Sunday 19 September 2010

What the Chuck?



Sorry I've not updated in forever. I can't say I'm too bothered however as I'm almost certain only 5 people have ever read this.

Aaaanyway. I want to talk a bit about a show that I
desperately tried to avoid. Being as, a lot of my generation are, big fans of Whedon, I have often followed members of his creative team and casts in their other projects. Sometimes the payoff is magnificent: Wonderfalls, Battlestar Galactica, Greg the Bunny, hell even that one episode of Glee where Artie does some pretzel-fuelled dream dance.

Sometimes though, the connection is so tenuous
or the show so rubbish (Point Pleasant... most of Tru Calling) one feels to go down that rabbit hole a step too far. So the notion 'Hey Alex! Have you seen that comedy drama where a nerd becomes a spy featuring the guy who was Jayne on Firefly being all surly and right wing?' was not of vast appeal. I was off on holiday to Egypt, needed some entertainment for the flight and decided to treat myself to season one of Chuck.

I should be clear, Chuck is not life changing. I don't feel the need to get a 'WWCD' bracelet or to allow the show's lexicon to infiltrate my idiolect. No-one is going to jump off a tower to save the world, there will be no serial killers in a hospital and (I would be stunned if) the cast running into the battlefields of WWI to turn into a field of poppies. What Chuck is, is soup. Cholent. Stew. Tagine, if you're a bit foreign. Its warm, cosy and well written eno
ugh to be 'non-trash' but really doesn't scale the heights of genre and wit that it could if paired with a slightly more creative team. But the constant callbacks to classic Bond films and video games are just delightful. There is, however, a problem.

This woman.
Yes, you might ask 'As a gay Jewish man, what problems might you have with this almost offensively Aryan woman?'. And I would respond by calling you racist. You would say it was just a joke. I would say that was uncool. You would learn something. We would hug. The world would move on a braver and fairer place.

The woman pictured is Chuck's love interest and mentor in the ways of the CIA, 'Sarah Walker'. Or Sam. Or whatever the hell her name turns out to be really. The thing with Sarah is, she is simply too perfect to both men and women at once. She exists on a level of impossible that I find excruciatingly annoying. Let's use 'gender stereotypes' to help us examine this:

Woman: Wow. Although she's tough, clever and independent, she has opened herself up to love. I know she's had issues with her parents so it makes me glad to see her in a healthy relationship and realising that her career choices, although important, don't always need to be the main focus of her life.

Man: She is blonde and has breasts.

Still like Chuck, but four seasons in and I wonder if I will ever like Sarah.