Chuck - Season 5 (1 Viewer)

[spshultz]

Thanks a ton for spoilerizing this for now. I wasn't able to watch it last night and I won't get a chance until much later tonight. I really hope that it's a fitting send off to a great cast and crew.

 

[AlexF]

When I saw that Adam wouldn't be able to see the show until Sunday (or so), I figured that it made sense to put some spoilers in. Heck, I ended up having to start watching it around 8:20 or so. Caught up to the show with less than 10m left in the second half. I'm looking forward to revisiting the series when this last season comes out on "home video". It also makes me wish that they'd released the 3D episode in a form that modern 3D TVs could handle too...

 

[Michael Harris]

I'm not going to lie, it was tough watching these two episodes but the ending was satisfying. While watching it I was wondering if the writers were going to paint themselves into a corner but the resolution was true to all the characters and how they developed. NBC, thanks for keeping this show on the air for as long as you did and for allowing us to be able to buy the DVD/Blu Rays knowing that the series is actually complete.

 

[David Weicker]

I was talking with my boys about the finale. As I said in an earlier post, I enjoyed it, and so did they. One thing that didn't happened, but would have been kind of cool (in a nerdy, but unrealistic way). You know how in the Christopher Reeve Superman, when he changes from Clark to Superman, he physically changes - specifically the part in his hair switches sides, well, it would have been cool if

Spoiler: Warning: Spoiler!

when Chuck put the glasses back on at the end and he re-uploaded the Intersect, it turned his hair curly again

. OK, maybe stupid, but still kind of cool. David. p.s.

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when they brought Morgan in from the van, he should have said something about "staying in the car".

 

[Greg_S_H]

I've got the first three seasons on Blu-Ray, but I haven't watched them yet. So, I've really only seen this show one time through (the only exception being the 3D episode, which I did watch again from my set). I'm now looking forward to the fifth season set, the purchase of which will cause me to run through the entire series from the beginning. I think it's good I've waited, because it will almost be like watching it for the first time, except for my knowing the broad strokes of where everybody ended up.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Thanks for spoiler tagging everything, guys! I stayed out of the thread altogether, just in case, but I'm sure I'm not the only one who appreciates it. I spent an hour and a half walking the finale with my mother tonight. This was "our" show; I watched the pilot with her on a Monday evening all those years ago, and with the exception of the time I was living out of the area, we watched pretty much the entire run together. I'll miss spending a night a week with my mom and "Chuck". It was a show about family, watched with family. As for how things wrapped up: Lovely ending. Just perfect. I think of all the series finales I've seen over the years, and how many have disappointed me, either because the ending was too gimmicky or because the ending was wrapped things up too neatly or didn't wrap things up at all. This finale had very much the feeling of a graduation: bittersweet because the time spent was so cherished, but both inevitable and necessary for the characters to realize the people they are meant to become. Casey, who was so emotionally bottled up, heads off in pursuit of love saying good bye to the daughter who allowed him to rediscover his humanity. Morgan, ever the sidekick, is off on his own adventure with Alex where he's in the starring role. Jeffster leave their safe cocoon and venture out into the larger world, possibly for bizzare euro-stardom. Ellie and Awesome get to raise their daughter with the big yard and the white picket fence in the suburbs. And Chuck embarks on one final mission, to win back the woman he loves. The ending is ambiguous in the sense that we don't know whether Sarah will get her memory back or not. But in another sense it's not ambiguous at all, because whatever happens, Chuck and Sarah are going to spend the rest of their lives together. The best endings are both endings and beginnings. We got to witness one chapter in these people's lives, and the effect one entirely decent human being had in bringing out the decency and warmth in everyone around him. Everyone is different, deeper, better than they were when we met them. None of them ended up where they thought they'd be, with the perfect ending dropped on their laps. But the book is not closed on any of them, because they're all off to proactively grab their happy endings. The journey of the show was them becoming the kind of people who could. Man, when I think of perfect series endings, that kiss on the beach is one for the ages.

 

[Ray Gutnick]

Easily my favourite part:

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The return of Jeffster and with an orchestral backup!

 

[Greg_S_H]

Thanks for the post, Adam. This ending has really impacted me, and you put some of the reasons why to paper here. I'm going to miss these characters, but they'll be alright. Soon, I'll move on to missing this cast. They really are great together.

 

[Jeffery_H]

Well, I'm going to be the voice of decent here and say the ending did not work at all for me in many ways and I am really ticked off by most of it. After spending this long watching the show and characters develop, I wanted the white picket fences for everyone type of ending and it could certainly have worked much better. Here are my main thoughts on this: First, these characters have been written for 5 years now and have grown in many respects. The way they were in the final episodes though I felt were way out of place. Casey had already changed, he was not the same guy he way at the start of the show and would not all of a sudden acted like he did just for the final mission when the General wanted the "old" Casey. There was no "old" Casey, he has a family now, his daughter and his new surrogate family with Chuck. Yes, he did come around when Morgan confronted him, but that is not the point of him being forever changed already by the last 5 years. While he was off to go after Gertrude and win his true love to be with, he still would've come back to be with his daughter and just told Alex he would be back with her in tow. Second, Sarah had her memory wiped by the defective Intersect, OK fine. Chuck and crew agreed to destroy the project because they knew others would keep after it and would get a perfected version eventually given enough time. But, they left out the fact Chuck's Dad was the creator of the project and all the knowledge Chuck and his mom had. Are you telling me with their skills and knowing everything over the years of how it works they could not create another Intersect of their own that would work too? I think that would be much better in seeing Chuck nearly kill himself making the grand masterpiece his Father had started. He could've used it not just for himself, but also Sarah to restore her old memories. After all, this was who Chuck was, an expert at programming, not a real spy like Casey or Sarah. Then, they could've destroyed their work and underground HQ at the Buy More like they wanted. Third, the whole memory wipe, not remembering and starting over has been done countless times and done on Star Trek, specifically Voyager. When I heard about the happy/sad ending I had a dreadful feeling this would be something they would go for given Robert Duncan McNeil involvement with Chuck. I swear no one can come up with anything good anymore and why not give fans the perfect happy ending otherwise? This guy was on Voyager and they did a show just like this which is where I am sure he got some of it from. They even tried the whole falling in love again thing too. It just feels lazy and cheap to me since I have seen this before several times. Fourth, Morgan and Alex just got a brief "we're moving in together" and that's it? Knowing Casey and how conservative he still is he would've made Morgan put a ring on that finger. I'm sure Morgan even wanted to and this felt very rushed and just tacked on like most of the last 15 minutes of the show. Morgan has grown too and is ready to give up the bachelor pad he and Chuck started out with. What did work for me? Ellie and Awesome was fine the way that was handled and so was Jeffster, but that's it. They needed the whole last hour just as a goodbye without any missions. Too much of it was rushed and not enough time given to each character. After all this time, I thought it would be a lot more ironic and funny if they all had suburban homes and lives and you got to see a taste of that like a 1 year later flash forward. Can you image the fun they could have with Casey being a home man, you see him all suited up looking like he is going into combat and he says something like "It's war Chuck! I've defeated terrorists and hundreds of bad guys, but I just can't seem to win this battle. I've got ants Chuck, those damn things just won't die!!" You get the point, they could've done all kinds of fun things to end the show on a high note and I feel really cheated after all this time to end it like they did. For me, Chuck was never a serious spy show, it was more a modern A-Team and that is how it should have been kept. Personally, I really don't see seasons 4 or 5 adding hardly anything to the show. I prefer to think of the way season 3 ended as their last and call it done.

 

[Joe_H]

They needed the whole last hour just as a goodbye without any missions.

To me, that'd have been anticlimactic. 45 minutes of tying up loose ends would just be boring. I like the characters, but how much can you really say that hasn't been said without the missions?

Too much of it was rushed and not enough time given to each character. After all this time, I thought it would be a lot more ironic and funny if they all had suburban homes and lives and you got to see a taste of that like a 1 year later flash forward. Can you image the fun they could have with Casey being a home man, you see him all suited up looking like he is going into combat and he says something like "It's war Chuck! I've defeated terrorists and hundreds of bad guys, but I just can't seem to win this battle. I've got ants Chuck, those damn things just won't die!!"

That'd just be too goofy and slapstick, as far as I'm concerned. Yes, the show got silly at times, but that'd just be too much.

 

[Greg_S_H]

They made some cuts for time, so the finale will be eight minutes longer on home video. Also, I now have to go back and rewatch a little, as it turns out the guy in the heli with Casey was Tom Paris. I knew he directed, but didn't look for him. http://www.tvline.com/2012/01/chuck-series-finale-spoilers-secrets-recap-review/

 

[Jeffery_H]

This quote sums up how I felt and they even say so here, which is why I was pretty let down. "FEDAK | The only thing I would add is that this show was fun. It was designed as a cure-all for your Monday– SCHWARTZ | Or your Friday FEDAK | Or your Friday, for less people. But we tried to make the most fun piece of television you could imagine, and it was a pleasure to do it. SCHWARTZ | We’d hear from so many people who said they could watch the show with their whole family, that it was something they could put on for an hour enjoy and smile." So if this show was the "cure-all" and "this show was fun", then my thoughts fit perfectly into how the ending should've been done. Even the humor they could've written with a flash forward 1 year later would be nice to see, not the whole show granted, but maybe the last 10 minutes. Oh well, I will take the 3 seasons that were good and leave the rest at that.

 

[Steve Berger]

....and they have to leave it open for reunion movies.

 

[Ray Gutnick]

I think it would have been so much better had she completely got her memory back.

 

[Greg_S_H]

I would be very surprised to see any reunion movies. This show had a loyal fan base, but it was very, very small. I kind of don't even want any. She got her memories back, or most of them, and they lived happily ever after. That's how I see it, and that's all I need to see. Though, I'll take ten movies if they make them.

 

[Kevin Hewell]

I think it would have been so much better had she completely got her memory back.

I think it would have been too simplistic and too much of a "cheat" for Sarah to magically get all her memories back. I like the way they ended it just fine.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

DOUBLE POST?

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Also, I now have to go back and rewatch a little, as it turns out the guy in the heli with Casey was Tom Paris. I knew he directed, but didn't look for him.

He's plumped up a bit since his "Voyager" days. Robert Duncan McNeill's directed far and away more episodes of "Chuck" than anyone else, starting with the very first episode after McG's pilot, so it was fitting that he filmed the finale. The quirky thing about the choices for director is that they're predominantly character drama directors rather than action series directors. Lots of veterans of "My So-Called Life", "The West Wing", "The Good Wife", "Switched at Birth", "Mad Men" and especially "Everwood", "Dead Like Me", "Ed", "Friday Night Lights", "Parenthood" and "Wonderfalls". It speaks to what the showrunners valued: the show could survive a subpar action sequence, if the character work was solid.

I would be very surprised to see any reunion movies. This show had a loyal fan base, but it was very, very small. I kind of don't even want any. She got her memories back, or most of them, and they lived happily ever after. That's how I see it, and that's all I need to see. Though, I'll take ten movies if they make them.

The nice thing is that, if there ever are any movies down the line and they really suck, the series itself will still have gone out on a strong note. They can be embraced or ignored as quality warrants. The show itself had a proper ending. I have mixed feelings too about any reunion movies, but I kind of want one in ten years or so because I'd like to meet Chuck and Sarah's children.

 

[Jeffery_H]

He's plumped up a bit since his "Voyager" days. Robert Duncan McNeill's directed far and away more episodes of "Chuck" than anyone else, starting with the very first episode after McG's pilot, so it was fitting that he filmed the finale. The quirky thing about the choices for director is that they're predominantly character drama directors rather than action series directors. Lots of veterans of "My So-Called Life", "The West Wing", "The Good Wife", "Switched at Birth", "Mad Men" and especially "Everwood", "Dead Like Me", "Ed", "Friday Night Lights", "Parenthood" and "Wonderfalls". It speaks to what the showrunners valued: the show could survive a subpar action sequence, if the character work was solid. The nice thing is that, if there ever are any movies down the line and they really suck, the series itself will still have gone out on a strong note. They can be embraced or ignored as quality warrants. The show itself had a proper ending. I have mixed feelings too about any reunion movies, but I kind of want one in ten years or so because I'd like to meet Chuck and Sarah's children.

Only for some did it have a "proper ending", others like myself feel very strongly the opposite. The problem is most people posting on this site are the same people and a small sample so they tend to not show different view points. If you look at other fan sites and places with a lot more traffic like Twitter and Facebook, there are many that are split on how the show ended as well. As for Robert Duncan McNeil, I already pointed out the problems I had with this being nothing remotely original and a total rip off from Star Trek and other shows. It feels cheap at best and a lazy cop out for just doing the same old junk over again.

 

[Greg_S_H]

Here's a pretty cool review (hint: coolest to those who liked the finale ): http://tv.ign.com/articles/121/1217375p1.html