(S02E21) “Chuck vs. the Colonel”

Will Chuck be returning next year? The jury’s still out on that one. However, I believe that if they can step up next season like they were able to do for these past few episodes, they could definitely start gaining back a little audience appreciation. I actually had to double check my TV listing to ensure that tonight’s excellent episode wasn’t the season finale, it was that good.

Orion has been saved! Better yet, the intersect is, once and for all, out of Chuck’s head. I mean really, why would they not save a little bit of that for the conclusion? Don’t worry, the finale will still be interesting. Seeing as the mastermind bad guy survived and is en route to Ellie and Awesome’s wedding, the spy drama is far from over.  More exciting than that, it appears as if the whole team will be fighting together on this upcoming mission.

It was so cute to see Casey struggle with his inner soldier in order to join Sarah and Chuck as they saved Orion. I almost wanted to shed a tear as he stood by  Sarah and informed the General that this whole time Sarah was acting for the better good of the country while undercover instead of actually acting on pure emotion as she saved Chuck. Ok, so I didn’t actually cry, but still, it was a touching moment. As was the slow clap Morgan received as he exited Buy More for the last time ever.

Now I must know, which was your favorite Chuck moment?

I Am Become Death

When I first read the title, I got a sudden urge to visit I Can Has Cheezburger. Come to find out, “I am become Death” is a quote from J. Robert Oppenheimer, the scientific director of the Manhattan Project, a.k.a. the father of the atomic bomb. So if you watched the episode, you can see how it fits.

It was definitely a big episode, with the obligatory flash four years into the future to see what Peter has to prevent today. There was some good stuff to talk about here…a world full of people with abilities, Parkman and Daphne have a baby, Sylar Gabriel is also now a daddy (to Claire’s baby? hmmmm…) and Nathan is, again, President. I do kind of appreciate the inevitability of the future…it seems that some things are going to happen regardless of what the present heroes do.

The scene in Costa Verde was amazing, I thought. I was shocked that they not only killed little-boy Noah, but that they actually showed his dead body…that’s not something that you really see on prime-time television. To see Gabriel lose it and go nuclear a la Peter and Ted in Season One…fantastically emotional scene.

Also, really interesting, we have the apparent role reversal of Peter and Sylar. Pete’s got the hunger, so now the brothers Gabriel and Peter have something to bond over as they head down the roads of redemption and damnation, respectively.

However, as rich as all of this material is, it’s, forgive the ridiculously political buzzword, lipstick on a pig. The formula is getting really stale, really fast. No matter how sweet the variables that you add to the equation are, it’s still the same old “Peter goes to the future, Peter sees bad things in the future, Peter has to fix future bad things in the present”. Now, I do like the Darth Vader-ish play with the dark side that Peter is embarking on…the idea of ends justifying the means is a fascinating dilemma, and very relevant for our world today, I think.

But there have to be worthwhile stories to tell in the present. If Heroes doesn’t start mixing it up more, it’s going to lose even more viewers.

One of Us, One of Them

After last week’s solid, albeit somewhat flawed premiere, the pressure is on to see whether Heroes can get back to its Season One goodness.

So Sylar is in the employ of the Company now. Zachary Quinto is one of this show’s biggest assets, so it is a great thing to see him step into a more prominent role. I really like the addiction/hunger internal struggle that he’s going through here…it’s something I’d say we all struggle with to a point. Do we do the things we do because it’s ingrained into who we are, or is it a choice? Philosophy time with Heroes…good stuff.

Hiro and Ando continue their globetrotting adventures, this time chasing their nemesis, Daphne, to Germany where they plan to break up an exchange for the other half of the formula. (Hello, Haitian!) The Japanese duo manage to swipe the formula, but Daphne snags it back, and is quickly gone with it. It seems that the Haitian is still working for the Company, as Hiro and Ando end up in a cell in Level 5.

Peter’s and Parkman’s storylines are my biggest complaint about the season. How many times are we going to have the same “see the future/see a vision of the future and try to change it” plot? Isn’t it time to move on to something else?

Next week it seems that we’ll get to see that future. Could it be that the same-old, formulaic-ness that the show is once again demonstrating simply be a ploy to keep us off guard for the change-up? One can only hope.

American TV Audiences didn’t exactly welcome the “Heroes” into their homes on Monday night. The debut of the show’s third season drew only a 6.1 rating/9 share in the 9pm (EST) hour. That put it behind ABC’s “Dancing with the Stars” (which drew a 13.5/20) and the combination of CBS’s “Two and a Half Men” (9.1/13) and the debuting “Worst Week” (6.8/10).

Now sure, there is certainly something to be said about the DVR factors and things of that nature that may have caused people to watch the show at another time, online, or whatever – but the ratings are still what executives look at when determining the health and success of a show…and these are not good.

This rating is even lower than the second season finale, which drew only a 6.6/9 in Dec.

I’m not sure what it will take to get “Heroes” soaring again – but if things don’t improve, this may be the last year for the NBC super hero show.

Word around the street is that “Robot Chicken” mastermind Seth Green, and cohort Breckin Meyer are extremely close to signing a deal that would see them make multi-episode appearances on the third season of “Heroes”.

There is no official word on the names of their characters, but the rumor is that they will be playing comic book geeks who encounter one of the “heroes” in real life, and become involved in that heroes story.

Starting on the first day of September, all the way through to the 30th of October we have new shows debuting on all the major networks. Below you’ll find a complete list of all the new and returning shows and their premiere dates!

Be sure and check back here at TV Jab for reviews of these new programs as they premiere…we’ll be covering almost all of them this year!
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NBC has graciously posted both “The Office” and “Heroes” Comi-con panels in their entirety, which you can watch below.

They run close to an hour each, so you’ll be here for a while if you watch them, but if you’re a hardcore fan, you’ll love it…

The Office

Heroes

Beginning today, NBC.com will begin to air weekly Heroes webisodes, entitled “Going Postal”. Starting with today’s installment, “A Nifty Trick”, they’ll center on everyday mailman Echo DeMille, who becomes a target after discovering a surprising ability. Next week’s “The Houseguest” will focus on Echo rushing home to save his girlfriend and finding a deadly use for his newfound powers. Then, on “Let’s Talk”, airing on July 28, Echo confronts his enemies, but encounters a surprising twist.

NBC says that this webisode will be an introduction to Echo as a new character for the upcoming season, but I wouldn’t get too attached…remember Hana Gitelman? She was supposed to be a character that crossed over from the online comic into the show, and she had a part that lasted, literally, about two minutes.

One of the few studios to back the HD-DVD format exclusively was Universal Studios. Because of this, the first season of Heroes came to the doomed format, which I was excited about, since that was player that I had purchased. Unfortunately, HD-DVD went the way of the dinosaur.

So, for those of you not as short-sighted as me who went with Blu-ray, your opportunity to pick up both seasons of Heroes is here.

Universal is kicking off its global entrance into the Blu-ray market with the simultaneous release of the first two seasons of Heroes on August 26, 2008. Obviously it’s a bit early to talk special features, but it’s safe to say that the sets will likely be pretty loaded, much like the HD-DVD version was, with features such as picture-in-picture commentary.

Hmmm…I have a birthday between now and August 26…a PS3 may make an appearance on my list.

I’ve already cleared my calendar.

Yesterday, co-chairman of NBC Entertainment Ben Silverman announced that Heroes will return to air on Monday, September 15 by taking over the entire night’s prime time programming. It begins at 8/7c with everyone’s favorite, the hour-long clip show recap. It’s then followed by “a massive two-hour Heroes film”. I like the idea of calling it a film, since I find Heroes far more engaging than many of the films that are being put out today…but that’s a different post.

Silverman also cleared up the fate of one of the things I was heavily anticipating: Heroes Origins. “We were taxing our creative team to do too much around that. We wanted 35 Heroes [episodes] and 12 Heroes: Origins, each of which was supposed to be a mini-movie and backdoor pilot. We reached far and challenged our people, and we decided it was better to focus on keeping the Heroes mothership as strong as possible.” I guess I can understand that, but man, I was looking forward to see what Kevin Smith and Eli Roth had in store for us.

When we left off, Nathan Petrelli had just been felled by an assassin’s bullet, Takezo Kensei had been buried alive, and Sylar had just regained his powers. Following Volume 1: Genesis and Volume 2: Generations, Volume 3 is titled “Villains”.