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Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Chuck is a show that should get more viewers. It's comedy mixes broad and subtle; it has a great love story between two hot leads; it has fight scenes with guns, knifes and fists; it has a spy-plot about a wide and super-secret conspiracy that is preposterous in a way that many people like their spy/conspiracy stories; it is not the funniest show on TV or the most dramatic, but it mixes comedy and drama better than any series--perhaps other than The Office--and throws in action to form a trifecta that no current series can equal.
Yet it's one of the lowest-rated shows on NBC.
It just doesn't make sense. I can understand why Arrested Development, still the best comedy ever put on American television, didn't attract many viewers. Its humor was too specific and random, and its characters too comedicly repugnant with no attempt by the writers at making them human beings we can relate to. For better or worse, most viewers still watch TV to relate to the pixilated people on their screens and stop thinking about anything other than the comfort provided by fun and enjoyable boxed stories.
But Chuck has relatable characters, and it's fun and enjoyable, and you can watch it without thinking about anything grand, complex or uncomfortable. It isn't the smartest show on TV, but it's the most entertaining. There's room to argue that it's one of the best shows on TV. Other shows have aimed for more high-brow and though-provoking topics (The Wire, The Sopranos, Deadwood, BSG, Mad Men, etc.), but no show that has aimed for the middle-brow, that has embraced its attempt at doing nothing more than showing the audience a good time, has ever done it as brilliantly as Chuck.
If you need any further proof, watch last night's season/series finale, "Chuck vs. The Ring." By putting the show on the bubble, NBC issued a challenge: show us what you can do. The writers, producers and actors responded by assembling an episode that flashed us all its tools, all its strengths, everything they had. This wasn't just good writing, acting, directing and storytelling--it was a jailbreak of creativity. They threw every last scrap of themselves onto the screen and gave us something of a Jackson Pollock: pieces from everywhere seemingly imploding without congruity, bits of every idea they ever had mashed into a single lump, the very building blocks of creativity thrown together seemingly in a state of panic--but all together inventing something brilliant in the end.
The Sopranos had the smartest finale I've ever seen. BSG had the most satisfying, M*A*S*H the most touching, Night Court the most bizarre. I've had single episodes grip me so tight I thought I'd lose my breath: the pilot for The Shield, the pilot for NYPD Blue, BSG's mini-series. But I have never seen anything as manic, as gloriously self-indulgent, as untethered to thoughts of "we can't do that" as Chuck's finale. I was 15 minutes into the episode when I thought: "Oh my god, it's only been 15 minutes?" They had packed that much Awesomeness into the first QUARTER of the episode. A while later, having lost any concept of time, I figured the episode was about to wind down into its last few minutes. Then I looked at the clock and discovered, to my squealing delight, that I was only 26 minutes into the hour. By the time Bruce Boxleitner uttered is already infamous line, "Why are you letting Sam Kinison and an Indian lesbian wreck your wedding?" (or maybe it was a couple minutes later when they ended the "Mr. Roboto" sequence--having gone through a Jeffster! cover, the original Styx and an orchestral version--with Jeff lighting roman candles in a church) I neared the state of unconsciousness. How much Awesome is one viewer supposed to take.
Yes, other shows make you think more, or make you cry more and even laugh more (okay, nothing as ever made me laugh more than the Boxleitner line). But I have never enjoyed myself more watching a TV show than I did last night. NBC issued a challenge and the staff at Chuck simply ended the match, no contest. I usually watch TV as a jaded consumer: I don't owe you anything, so if you want my eyeballs each week, give me a good show each week. When I see an episode, season or even series I love, my attitude inclines toward the idea that delivering a good show is the creator's job. You made a great show? Okay, good job. Carry on, then. For the first time I can remember, I actually wanted to personally thank the staff of a show for entertaining me so much. If you haven't seen it, go to Hulu.com and take a look. Whether the show gets renewed or not, this is an episode to which TV geeks will give a mention years from now. Don't be caught ignorant when the topic comes up.
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