Last night was the 3D episode of Chuck. 3D today is different from the 3D of the 1980s. Back then, 3D meant that Jaws was jumping out of the screen at you. Today, 3D means the show doesn't look flat. The characters stand apart from the background. If you were standing in a store (a BuyMore, maybe) and you looked at someone standing in front of a display (maybe Chuck standing in front of the Nerd Herd booth), there is obviously a separation between the person and the display. In regular 2D television, you don't get the depth perception needed to separate the two. The human brain makes assumptions based on things it has already experienced. That is why we can look at 2D television and not be like "HAY! THAT PERSON IS IN THE DISPLAY!" However, the 'new' 3D makes it so our brain doesn't have to assume things. It can see that the person is standing apart from the display. And it is awesome. I wish all of my TV shows were 3D. Though I don't want to wear those cardboard classes anymore. Those suck lots. I would happily buy a good pair of hard plastic sunglass-type 3D glasses to wear if all my shows were in 3D. But a television that did that for me would be cooler!
Mid-season hiatus
A lot of shows are starting their mid-season hiatus this week. That means we won't be seeing any new episodes until after the new year. Last night, I watched Chuck, Heroes and My Own Worst Enemy. Granted, My Own Worst Enemy has been cancelled so it's gone for good. Heroes was uninteresting. I'd like to see more of Hiro, Ando and Daphne and less of Claire and the Petrellis. Meanwhile, Chuck remains my absolute favorite show. Let's hear your side. What did you love or hate this season?
TV Review: Chuck Season 2
I can't believe I actually forgot to talk about Chuck. Last season, I fell in love with the show. It's witty, it's funny, it's nerdy and there's even some drama tossed in. No, it's not completely realistic but do we really need all of our television shows to be based in reality? The second season started a couple of weeks ago and it hasn't disappointed me in the least. We're only two shows into the season so I have a lot of hope for the rest. Chuck Forever!
Top Five Favorite - Television Shows
I watch a lot of weird television shows. Here are my top five favorite, along with what stations they play on in the US: 1. Top Gear (BBC America) 2. Chuck (NBC) 3. Torchwood (BBC America) 4. Doctor Who (Sci-Fi) 5. Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares (BBC America)
As you can see, I watch a lot of British TV. I do watch a lot of US shows as well but most of them just aren't as entertaining as I find these.
Chuck
For some reason, I just can't get myself into an actual television watching schedule. Instead, I've been watching shows online. Luckily, Chuck is one of the shows that NBC streams on their website. Let's get the general synopsis out of the way: Chuck is a computer geek who works in the Nerd Herd at Buy Mart. (Yes, this is a parody of Best Buy and their Geek Squad. The Nerd Herd even has a company car that looks quite similar to the Geek Squad's cars.) One day Chuck get an email from an old college "friend," Bryce. Bryce, who was responsible for getting Chuck kicked out of college, is a CIA agent and the email contained a database of top secret government information. All of the government's secrets have now been downloaded into Chuck's brain. It is up to CIA agent Sarah Walker and NSA agent John Casey to protect Chuck (or at least his brain) while stopping the bad guys that roll through town.
When I saw the first commercials for the show, I knew it could go either way. It could be awesomely amazing or absolutely terrible. Now that I have sat through three episodes of the series, I am classifying it as "awesomely amazing." The show doesn't take itself too seriously, which is usually the downfall of spy series. Chuck spends his time trying to work his way up the management ladder at Buy Mart while being bounced back and forth between Sarah, who took an undercover job in the weiner hut across the street from Buy Mart, and Casey, who took an undercover job IN the Buy Mart. Poor Chuck doesn't know if he can really trust either of them yet he has to trust both of them to protect him.
I still have quite a few episodes to work through in order to catch up to the latest episode. I really hope that the writers are able to keep the humor in the show and don't turn this into some melodramatic spy series.