I love this time of the year because it's great for giving me content for my site. I caught the premiers last night on NBC for Chuck, Heroes and Journeyman. I'm already a dedicated Heroes fan and I'm always looking for new shows to record since I'm home intermittently through the evenings. So, here's my thoughts about the premiers last night.
I must admit, Chuck has a bit of an endearing quality about the show. The main character, Chuck, an underachieving Stanford grad, played by Zachary Levi, is sent an email that contains sensitive, government intelligence encoded in images. After reading the email the information is contained in his brain and only seems to seep out from time to time.
Governmental agencies, such as the CIA and the NSA, are hot on the trail of the data and track it down to Chuck, the lowly fix-it geek at a local big-box, discount knock-off of Best Buy or Circuit City. For the time being, Chuck will be babysat by two agents: John Casey ( Adam Baldwin ) and Sarah Walker ( Yvonne Strahovski ).
I only got to watch Chuck in bits and pieces. From what I did get to see, it seems like the type of show that I could easily enjoy. The "unlikely hero" storyline has so many possibilities that it should make for interesting plotlines. My only criticism, and I chose to do this sparingly since I haven't watched the entire episode yet, is that I hope Chuck will grow rather than being a stereotypical, shy and reserved, underachieving caricature. I imagine this will happen, but once it does will the show jump the shark? We'll see what happens. Luckily I recorded it so I can watch the whole episode, uninterrupted, later this week.
Heroes came out the gate this year and ended the premier as it usually does - with plenty of new questions and cliffhangers compelling us to watch next week. There's a few new characters as the primary ones are getting on with their lives. Claire's family tries to pick up the pieces and start their lives in a new place. Of course, Claire being a teenager, has a hard time doing this without calling attention to herself. Meanwhile, her dad plots to bring down the company with Mohinder's help while he lays down the law at his new job. Hiro has a new quest in ancient japan. The whole deal going on with Nathan and Peter has me stumped as to what's going on. Two new characters, a brother and sister from Mexico, are on their way to New York to get help. Evidently the sister, Maya, has some incredible power that is exceptionally deadly.
I think this season of Heroes is going to be a good one.
Originally, I was a little skeptical of Journeyman. I'm still kind of sitting on the fence as to whether it will stick around or not. I like the whole idea behind the story. Kevin McKidd stars as Dan Vasser, a San Francisco reporter who begins to mysteriously travel through time. Yes. It just happens. It's as if some kind of portal opens up and only swallows him, transporting him to various points in time. It seems he has to set things right before he can break free from the force that keeps transporting him.
Of course this plays havoc with his real life because in this story, when he goes back to 1987, for example, he's gone for nearly two days in his real life. This leaves a lot of explaining to do since he previously had problems with substance abuse. But that's what makes this character so cool. He's flawed. He's not some super-cool, techno-geek that builds a time machine and travels by choice. It's another flawed, yet endearing, unlikely hero here to save the day.
Any thoughts from you? Have a favorite?