Chuck and Big Bang Theory had free previews on Yahoo! So what the heck, I watched them. Â
I work in the IT department of a major insurance company, so I think I qualify as a geek…. plus I read Slashdot, and if THAT doesn’t seal the deal, what can?
Chuck — okay, if you’re going to make a show about a geek/nerd/whatever, would it kill you to run the script past one? The premise: a guy is running from people with guns! And they’re firing at him! If only… he… can… finish writing a quick email to his friend he hasn’t seen since college. Hey guys, could you quit it with the guns? I’m writing an email here.
Cut to Chuck, who staffs a kiosk called “The Nerd Herd” in some anonymous warehouse store. If they were meaning to riff off Best Buy’s “Geek Squad”, then instead of Chuck showing his fellow employees about a porn star virus which effects a certain kind of laptop that can’t possibly be important later in the show, he would be showing them how to pack it up to send it to the third-party repair folks who really fix the laptops for Best Buy.
Chuck’s sister plans a disastrous birthday party meant to introduce him to real girls, but of course it goes wrong, so Chuck silently escapes, turns his TV on and look, there’s an email… on his TV… and it has a password based on Zork. Supposedly. Now, every single oldschool game-loving geek would cheer if they read “You are standing in an open field west of a white house, with a boarded front door. There is a mailbox here.” with Chuck. And they would scream, “OPEN THE MAILBOX!”. But no. Calm down. It’s not that.
So anyway he types in the answer, “use nasty knife on troll” (huh), and then that quick email turns out to be a montage of NBC’s fall lineup in black and white.
But no! It’s ALL NSA’s and CIA’s secrets! And since CHUCK has them, the NSA and the CIA no longer have any record of them whatsoever! In fact, the CIA (or the NSA, whatever) forgot that some general who was to address a conference in a hotel minutes from Chuck’s place, was to be blown up by a terrorist.
See, they researched this out, spied everywhere, found out what, where, who, and when, and then this guy emailed the details to Chuck and then they ALL FORGOT.
So anyway, Chuck,Jayne Alec Adam Baldwin, and the girl who was sleeping with his best friend from college whom he hadn’t heard from since until he destructively emailed Chuck all the nation’s secrets from his smartphone and then died Chuck’s future love interest save the day by finding the bomb, getting to the DOS prompt (well, he says he does, but he doesn’t actually), and setting off that porn star virus which stops the bomb… WITH OMG JUST ONE SECOND TO GO! PHEW!
So anyway. All the nation’s secrets are now in Chuck’s head, and the nation doesn’t have them anymore. Somehow. Won’t these secrets kinda get stale? Sure, he knew the date & location of this one general’s assassination, but new secrets are going to be happening from this point on that he will know nothing about, right?
Big Bang Theory — a pair of repellant, smelly losers and their idiot friends, and the porn star next door who undresses in their apartment. Nothing to see here. Apparently the people who did this show have never met an actual geek in their lives, and are just going by when they saw “Revenge of the Nerds” a few years back.
Now, my sister Genjer will insist that all IT people are exactly like this but BWAHA! These are PHYSICISTS! So there. And anyway, IT people aren’t like that. Out of everyone in my immediate department, I think I’m the only one who is even the slightest bit geeky in real life.
The IT Crowd (American) — Moss (Richard Ayoade) will join Joel McHale (The Soup) on the American adaptation of the British series in February. I thought the first season of the British series was brilliant (or should I say, BRIE-illiant), and the second season, without the IT focus, a little less funny… Dunno how the American one will go. I expect disaster.
I work in the IT department of a major insurance company, so I think I qualify as a geek…. plus I read Slashdot, and if THAT doesn’t seal the deal, what can?
Chuck — okay, if you’re going to make a show about a geek/nerd/whatever, would it kill you to run the script past one? The premise: a guy is running from people with guns! And they’re firing at him! If only… he… can… finish writing a quick email to his friend he hasn’t seen since college. Hey guys, could you quit it with the guns? I’m writing an email here.
Cut to Chuck, who staffs a kiosk called “The Nerd Herd” in some anonymous warehouse store. If they were meaning to riff off Best Buy’s “Geek Squad”, then instead of Chuck showing his fellow employees about a porn star virus which effects a certain kind of laptop that can’t possibly be important later in the show, he would be showing them how to pack it up to send it to the third-party repair folks who really fix the laptops for Best Buy.
Chuck’s sister plans a disastrous birthday party meant to introduce him to real girls, but of course it goes wrong, so Chuck silently escapes, turns his TV on and look, there’s an email… on his TV… and it has a password based on Zork. Supposedly. Now, every single oldschool game-loving geek would cheer if they read “You are standing in an open field west of a white house, with a boarded front door. There is a mailbox here.” with Chuck. And they would scream, “OPEN THE MAILBOX!”. But no. Calm down. It’s not that.
So anyway he types in the answer, “use nasty knife on troll” (huh), and then that quick email turns out to be a montage of NBC’s fall lineup in black and white.
But no! It’s ALL NSA’s and CIA’s secrets! And since CHUCK has them, the NSA and the CIA no longer have any record of them whatsoever! In fact, the CIA (or the NSA, whatever) forgot that some general who was to address a conference in a hotel minutes from Chuck’s place, was to be blown up by a terrorist.
See, they researched this out, spied everywhere, found out what, where, who, and when, and then this guy emailed the details to Chuck and then they ALL FORGOT.
So anyway, Chuck,
So anyway. All the nation’s secrets are now in Chuck’s head, and the nation doesn’t have them anymore. Somehow. Won’t these secrets kinda get stale? Sure, he knew the date & location of this one general’s assassination, but new secrets are going to be happening from this point on that he will know nothing about, right?
Big Bang Theory — a pair of repellant, smelly losers and their idiot friends, and the porn star next door who undresses in their apartment. Nothing to see here. Apparently the people who did this show have never met an actual geek in their lives, and are just going by when they saw “Revenge of the Nerds” a few years back.
Now, my sister Genjer will insist that all IT people are exactly like this but BWAHA! These are PHYSICISTS! So there. And anyway, IT people aren’t like that. Out of everyone in my immediate department, I think I’m the only one who is even the slightest bit geeky in real life.
The IT Crowd (American) — Moss (Richard Ayoade) will join Joel McHale (The Soup) on the American adaptation of the British series in February. I thought the first season of the British series was brilliant (or should I say, BRIE-illiant), and the second season, without the IT focus, a little less funny… Dunno how the American one will go. I expect disaster.
Check out Roman’s Empire if you haven’t. Chris O’ Dowd from the IT Crowd is freakin hilarious in it. Haven’t seen Chuck or Big Bang Theory yet. The previews looked horrible, but my friend who recommends all the great British comedies that I end up liking said Chuck wasn’t bad. Californication is my favorite show atm, and not for the boobs either.
Krones, I looked up Roman’s Empire last night, but couldn’t find any good torrents or other ways to download it. The reviews said Chris O’Dowd was great, but the show’s incestuous subtext made it uncomfortable viewing for many. But if I get a chance, I’ll watch it 🙂 Thanks for the pointer!
I caught Journeyman after Heroes last night. Heroes gets its own post after I finish downloading it so I can go over it frame by frame.
Journeyman… well, I was so bored with it that when my son switched the channel to a Naruto rerun halfway through, it didn’t bother me.
Yeah, he goes back and forth through time helping people and ruining his marriage. Okay, got that. Would it be possible to put some sense of wonder or adventure in it?
“Chuck” also premiered last night, but I already watched it online and had no desire to see it again. Maybe it will end up being really funny, and maybe I’ll give it another shot.
NBC is billing Wednesday as “Bionic Wednesday”, based on its Bionic Woman franchise. I was underwhelmed by the premiere episode. I did see the 70s series, and the 70s one was more fun.
Still to watch: Reaper, which looks like the best of the new crop based on previews.
Putting words in my mouth are you? Mind reader, eh? Didn’t know you had such talents. I have never seen the show “big ban theory” and the ads make it look boring. If I ever have trouble falling asleep – I will watch an episode.
I don’t make broad generalizations like that. I’ll leave that up to you 🙂
Well, you DID tell me that all the IT people you knew were pretty much like in the IT crowd. So there!
And you weren’t as harsh on this review as the people on Slashdot! Hoo-boy… though it did get rated “5: Informative” and boosted my karma, so everyone wins in the end.
And yet no mention of “the big bang theory” show. Interesting.
The IT Crowd is an exaggerated, funny version of IT departments – there are plenty of jokes based on things that come from truths. And then there are parts that are just funny for the show that would never happen in an IT department.
Almost time to go home….. JOY
Reaper: Not bad. Reminds me of Buffy, a little.
Heroes got off to a very good start especially Hiro’s story.
I’m still enjoying Eureka on Scifi though their scientific explanations are sooo bad its painful.
Missed Reaper, what time and channel?
Reaper is 9 EST/PST, Tuesdays, on “CW”. I wouldn’t have known to watch it except I was randomly looking through TV listings on Yahoo, hoping to catch more online previews so I wouldn’t have to watch the commercial-soaked ones on live TV. And boy, they did like their commercials.
I never got into Eureka. It looked like one of those supposedly science-based shows that instead were actively hostile toward science. Always the amoral scientists who never consider the wider implications of their discoveries, held in check by good, solid people who distrust learning but trust their feelings. I did watch about a half-dozen episodes.
Heroes is amazing, but like last season, there are some stories I want to see more of — Suresh in Cairo and Hiro in Japan — and some I would like to see less of — Molly’s boogeyman stuff /the person killing the old crew (this is likely a tie-in for Heroes: Origins). I don’t think we need another superpowered serial killer, especially since they — unwisely — brought Sylar back from the dead.
Peter in Ireland, Nathan putting his old self behind him, Maya and Alejandro’s mysterious bond — those stories might be interesting. Officer Parkman is still a big favorite of mine; I like the interaction between him and Molly, I just am tired of the supervillain stalking the heroes story — they DID that already.
The background story dealing with the first generation heroes — the Petrelli parents, Linderman, Mr. Nakamura, Charles Deveaux — I know is coming in a spinoff series, but I’d rather not get their story until much later, maybe next year. Keep giving little hints — we only know Linderman’s power for sure, we suspect Deveaux’s (true sight) and of the others we know nothing (though the assassin seemed to be able to fly or teleport).
One thing I would appreciate no easy explanation for is the stylized twisted RNA symbol. I am pretty sure this has nothing to do with RNA — its helical nature was only discovered in 1953 — and certainly couldn’t have even been guessed at in feudal Japan.
Note that Peter — going back to that symbol — is wearing the Haitian’s necklace, explaining his amnesia. Why did the Haitian wipe his memory? Who is he working for?
I thought the Haitian worked for Peter’s mother but it looks like she think he’s dead so perhaps not. I hope the origins series comes out in between the 2nd and 3rd season.