Chuck, Whiz kid gone spy guy Options

[herbsinger42]

I love Chuck.
I know the premise has holes big enough to drive semi's through... but what an ensemble!!

The writers are so sharp, they pull in bits of homage to all things video... and their geekiness is charming.
I am reminded of the cultural quips from Gilmore girls, and seeing them delivered with the same grace and wit.

Chuck, actor Zachary Levi, is new to me... but he's open and elastic enough for the role...
John Casey, FBI agent and scary guy is played by Adam Baldwin... and everybody loves Adam.
The love interest, Sara, CIA agent and powerful woman, is played by Yvonne Strahowski... cute. I've seen her before, but don't remember where.

The character driven nature of the show let me use it to demonstrate script writing to my students in drama class...!!!

[LittleSpank]

Phill Klemmer, one of the staff writers from Veronica Mars is also part of that show.

[herbsinger42]

Well, isn't that shiny!!! It makes sense... smart writing... fun plot twists... great ensemble writing... I'll try to pay closer attention. Thanks!

[LittleSpank]

Well, isn't that shiny!!! It makes sense... smart writing... fun plot twists... great ensemble writing... I'll try to pay closer attention. Thanks!

so is it going to get picked up again? or did it lose to much momentum b/c of the strike?

[DarthMarley]

Word is it goes to a second season.

I hated the pilot episode, but the series grew on me.

Yvonne is reason enough to keep the show going!

[herbsinger42]

Darth... can I ask why you didn't like the first ep?

I thought the references to other shows, the mix of action and comedy... kinda like the Buffy 'verse, in the witty reparte, acid commentary, mixed with the angst tickled me... then there was Adam Baldwin and the flippest one-liners ever.
I'm totally hooked....

[LittleSpank]

I know you weren't addressing me, but I thought the show kinda hit a stride. The Pilot wasn't the best or worst pilot I had ever seen, but it was enough to get me to watch the show. Which is all you can really ask from most pilots.

I thought the show kinda hit a stride, and I FOR SURE thought the best episode was written by Phil Klemmer, but I may have been biased. (the one with the "space penis" dune halloween costume...OMG...that was some funny shit)

But yeah, over all I think the show got better, the characters became more realized and YES....Baldwin is the highlight of the show for me.

[MetheDivine]

I heart Chuck!!

I like Morgan, he makes me laugh. And Casey...mmmm...sorry, got lost thinking about Adam Baldwin. The show, if taken lightly, is hilarious. I love it!
They better keep it going...I need something to watch on Mondays!!!
:P

[herbsinger42]

I must agree, that it has evolved... that the characters are filling out... that the writing is fantastic, and that the references to other shows... other parts of life, are so culturally relevant to our multi-media world.

Sara and Casey's distancing themselves from real life in the fight to protect the place for real life... poingnant... heart wrenching, in the case of Sarah... hardening to armour for Casey.

Chuch and Morgan may be misfits, but they are conscious misfits.

Anna... she is woman power in goth make-up and knee-hi's... that still has to deal with the parental guilt.

These characters are America... excited to move forward... hanging on to tradition, bound by family that supports us, and smothered by the family in the same moment.
Torn. We are all torn between what is possible, and what we hold dear. Our priciples, and our desire for result... It is a dilemma.

I love this show.

[DarthMarley]

The pilot screener I watched left me unimpressed with Levi's performance.

Baldwin did not yet seem comfortable and fleshed out in his role.
It had rough edges.

It was the opposite of the Reaper pilot, which was polished and got better as it went on, only to have the series get a bit stale, and shrink from the promise and gloss of a Kevin Smith directed pilot.

But as the show went on, I thought it solidified its charming points.

[herbsinger42]

Hmmm.
I cannot say that I agree.
Now, I will say that I've re-watched the pilot at least ten times... I'm using it in a drama class... and the more I watch, the better I see the nuances of the performance, the interactions, and the relationships revealed within the dialogue.
The writers... and while I see that Klemmer did pull some delicious strings together, I must say the writing team is incredible.
Again, the use of current cultural reference, the flashes and hommages to great tv work out there... Firefly ( Who's flyin this thing? Baldwin getting beat up by a girl... they are the most sweet, because I'm a Browncoat) Lost, Heroes, CSI, Bond... the use of image and metaphor... this bunch is phenomenal.

[herbsinger42]

Ha!!! Good news for those of us that appreciate the blend of humor and action... Chuck is going to return... next Fall.

I'll take it. As much as I'd prefer that Chuck return this month... I'll settle for a new season. It means Adam is working... and I look forward to seeing what becomes of the crew---

[herbsinger42]

Watching NBC I see that Chuck has indeed been picked up for the second season, and is starting to PROMO it's season opener.

I am thrilled, of course.
I look forward to seeing the show, enjoying the writers sense of fun... etc.


I don't see a number of my fav's doing the same...

[unowhoandwhy]

I only managed to see a couple episodes, it just wasn't on a good night for me. But, I'll watch anything with Adam Baldwin in it, so I definitely gave it a chance. I liked it, it's a fun show, and fully intend to Netflix it as soon as I get a chance.

[Silmarwen]

Unleash the Casey.

I'm glad Chuck bagged Jill, he was starting to worry me.

Love Morgan and Capt. Awesome talking about his mashed potato "O" face.

[Silmarwen]

"Seven years of MacGuyver finally paid off!" Chuck Bartowski

LOL.

[herbsinger42]

I love the one liners.... these writers had me at "Who's flyin' this thing? Oh, right... that would be me."

Adam has in no way lost his ability to deliver the one liner, either... I love that man more every time I see him. The ep with him and his sensei was a hoot!!! I haven't seen those faces on hi m since "Jaynestown"...
He does have a beautiful face.

Zack reminds me a lot of Sean... fresh faced... innocent...and his mind being totally twisted into directions he never imagined exhisted... I am intellectually capable of understanding that the kid is just acting... but during the show... they have me!!!

When it is over, I parse the holes in the plot line... but for the length of the show...I am theirs.

[Raycheetah]

Adam Baldwin talks Chuck:

from nytimes.com
Adam Baldwin talks Chuck with Nytimes.com

NOW that Adam Baldwin has figured out how to make it look easy — this
surly, deadpan, tough-guy thing he does every Monday night on NBC as
the monosyllabic secret-agent sidekick on the action-comedy series
“Chuck” — he doesn’t mind admitting how hard it used to be.

He was 18 when he got his first taste of movie-star limelight as the
title character in the 1980 film, “My Bodyguard,” then roles in
summer comedies like “D.C. Cab” in 1983 and smaller parts in prestige
films like “Ordinary People” despite not having a clue about what he
was doing.

“I was horrible,” he said of some of his early performances,
particularly the one in “D.C. Cab” (in which his co-stars included
Bill Maher, Gary Busey and Mr. T). “I didn’t know how to work. I
didn’t know how to process a character, and, certainly, I wasn’t as
funny as I should have been.

“But I did learn a lot of technical stuff, how to be on a set, where
to stand, how to do a fight scene, things like that,” he said during
a recent interview in a high-end Santa Monica coffee shop, one of
those mad-scientist places where they grind the coffee in front of
you and serve it in vacuum-sealed flasks on a silver tray. “But then
I had to learn how to act. And that just takes some people longer
than others. I’m no Leonardo DiCaprio.”

He can say this now that he’s 46, aware of his limitations, proud of
the niche he has found. In “Chuck” he plays no-nonsense secret agent
John Casey, protecting loose-limbed amateur Chuck Bartkowski (played
by Zachary Levi), a computer nerd who has accidentally had the
contents of a super-secret government computer downloaded into his
brain. But even before “Chuck,” Mr. Baldwin had received sterling
reviews and a growing cult following for playing similarly grumpy
characters on “The X-Files” and “Firefly.”

“The guy does more with a grunt than most actors could do with a
monologue,” said Josh Schwartz, the executive producer of “Chuck.”
The extent of Mr. Baldwin’s built-in fan base became apparent to Mr.
Schwartz only when the “Chuck” cast appeared at last summer’s Comic-
Con International, and “4,000 people went insane whenever Adam said
anything.”

Mr. Schwartz said it was the creator and co-executive producer Chris
Fedak’s idea to cast Mr. Baldwin as Casey, an idea he embraced as
soon as Mr. Baldwin read for the part. “You totally believe him as
this N.S.A. agent who’s happy to torture and kill people, but he’s
also really, really funny,” Mr. Schwartz said. “He gets the comedy
without ever breaking character. And his preparation is astounding.
Adam really relishes all these details: How does Casey sharpen his
knife and fork before he eats? He’s worked all that stuff out.”

Mr. Baldwin said, “I came up with the idea that Casey has a bonsai
tree, and I brought in the Reagan photo that’s in his room.” He
added, “I try to make sure the military vernacular is as accurate as
possible. For the comedy to work, you’ve got to buy that Casey is a
serious guy who’s somewhat incredulous about this geek being inserted
into his life.”

After last year’s debut season ended abruptly because of the writers’
strike, “Chuck” struggled to find an audience until just before its
holiday hiatus in mid-December, when critics, particularly online,
started noticing that the show’s ratings had improved 12 percent from
the season premiere. NBC is bringing the show back with a hefty
marketing push, including a 3-D commercial during Sunday night’s
Super Bowl telecast and a 3-D episode on Monday night.

“I think the network is clearly showing they believe in us,” Mr.
Baldwin said. “And I think we’ve found the base line of an audience
that’s not going to go anywhere.”

Mr. Baldwin, 6 foot 4 and broad shouldered, was already an imposing
presence as a 17-year-old high school student in the northern Chicago
suburb of Winnetka — big and quietly menacing, exactly what the
director Tony Bill sought for the part of a sullen bully who becomes
the protector of a smaller kid in “My Bodyguard.”

“Tony would say to me, ‘Just keep your face in repose,’ ” Mr. Baldwin
said. “And I would go: ‘Repose? What’s repose?’ And he said: ‘It just
means be relaxed. Don’t move.’ It was great advice, and it’s what
I’ve been trying to grasp ever since. Stillness as a technique is
still really captivating to me.”

After “My Bodyguard” became a hit, Mr. Baldwin moved to New York,
fielded offers from agents and managers who were promising to make
him the next big thing. He said he took some parts he probably
shouldn’t have taken. He went to London in 1985 for a significant
role in Stanley Kubrick’s “Full Metal Jacket.” But the production
went on for months, and the film didn’t come out until 1987. By then
Mr. Baldwin’s moment seemed to have passed.

“I was given opportunities, I think, that were a little too big when
I was a little too young,” he said. “I didn’t measure up. The sports
analogy would be if you pulled a guy off the farm team and put him in
the big leagues a little too soon. That’s a good way to ruin your
arm. Fortunately my injuries weren’t career threatening. They were
just emotionally draining.”

He worked steadily through the 1980s and ’90s, bad-guy parts in B
movies (including the long-forgotten “Digital Man” and “Cold Sweat”),
lots of voice-over work, doing what he had to do to pay the bills. He
got married, had kids, played golf, built himself a decent working
actor’s career. But it wasn’t glamorous, and it wasn’t always fun.

“I think work begets work,” he said. “I did some things that were
certainly labors of love and hard-won parts, but there were others
that were just straight-up exploitation movies and terrible to watch
and don’t hold up at all. But they do pay the bills.”

All along, Mr. Baldwin said, he felt that his career would pick up
when he got older, when he could inhabit more nuanced character
roles, to be something more than just big and scary. He was 39 when
he got the “X-Files” role, Knowle Rohrer. And he was 40 when he
became Jayne Cobb on “Firefly,” a role for which TV Guide named him
its Sexiest Newcomer of 2002.

“That was hilarious,” he said. “It just seemed like a mistake, an
obvious mistake.”

Now because of his “Chuck” fame, people no longer assume that he’s
one of those other Baldwins (he’s not) or that he’s as grumpy as his
characters. He envisions a future filled with playing strong, silent
types, guys with enough experience to know how the world works, when
to take it seriously and when to go with the joke.

“I always did think that when I turned 40, I’d start coming into my
own,” he said. “Part of that is just growing and living, suffering
and failing and going through the trials of life, having a wife and
kids. It humbles you, and going through that humbling process lets
you release that self-centeredness, and it’s a very liberating
feeling. It lets you stop worrying. I’m enjoying that.”

=^[.]^=

[Silmarwen]

what a lovely lil interview!

[buffyverseforeve...]

Nice to see him getting some real appreciation :)
BTW,sorry about my absence of late. I had a massive computer virus and for some reason,it took me a while to fix my problems with this site....



Best wishes,

Scott