Showing posts with label Chuck. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Chuck. Show all posts

Wednesday, February 24, 2016

Psych

In case you think I only watch heavy, emotional, dramatic, heartbreaking, therapy-requiring shows, I'm happy to say that's not true.

The thing about Snapchat is that anyone can, with very little effort, be very entertaining. Oh, wait, I was blogging about Psych, not my new favorite social media. I guess I'm easily distracted, like the main character, Shawn.


This is one more of those Sherlockian characters that it seems the world just can't get enough of. (See Elementary, or The Mentalist, or Sherlock, or maybe even Chuck.) One character, endowed somehow with supernormal* abilities of deduction and crime solving, joins up with law enforcement to do what they can't... catch bad guys. The concept doesn't have much bearing in the real world, but it makes a fascinating fictional study. What if there was that one person that could solve the unsolvable?
*Supernormal: a word I made up meaning more than normal, but lacking the connotation of something unexplainable by science.


Silliness aside, there's more than one reason to watch this show. For one--well, the silliness. The show is full of gags and jokes. The two main characters, Shawn and Gus, play off each other well in every circumstance, whether they're getting along or fighting. They depict a kind of friendship that is refreshing to see on a TV show. 



Two friends who are wholly committed to their friendship. They're not without their trials, of course, which leads to the next point. The show has subtle depths that are well illustrated in the relationship of the main characters and their relationships with others. It's almost a coming of age story for the millennial who has fought adulthood tooth and nail. 


So, to binge or not to binge? Binge, definitely. Maybe even watch a few episodes between episodes of one of those darker, heavier, depressing shows that I keep loving. 

Saturday, January 30, 2016

Chuck

I'm an optimist. I am more likely to enjoy something than not. I want to like things, and often genuinely do. But every once in a while I just can't fake it.


It's actually very strange, because I do love the actors in this show. And normally if I love the actors, I won't notice if I don't like the show. But alas... 

Chuck starts off great. It's funny, action packed, and interesting. But all too soon (by the end of season two, maybe the middle of season three) it took a serious turn that I couldn't handle. It's not that it became a serious drama and lost all humor. But the weight of the crises wasn't counterbalanced by that humor and the effect was boredom. I wanted to do anything other than keep watching. And a pretty good clue that something has reached its binge-worthy peak is that you don't want to keep watching. 


I won't say don't watch it at all. It's not the worst thing out there by any stretch (see my rant about Scandal in my How to Get Away with Murder post). You may even binge the first two seasons without issues. But be prepared for a sudden drop in velocity and a strange urge to start cleaning your kitchen, or bathroom, or dog, or neighbor's dog.