sarah shows up for the family dinner, and the montage and fountain scene with The National’s Slow Show playing was just perfect, and for a long time that one scene was the essence of Chuck and Sarah. Chuck, the unwilling hero lacking confidence and wanting to matter, and supportive Sarah, falling for this guy who manages to be the hero, somehow, despite never wanting to. I still probably watch Tango more than any other episode just to get that feeling back and to see those elements of the show, the comedy, the action, and the relationships (Chuck and Ellie time too!) all blended perfectly.
Hi Ernie…
Funny you mentioned Tango…I just got my Chuck seasons 1 and 2 in the mail (yes, a little slow to purchase).
Anyway, it’s been a while since I have watched season 1…and watched up to Tango last night. You are so right…the richness of that episode is so specific to what makes Chuck work–when Chuck is working.
I have also noticed something as I watch early S1. Up to Tango, the “B” players– as some call them– had a lot more screen time…something we lost in season 3. I know the showrunners were setting up the characters during this time…but it’s almost as if they didn’t trust them by S3…instead co-opting them for guest stars (some of whom shall remain nameless.)
One of the things at the back of my mind was the sense that the reset in season three had somehow negated much of what went on in the first two seasons. How could Chuck and Sarah go from the implied, and not so implied commitments in the Colonel to the train station scene in Pink Slip in three weeks.
As Dave has often said, season 3 ended where it should have started, if that is so then what other bits from season 2 will be picked up again in season 4.
Obviously with the last two minutes of the Ring Part 2 the Orion stuff, Mama B and Chuck’s “specialness” are all on the table again. So what else is likely to be in issue, thankfully I think that TPTB are likely to be gunshy about new PLI’s, but there has to be something to for the plot to follow. Bartowski family history, the intersect abilities (forced flashes – also introduced in Dream Job) and a new big bad are what I would guess that we will see.
You know I agree about Tango, I would add Marlin as the two completely perfect S1 episodes. Dream Job is wonderful, it is only diminished to me by the fact we had so many excellent episodes in S2; and Lethal Weapon through Colonel constitutes probably the best stretch of any series I have ever seen. Brilliant television.
I’m total agreement with you.
I mentioned something similar in Jason’s post. The mythology and spy stuff got lost in the romance this season.
The show has such engaging and well delvoped characters. If they spent just a fraction of the time on the mythology and spy stuff it would make the show all the better. All pieces are there already, just threat them like you do your characters.
I meant to add that there is another big clue to a possible Roark/Mama B connection. When Papa B finds out Chuck is going to work for RI.
Stephen: You’re going to go work for Roark? The man who stole everything from me?
And don’t forget that Roark was “the ladies’ man”.
I think the problems you all just mentioned are casualties of the reset. In seasons 1/2, Chuck was the reluctant hero and his REAL life was the BuyMore. That often made him a bystander to the spy action (“stay in the car”) or the writers were forced to invent ways to involve BuyMore or Chuck’s activities as a Buymorian into the spy action.
But when the Season 3 reset comes about, which is designed to make Chuck the center of the action AND a spy, both the BuyMore and the mythology take a back seat.
You literally SEE when the BuyMore becomes irrelevant in Pink Slip: It’s the moment when Chuck puts on the Nerd Herd uniform as a cover. He’s now a spy PLAYING a BuyMore employee. Once Chuck is a spy, about the only time you can get the BuyMore involved in the show’s spying is when they can squeeze in a Buy More Nerd Herd angle (as in Mask, and how did Mask work out for you?) or when the Buy More is being “attacked” (Beard, Ring Part II). Hence, blowing it up. It really has outlived its usefulness to the show. (And it’s a big soundstage, the space is expensive, even if the set itself has been amortized…)
As for the mythology, same problem. If you focus on Chuck becoming a spy rather than the fact that the Intersect FORCES him into spy adventures, you can’t move the mythology ahead. As Chuck struggles to be the spy he wants to be in Season 3, the focus is on THAT rather than the mythology of the Intersect or the Bartowski family business.
Once Chuck made it into spydom (i.e., Other Guy), which, of course, includes getting the girl, you can refocus on the mythology. Which is why the back six, after the two “fun” episodes of Chuck and Sarah together, turns to the mythology of the Intersect, the governor, etc.
So chalk up two more casualties to the reset. I suspect S4 will be mythology heavy because they have reestablished a place for it: Orion’s spy life and derring do. But the BuyMore is probably history.
However, I COULD see Chuck, Morgan and Casey working at the Orange Orange along with Sarah as their Orion Inc. family business. And, admit it, you always wanted to see Morgan and Casey wearing Sarah’s spaghetti-strap T-shirts…and orange Chuck Taylors with baby-blue laces. 🙂
Thanks Angeltwo, good post until you left me an image that will haunt me forever…
My work here is done… 🙂
Some great observations herder. I do agree about the balance and synergy not only of this episode but the whole “home stretch” of S2. I do prefer when Chuck and Sarah end on an up note, but that really is a minor complaint with such an outstanding episode.
That was a very well-written piece, Herder. I’m one of those wackos who isn’t a huge fan of “Dream Job,” but your article has helped me see the episode in somewhat of a new light, so I’d like to thank you for that.
There are two big reasons why I think that “Dream Job” is one of the weaker episodes of the second season. Firstly, I found it to be the least funny episode of the series. Almost none of the humour worked for me. Secondly, the twist that Orion was Chuck’s father was so obvious that the revelation carried no weight for me.
Nonetheless, there are two standout scenes in the episode that I’d like to mention, both set to the excellent song that you mentioned, “Luisa’s Bones.” The first is when Chuck figures out that Roark is building an Intersect and he overlays the Intersect plans and the RI headquarters floor plan. The second is when Chuck suits up and prepares to infiltrate the headquarters. Both scenes are amazingly well directed and edited, and they show just how far Chuck has come since the pilot.
As for the relevance of “Dream Job” to future plot lines, it’s hard to tell. I think that RIOS is just a silly dropped plot line that we’ll never see again. I also don’t think that Ted Roark and Mary Bartowski ever had a “thing” or that Ted ever tried to seduce Mary. Marital infidelity just doesn’t fit with the tone of the show (unless it’s played for laughs, like in “Truth” or “Subway”). Furthermore, Stephen’s line in his spy will about how he “did it all for her” wouldn’t make much sense to me if his wife had betrayed him. I also don’t think that Mary would have been wearing the broken bracelet if she had left Stephen for Ted.
But there is one thing from “Dream Job” that I think will make a reappearance. Your article mentioned something about “forced flashes” and I think that we’ll be seeing those again. We’ve seen that Chuck can more or less flash at will on abilities now. But those abilities are mainly physical in nature. The “forced flash” in “Dream Job” was used to crack a code. (There was something kind of similar in “American Hero.”) It would be interesting to learn more about this puzzle-solving ability, and I don’t think that we’ve seen the last of it.
I wasn’t under the misapprehension that Dream Job was loved by everbody and I’m well aware that for some it fell flat. Taste is a very personal thing.
I agree that an affair between Ted Roark and Mama B is unlikely, but I still think that he had something to do with her leaving. Maybe something similar to Bryce trying to get Chuck to break up with Sarah for her own good. Roark could have convinced her that Stephen and the children would be safer with her out of the picture. Once that is done nothing would stop him from taunting Orion that she left for his charms and not to keep the family safe.
I’ve always wondered about those forced flashes, the intersect is supposed to draw information from data bases to make connections and inferences. How it works to look at a lock and deduce the combination as it did in Dream Job and American Hero (the combination for the soft drink machine to allow acess to the Ring base) is beyond me. Perhaps it is some of the stuff that Orion put into the intersect without the knowlege of the CIA.
Finally, I hadn’t mentioned some of the Casey lines:
-you’re not going to let your daddy issues interfere with the mission
-I guess the apple doesn’t fall far from the crazy tree
-you don’t even have the courtesy to threaten me with a real firearm
-when I wake up I’m going to kill you.
The real firearm line is one of my favorites, great stuff!
herder, have you ever posted here before? I found it quite challenging, vs just rambling up some reply. Great job, for me, since I was not a chuck fan season 2, it is great you took an old episode and blogged about it, kind of getting a taste of what I missed season 2. thx
I’m guessing this anonymous is Jason again. I would agree about the difficulties of putting together a coherent post vs. just responding. Notice I do it far less often than Joe or Ernie, they really have a gift for structure and exposition. I mainly shoot the breeze. Herder and Jason both have done great jobs with a longer essay, fun reads.
Think so? Thanks, Dave. I appreciate the compliment. The truth is that about 3/4 of the time I look at what I put down and say “that makes no sense. You’ve contradicted what you said before, idiot!” And I usually start again with the *second* thought.
But then I wind up leaving something out, and it still makes no sense, so I put in what I left out and have to take out every other word because it’s too long and became one long run-on sentence!!!
See? That’s my process. Nothing a good editor can’t fix. 😉
Well you’ve fooled a lot of people Joe; there seems to be a large group of us who think you sound pretty sharp. It is also satisfying to see well written posts from guests; I love seeing so many fans I agree with, and appreciate the challenge when I disagree and must carefully think through a counter argument.
anonymous was me as u guys guessed, I watched dream job last night, that may have only been my second viewing ever, I have rewatched some of the season 1/2 episodes, but not real many – was fun to compare dream job to season 3 in terms of my reaction.
3 things jumped out, first – thanks for pointing my eye in that direction, as the episode was wonderful. easily better than any of season 3 until the back 7,
second, I enjoyed papa b much more on second viewing, maybe realizing who he was made me appreciate him more,
third – my overall all reaction last january to CS late in season 2 was chuck seemed 10-15 years younger than sarah, and their relationship seemed forced, even though I loved their chemistry, still felt like a school teacher in a forbidden love with her prodigy student – on second view of 2.19, it still seemed that way, contrast to the 3.19 buymore hug scene after sarah ‘steel barred’ shaw upside the head, they seemed like a perfect match agewise, maturity wise, and naturally in love in that embrace – nothing forced whatsoever.
Dave, there seem to be an amazing number of talented writers posting to this blog, most (if not all) of which appear capable of putting together a coherent lead article.
In an effort to alienate nearly everyone else, however, I’m going to add yet another unsolicited compliment for lizjames, who, in my personal opinion, is flat out the best at delivering concise, effective essays with punch.
Liz, you can send that $5 to me now at the pre-arranged address. 😉
Seriously, though, I’m thinking she must work in the PR arena and have to sway others’ opinions on a daily or weekly basis. Her prose is always so fluid and she hits her points with a practiced flair. While I don’t always agree with her, her positions always seem razor-sharp and well considered.
To be fair, I think there’s a big pileup for second place, and I can’t really discern a hair’s breadth of difference between AngelTwo, Merve, WeaselOne, Ernie and well, you. Or else I can, and I just don’t want to say. 😉
But this is really splitting hairs. I’ve been all over the web reading “Chuck” related forums and in terms of median poster literacy, nothing else can touch this blog, IMHO. To everyone here who struggles to make their posts really “sing”, I salute you.
Thanks for your kind words Aardvark. And we do value Liz pretty highly here. She’s high on the list of contributers who add a lot to the value of this site.
Thanks, Aardvark. I appreciated the
tankcompliment. 🙂 And hey, “you’re not so bad yourself.” 😉I like to tell myself that writing about Chuck is good argumentative essay writing practice for the GRE. I might be kidding myself, though…
Apparently I’ve forgotten HTML and don’t know how to put a strike through “tank.” Oh well.
Here are the common ones that WordPress accepts, Merve.
Use strong and /strong in angled brackets for embolding, em and /em for italics, u and /u for underline, strike and /strike for strike-through and a href=”your url in quotes here” and /a to hyperlink.
It works both ways,
MerveJason (Sorry!). It’s easy getting into a rut, writing about the same BIG THINGS that you think you see in each episode. I discovered it’s my viewpoint that gets narrowed. Putting the frequent commenters up front was a chance for me to see what’s on your mind more clearly.And the fact that you guys write well made it fun for me to read, too.
Hey! Is is wrong for me to actually *enjoy* reading my own blog? I think not! 😉
Excellent article.
I’d like to not that while it wasn’t my favorite episode of season two and probably one of the least enjoyable of the final arc, it does introduce Roark. Ted Roark as software Mogul and Fulcrum upper level management fleshed out the organization. He had clear goals and took steps to accomplish them. Although he failed, he along with Vincent made Fulcrum seem somewhat dangerous, organized and something more than an organization designed simply to provide team Bartowski with bad guys to fight and an ill defined organization to combat. Plus, the fight was more personal. It became Ted Roark vs. Team B as opposed to Team B vs. random minion from secret shadow organization.
The problem with the Ring is that they have the broad goal of world domination. Mooooo-ha-ha. Throughout the season they never seem to be doing anything that actually supports that aim. Maybe if we knew why they were smuggling in toxic gas, or what was on those disks they’d be more convincing as a villain. Plus, even when they give us a villain to root against in the person of Daniel Shaw, you still can’t help but wonder how this massive global organization’s major plan seemed to be turning Shaw and intersecting him. When that failed, the Ring collapsed.
You raise a good point. The show is better when all the elements are balanced as Herder notes, but it is best when we have that plus a good guest villian. Having an identifiable bad guy really adds the last vital element. Most of my favorite episodes have really good bad guys with a real goal, even if it doesn’t necessarily fit into the larger spy plan. Tango has LaCiudad, Truth has Reardon Paine, First Date has Colt, Seduction has Sasha Banacheck and from Predator on we have Vincent and Roark. Of those only Vincent and Roark were Fulcrum and bent on finding Orion and building an intersect, so I’m going to go out on a limb and say it isn’t an overarching spy goal that the bad guys need, but a good villain. Think season 3 with the Premier and Sydney and then Shaw. It all seems to fit better when there is an identifiable and compelling bad guy.
The other element a lot of my favorite episodes have is that while the central relationship may be dealt with, even a lot such as First Date and Seduction, for the most part it is not thrown out as the most important aspect of the episode. The movement is gradual rather than sudden and jarring. With the s2 final arc it was mostly left alone, with just enough evolution in the background that by the time we get to Barstow in Colonel such a scene seemed almost inevitable, at least to me. It seems that when they try to do a sudden relationship reset, or several in one episode, it pushes that to the front where it overwhelms everything else and throws off the balance. That is the big reason to end the Chuck and Sarah angst, so they can move on with the story.
ernie – I am so far off base from you – I think of chuck not serious as a spy story but as a parody of a spy story – hence chevy chase as the villain as a parody of a villain, I thought he acted it that way and it was written that way, oh no, chevy chase is going to destroy the world sort of thing – to me, not only did brandon routh nearly get the show canceled for his portrayal of LI daniel shaw, but also for his attempt at moving the spy story into the serious area, did you watch 3.19 – chuck’s line of ‘i’m not going to make the prototype bad guy mistake’ – comedy and parody or morgan and casey’s capturing of the ring, comedy and parody or morgan and awesome’s rescue of chuck, sarah and casey with the missle, comedy and parody, not real spy stuff, routh missed it big time all season long, the crap about him being good for the show as a vaillain was well, just crap – sorry – end of rant
Jason, I agree it is played for laughs, but that’s why you need an over the top villain like Sydney or Sasha Banacheck or an over the top mentor like Roan Montgomery. Sorry if I wasn’t clear about what I considered a good bad guy. While Shaw wasn’t the best by far he worked as the villain for me in the final episodes. It was as a super-spy mentor, hero, and love interest that he didn’t work.
yep – e3very guest star needs to be over the top, the cigar smoking guy was a hoot, angie harmon yep, that is why I like the self contained episodes, then I wish somehow they all would roll up at the end, I wish costa gravus or whatever would have been where CS ended up on the train for example, even if played for laughs, what if they needed to call him to get out of jail, or something like that, or that had been where the ‘tooth’ guy with cellualar regeneration was from, self contained – yet linked – for some reason, fred williard didn’t hit for me in his attempt to go over the top, swoozie on the other hand, seemed to get it?
and my top 3, roan, carina, and jack burton, all big time over the top, parodies of a male spy, a female spy,and a con artist dad, thing about s1/s2, sarah was to a certain extent the parody of several things, big time shippers like me probably need to give TPTB a certain amount of slack, it was a big job to make her the real life character she is becoming, to a certain extent, that is still a work in progress, as she bounces all over the place from kick butt super spy, to damsel in distress, to a leggy valyke with aversion to clothes, to martha brady setting up her nest, to the protective lioness – most of these roles are done ‘over the top’ – that is why the texas bimbo on the train was so much fun to me, grrrrrr
Hmm, that might be a good poll subject, favorite villan. I have a soft spot for Uncle Bernie, maybe because of the use of “hungry like the wolf” his nickname being the canibal. Sydney was good as a more threatening villan, she manipulated Awesome, got the best of Sarah in a fight and had Chuck figured out too.
Ned was a good villan mainly because of the switch from bumbling thief to participant in a very clever plan. Javier was sufficiently threatening, especially after killing Emmitt. Also I have a lot of fondness for Vincent who took a licking and kept on ticking so to speak.
Chuck has had a lot of excellent guest stars. Even some of the less important ones, like Serena in “First Class” or the Italian guys in “Fake Name,” have been great. (I wasn’t a huge fan of Sydney, but I didn’t hate her either.)
Sometimes Chuck can get a great performance out of someone who is relatively unknown, like Jennifer Jalene as Smooth Lau in “Best Friend” or Fahim Anwar as Manoosh in “Nacho Sampler.” But other times, big name guest stars don’t work out. I really wanted to like Diedrich Bader in “Beard,” but it seemed to me as if he totally phoned it in. It’s hard to tell before you cast if a guest star is going to work or not. I think that more often than not, TPTB have been lucky and have casted correctly.
As per Herders request, we have a poll.
I didn’t mind that the Ring was just a generic evil organization for the first little bit of season 3 because at least they seemed competent and more dangerous than Fulcrum. But they kind of dropped the ball from “Operation Awesome” onward. On the bright side, at least they stayed away from yet-another-microchip-with-intel territory until “Final Exam.”
Turning Shaw was actually a decent plan for the Ring. Shaw was a trusted, respected agent who was high up in the CIA/NSA hierarchy. Discrediting Beckman would make it easy for him to take her job, as she claimed he was trying to do. Then he could start controlling major aspects of American intelligence operations on behalf of the Ring. It also makes sense to Intersect Shaw. If anyone were to try to remove Shaw from his position by force, Shaw would just Intersect the crap out of him or her.
Great post Herder. I never really considered Dream Job as on of my favorite and yet I agree with all the things you said! This was indeed a huge episode!