Chuck vs. the Coup d' Etat

It's no secret that Chuck is currently my favorite show on TV. I thought tonight's episode was pretty good. It had humorous moments, a great cast (no surprise there), an amusing adventure, and some more serious moments. Overall, it made me laugh, it kept me entertained, and it left me feeling good. Job well done in my book. Here are my top six moments:

6. The Generalismo of Costa Graves
This guy could only be more ridiculous if they gave him the line, "I don't always drink beer, but when I do, I drink Dos Equis."

5. Gratuitous bikini shots
It may have been a bit excessive, but, let's face it, I'll never complain about seeing Sarah in a bikini.

4. Chuck finally comes clean to Ellie, sort of
Well, at least he told her that he was looking for their mom. Will he ever come clean about still being a spy? I don't know. Would she ever be able to just him after that? I don't want to think about it.

3. Chuck's smirk
It was so heartwarming to see Chuck smile after Sarah professes her love while she thinks he's sleeping.

2. Morgan gets some action
Go Morgan. Alex is cute, but she's Casey's daughter. I see many humorous moments to come from this relationship.

1. Awesome's statue
Can you honor a guy more than by carving his likeness into a 9 foot block of marble? I think not.

I wanted to do my top ten moments, but it's late and I'm lazy. Anyways, I thought the show was as entertaining as usual, but I'm looking forward to seeing more Linda Hamilton and Summer Glau.

The Event

I think Monday night is my favorite for television so far this fall. I've been a pretty big Chuck fan for awhile now and the episodes this season have been as good as ever. I really do like this show quite a lot and part of me just wants to write about how awesome it is and its ridiculous stunt casting, but, instead, I think I'll talk about the other show that is making Monday night so enjoyable: The Event.

I actually saw the pilot episode at Comic-Con and, honestly, I just wasn't sold on the show. I didn't love the way it jumped around the timeline so much, nor did I love the acting.

Nonetheless, I was intrigued by the plot and watched the second episode last week. I found that I still didn't love the way the show jumped around, but I got used to it, and maybe the acting isn't Lost quality, but it's not bad either. But what really changed for me was the plot. As it turns out, the show is about ALIENS. Yeah. That's pretty cool. I can dig that.

We got a little backstory in bits and pieces and I'm really intrigued now. Apparently these aliens landed in Alaska in 1944. The aliens look exactly the same as humans, but they do have some minor cellular differences. Most of them were detained, but at least a few managed to sneak off and have assimilated into the U.S. culture. Their motives are unknown.

So last week's episode was pretty cool. It gave us this backstory, but Sean Walker's story heated up as well. One of the producers is from 24 and the influences are very apparent (Sean is basically the Jack Bauer of the show), but those influences keep the show exciting and suspenseful.

Now this week, we're starting to see how the conspiracy surrounding "the event" runs deep and discovering the root of that conspiracy is probably going to be the only thing that keeps Sean from getting killed. I'm still not sure how he is wrapped up in the whole mess, but I am confident that we'll get the answer before too long. So far, most of the answers have come pretty quickly.

I wouldn't say that The Event is my favorite show on television, but I think I can say that it's my favorite new show. I'm not really watching that many new shows, so maybe that isn't saying a lot either, but it really is pretty decent and I think its a great replacement for anyone suffering from 24 withdrawal.

Chuck Is Back!

Chuck is back and filled with awesome, spy-fi goodness! I was really excited about the premiere, especially after seeing how excited the cast was at Comic-Con, and it did not disappoint. Chuck is basically my favorite show right now and I've got very high expectations for season four.

The premiere certainly delivered with the mix of action and humor that have come to define the show. Seriously, tonight's episode was a blast. They did a great job wrapping up the loose ends from last season's finale and getting right back into the action.

My Top 10 Moments

1. Amazing casting. Dolf Lundgren. Olivia Munn. Linda Hamilton. A geek's fantasy. Enough said.
2. The Buy More is back and better than ever.
3. Gretta. (Oh crap, I just drooled on my keyboard.)
4. Chuck is a spy again, after about a 10 minute break.
5. Casey's groans.
6. Morgan as Chuck's sidekick.
7. Sarah. (Drooling again).
8. Sexting!
9. Chuck is still a badass.
10. Chuck's mom is even more badass.

I really want to say more, but it's late and I need to sign off for the night. Godspeed!

Fall TV Programming

Blastr has posted a complete guide to 20 new and return sci-fi TV shows just a day after I decided to peruse the major networks' web sites to see what is on tap for this fall. As it turns out, I'm not really that excited about the lineup at this point, but here's what I've got to say about each series.

The Big Bang Theory - I've heard this is very funny, but I've never watched it. I may just try to hop in anyways and catch up on previous seasons via Netflix.

Caprica - The second half of season one was scheduled to debut in January, but got bumped up to October. I watched the first half and thought it was decent so I'll give the second half a whirl.

Chuck - I'm really excited about Chuck. I'm expecting it to be my favorite show this year since Lost is over. I really enjoyed season three and I think they'll do a good job with it again this year. The writers seem to have a knack for catering to their fans.

The Event - I saw the premiere at Comic-Con and thought it was decent. I think it could go either way, but I think I'll give it a shot.

Fringe - I watched the first couple episodes and stopped, but I've heard it just keeps getting better. I won't be watching it this fall, but I may check it out on Netflix later.

Human Target - I thought this got canceled. No? Oh. Well, I didn't watch season one and I'm not planning on watching season two.

Medium - I've never watched this show and I'm not interested in starting anytime soon.

Nakita - I never saw the original series that this is based on, but I was always under the impression that it was rather cheesy. The new show promises the same. No thanks.

No Ordinary Family - I think I'm going to check out this show about a family with super powers. I heard it didn't get amazing buzz at Comic-Con, but that might not mean anything.

Sanctuary - I haven't had a chance to check this one out yet so I'll have to pass again this fall.

Smallville - Considering that I've only seen a handful of episodes from season one (which I enjoyed), there is just no way that I would consider jumping in for season ten.

Stargate Universe - I've heard mixed reviews on this one and I've never watched any other the other Stargate shows so I've got no plans to start watching this fall.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars - I started watching this when it first aired a couple years ago, but it was a little too cute for me. I know that there are some people that are really into it (adults included), but I'm not sure if I'm capable of watching a children's program anymore, even though I love Star Wars.

Supernatural - I just started watching this series on Netflix this summer and I'm really getting into it. Unfortunately, I'm still working through season one so I'm going to hold off on season six until I catch up.

Tower Prep - I have no idea what this is so I'll pass.

Ugly Americans - I did see one commercial for this and I thought it looked terrible.

Undercovers - I'm not sure this is really sci-fi, but it is from J.J. Abrams so he'll probably work in some sci-fi at some point. Honestly, it looks pretty cheesy, but I'm usually willing to at least give an Abrams program a chance.

V - I started watching last season and I hated the storytelling. I thought the concept was decent, but the execution was terrible. Oh and the son was a total moron. I couldn't handle it and gave up. I'm not planning on picking it up again.

The Vampire Diaries - Oh god no.

The Walking Dead - I'm not really a big zombie guy, but I heard the comic series is excellent and I did absolutely love Zombieland so there is a slim chance that I may check this out.

Well, out of the 20, I plan on watching Chuck and Caprica for sure; I'll be giving newcomers No Ordinary Family, Undercovers, and The Event a shot; and I may try to pick up on The Big Bang Theory. Combine those with football, hockey, and Netflix and I'll soon be spending far too many hours in front of the TV.

Comic-Con Recap #4: Saturday

Saturday was perhaps our most efficient day at Comic-Con. My brother and I didn't have a lot of panels on our to-do list, but we managed to sneak in a couple extras and really filled out our day. Here's a breakdown of our day:

A small glimpse of the line for Chuck

Chuck - I was really excited about this panel so we got up way too early and showed up in line at 7:30 for the 10:00 panel. Needless to say, we probably could have showed up at about 9:00 or so and still made it in, but the time went fast as we chatted with the people around us. The panel was awesome even though it only lasted about 30 minutes. The entire cast was there and they were a ton of fun. This was definitely one of my favorite panels during the entire convention. And they announced that Chuck's mom will be played by Linda Hamilton (yes, the original Sarah Conner) next season!

On another Chuck note, I didn't see too many celebrities out and about, but all the ones did see were from Chuck. I saw Awesome, Morgan, and Leceister, though I didn't stop them for pictures or anything.

The Event - We really wanted to go to the Warner Bros panel to see the new Harry Potter footage, but we weren't sure if we would even be able to get in and it overlapped with Jay and Jack's LOST Podcast panel. We were looking for something to do so we just walked into Room 6A and watched the pilot for The Event. There was no line and it killed some time, but the show didn't look too bad either. I wasn't crazy about the way the show was produced or the lead actor, but the premise was intriguing. I think I'll give it a shot this fall.

The LOST Podcast with Jay and Jack - This panel was held over in the Santa Rosa room (hilarious, I know) at the Marriott next door. My brother and I are big LOST fans and we have both listened to Jay and Jack's excellent podcast for a couple years. I definitely couldn't pass up on this panel and I'm glad I didn't because it was a lot of fun. The only down side was sitting through about 10 minutes or so of the Indy Fans panels that ran beforehand. Those guys were just downers (and I really like Indiana Jones!).

Warehouse 13 / Eureka - Once again, we found ourselves in the situation where we needed to kill some time. The Exhibit Hall, though very cool, was an absolute madhouse. We had a hard time dealing with the sheer volume of people so we tended to favor attending panels where you actually had a small amount of personal space. Therefore, we decided to check out this panel just a few minutes before it was scheduled to start and walked right in. Honestly, it was a lot of fun. The actors told some amusing stories and I left the panel thinking that I would really like to check out both shows. At the time, I had only seen a handful of episodes of Warehouse 13 and not a single episode of Eureka.

LOST But Not Forgotten - Our last panel of the day covered the upcoming Lost Encyclopedia. The panelists did a great job explaining their process, though I wasn't certain that the moderator had ever used a computer before. I enjoyed the inside look and I think I'll definitely be purchasing a copy when it comes out. The best part however was when some jerk asked why they couldn't answering all of the questions and the moderator basically verbally bitch-slapped him.

That was a last panel for the day. After that we got some food, hung out a bit, and then hit up the Zombieland screening at the Marriott. Damn, that is a funny movie.

Well, I'm out. Godspeed.