Chuck

[Brogarn]

That's a bit harsh. I just don't like this show. If I worked for Fox trust me when I say I'd be wearing a brown coat every day to work with a t-shirt that said "Bite my shiny metal ass" until they fired me.

 

[Ed_Laprade]

As I said in another thread, I only watched about ten minutes of the first one before turning it off. His computer slides off a shelf maybe two feet off the floor, at about a 45 degree angle and doesn't just break, it literally falls apart! No thanks. After turning it off I thought of a few more reasons not to watch.

As soon as Ms. Super Secret Agent is out of sight of the guys she takes off her hood. Hope no one else saw her leaving the scene of the crime, which she didn't check for as far as I could tell.

Worse, she knew where he worked. Presumably she also knew what his hours were. But there she was, in the middle of a B&E heist, when he gets home from work!

And, of course, as someone else pointed out, his info is going to be out of date pretty quick.

 

[Sir Brennen]

I dunno. Complaining about the realism in this show is like complaining about it in Get Smart. It's a comedy, a spy thriller parody. I haven't had any problems with suspending my disbelief with that in mind.

 

[TracerBullet42]

That's a bit harsh. I just don't like this show. If I worked for Fox trust me when I say I'd be wearing a brown coat every day to work with a t-shirt that said "Bite my shiny metal ass" until they fired me.

Consider my comments cheerfully withdrawn...

 

[Dire Bare]

Yeah. It's pretty obvious that they don't have anyone on staff who knows much about real computers (or real intelligence agencies).

Uh, I think some of you guys are missing the point here. This show is not about accurately representing how computers work or how the real CIA and NSA work. If the show accurately portrayed those elements, it would be a totally different show.

This is an action comedy that fits firmly within the spy genre of tv and movies. Yes, its not realistic, its not supposed to be. Neither was James Bond, Jason Bourne, or Maxwell Smart.

Computers don't fill rooms. Duh. Notice the intersects computer DIDN'T actually fill the room, just the monitors for all the visual information. And it was a supercool imagery as Bryce hacked it. Realistic? No. But awesome!

Spys aren't as amazingly competent as Bryce, Casey and Sarah. These guys are good at everything (except customer service and cooking hot dogs). Realistic? No, but very spy movie-esque!

If a local shmoe who works at Best Buy (whoops, Buy More) actually DID have all the secrets of two spy agencies, he wouldn't be allowed to continue working at Buy More. He'd be dead or in custody.

This show is fun, witty, and an excellent fit with the spy genre of FICTION!!! It is deliberately unrealistic, and I for one am glad for that! If you need accuracy in your spy shows, then this aint' the show for ya . . .

Full Frontal Nerdity has a pretty humorous take on some of the issues of the series.

I normally worship at the altar of Aaron Williams . . . but I think that he, like a few posters here, just needs to take a deep breath, relax, and repeat, "This is a zany action comedy spy show." Over and over again until he realizes ITS JUST NOT SUPPOSED TO BE REALISTIC AT ALL!!!

Jeesh, nerds . . . .

(and I mean that with love for all my fellows in the nerd herd)

 

[Brogarn]

I understand that but take Get Smart. Nothing in that show felt it was above and beyond the tech available to the agents. It was all silly, but it fit. The tracking device in the car came out of the dashboard like something from Transformers. It's a simple thing, but they could have used a Blackberry or something that we have now. That I'd of "bought". Hopefully someone understands where I'm coming from on that.

If the helicopter scene was in Get Smart, they'd of had some sort of slapstick followed by Maxwell dropping from the helicopter into the ocean. Something like that. The phone call with the "Chuck, you can do it if you just try!" Was wayyyyyy too melodramatic, outside the realm of possibility for me. It was just bad, imo. Plus the addition of "You've played video games... IT'S THE SAME THING!" hurt my feelings.

This is all just opinion, though, and we'll most likely disagree. I'm just saying why I'm no long watching this show and why I think they did it poorly.

 

[halfpintgamer1976]

I dunno. Complaining about the realism in this show is like complaining about it in Get Smart. It's a comedy, a spy thriller parody. I haven't had any problems with suspending my disbelief with that in mind.

I think we overuse the word "realism" in movies and that is not what is meant. What is the problem with the show is that it doesn't follow it's own "mythos". The show comes off as taking itself too serious to fall into the "that was just slapstick" reasoning. In Get Smart, it never took itself serious enough for us to fall for that. Chuck has a ton of melodrama scenes that drown out the comedic parts of the show. Thus audiences become confused. The computer breaks into a million pieces, is that suppose to be funny?

The premise of the show is confusing too. I still don't get what exactly it is he does that the cia can't do already. One guy that can do it it... great... but we got 10 guysback at the lab that can analyze the same data and get the same answers.

 

[Vocenoctum]

I think we overuse the word "realism" in movies and that is not what is meant. What is the problem with the show is that it doesn't follow it's own "mythos". The show comes off as taking itself too serious to fall into the "that was just slapstick" reasoning. In Get Smart, it never took itself serious enough for us to fall for that. Chuck has a ton of melodrama scenes that drown out the comedic parts of the show. Thus audiences become confused.

It's not as solidly "comedic" as Get Smart, it's a different style. More fights and such, at a minimum.

The computer breaks into a million pieces, is that suppose to be funny?

What got me wasn't the computer breaking, it was the idea that the HD was completely unrecoverable after that. They've recovered data from all kinds of ruined HD's and this "fall off a shelf" was nothing. It was an obvious plot device though, and I think falls under the "can't take it serious" tone of the show.

For me, the NSA/CIA wanting to KILL each other was a bit more of a bad moment, rather than the tech screw ups. It's also bad in the sense that I don't think they "get" the "nerd community", as the helicopter "just like a video game" stuff shows. (In ep1, he says "this isn't an xbox and you're not an xman" and it was funny, but I'm not sure they knew WHY it was funny, but instead tossed out something that "nerds" would think funny... Like having a cop show with no cops to advise.)

The premise of the show is confusing too. I still don't get what exactly it is he does that the cia can't do already. One guy that can do it it... great... but we got 10 guysback at the lab that can analyze the same data and get the same answers.

Theoretically, they don't have the super computer with the shared information, it's gonna be 6 months to rebuild. So, sure they have CIA computers and NSA computers, but no CIANSA computer.

 

[Grog]

I think we overuse the word "realism" in movies and that is not what is meant. What is the problem with the show is that it doesn't follow it's own "mythos". The show comes off as taking itself too serious to fall into the "that was just slapstick" reasoning. In Get Smart, it never took itself serious enough for us to fall for that. Chuck has a ton of melodrama scenes that drown out the comedic parts of the show.

Good point. Saying "It's just a spy comedy!" to wave away the wildly implausible parts of the show doesn't work, because the show clearly takes itself too seriously for that.

Now, this isn't to say that you can't have a comedy that takes itself seriously a good deal of the time (see Scrubs for a good example of this), but it takes very good writing to pull off. So far, Chuck hasn't made the grade. There are definitely some fun aspects to the show, and I'm not ready to give up on it yet, but if there continue to be several instances per episode of things that are so inaccurate/implausible that they take me out of the show, I'm not going to stick with it much longer.

 

[halfpintgamer1976]

Good point. Saying "It's just a spy comedy!" to wave away the wildly implausible parts of the show doesn't work, because the show clearly takes itself too seriously for that.

Now, this isn't to say that you can't have a comedy that takes itself seriously a good deal of the time (see Scrubs for a good example of this), but it takes very good writing to pull off. So far, Chuck hasn't made the grade. There are definitely some fun aspects to the show, and I'm not ready to give up on it yet, but if there continue to be several instances per episode of things that are so inaccurate/implausible that they take me out of the show, I'm not going to stick with it much longer.

I think that is why I like reaper so much more, it never takes itself seriously and the "super" nerd comes off better on the screen. They still have moments of drama, (the guy finally gets a date with the girl), they still have action (guy fights a lightening demon with a lightening rod), but you know that there is this funny tongue in cheek undertone to everything.