Was it the Subway sandwiches that did it in the end? Somewhat surprisingly, it seems as though reports of ‘Chuck’s demise may have been premature.
According to TVLine, NBC is currently finalizing a deal to bring the fan favorite back for at least 13 more episodes this fall.
Although there’s been no word yet from NBC, the network is expected to announce the new series order Sunday.
After four years of so-so ratings it was widely expected that ‘Chuck’ would be cancelled, and fans have been bracing themselves for the worst.
You know what everyone needs in their lives to brighten it up? More Jeffster!:
Also, I still think this may be one of the greatest lines in television: “Why are you letting Sam Kinison and an Indian lesbian wreck your wedding?”
Attaturk
Now that “Community”, by far my favorite along with “Parks & Rec” was renewed last month, I’m happy for you “Chuck” fans.
LGRooney
Never watched Chuck. My favorite show of last season was only given one run, though. Sorry to say there will be no more Rubicon on AMC, or anywhere else.
So, is this an open thread? I get the feeling that the guy who did this doesn’t watch much TV.
meh
I sort of lost track of Chuck at the end of the season where he downloaded Kung Fu matrix style and became a secret agent for reals. So is it worth picking it back up?
Alex
It’s amazing how awful the ratings are for NBC across the board.
I’m looking forward to the day when UPNWBNBC is announced.
Xantar
I actually think Chuck needs far less Jeffster. Like none. I don’t find them funny at all, and they distract from the more important and interesting storylines.
But we don’t know if they are coming back next season, so for now I’ll just rejoice in the renewal news.
I personally always thought Chuck was going to be renewed by the sheer emptiness of NBC’s lineup. They canned too many shows and don’t have enough new material to fill the space next season.
The Other Chuck
Stuff like Jeffster and the blatant over the top Subway product placement are what makes Chuck Chuck, and not some melodramatic spy serial. It’s a comedy, not the Bourne trilogy.
piratedan
@LGRooney: I agree, I really enjoyed Rubicon simply because it wasn’t spoonfed and the problems that the characters faced were real ones, human ones, commitment, ambition, distrust. Are there really any good guys. So we get more zombie fare instead, which is what people want, the undead forcing life choices upon us… the parallels are staggering.
WaterGirl
@LGRooney: Rubicon was a great show. I think if it were still on that it would get renewed – since the Bin Laden capture was related to years of painstaking work by folks like the ones on Rubicon.
I also thought about The Unit – that would be popular now that SEALs are all the rage.
Fox screwed me again by canceling 3 of my favorite shows – Lie to Me, Human Target and Chicago Code – after canceling an excellent show last season: Terriers. Apparently FOX doesn’t know a good tv show when it sees one.
rikyrah
THIS IS GOOD NEWS…
especially after I found out that FOX cancelled Human Target and Chicago Code.
now, I wonly watch FRINGE on Fox.
LGRooney
Rubicon was a good follow on to Mad Men, I thought, because the dialogue was sparse but meaningful. The long pauses in the dialogue are useful to digest what is being said. And, it takes good actors to pull off that lack of dialogue effectively. Not sure why it got canceled since the critics seemed to take a liking to it. I don’t think the ratings were that bad, for AMC at least.
WaterGirl
Serious question since it looks like this is an open thread:
I got a notice from Bank of America saying they can now raise your rates to 29.9% if you are late with a single payment. How can that even be legal?!?
I never use my credit card (debit only) but I have been keeping it for my credit score, and I had forgotten it was even with Bank of America. I loathe Bank of America and I have had the card for less than 3 years – does anybody know how much it would ding my credit score to close that card if I also get a visa card with the same limit from my credit union? (My score was 806 last time I checked 2 years ago, if that matters.)
MikeJ
@WaterGirl: Guess what. They can raise your rates if you’re late with a single payment to somebody else.
WaterGirl
@MikeJ: Seriously? How can THAT be legal? I hate them with the heat of a thousand suns. And more. Even though i never use the card I want to tell them to shove it.
Edit: is it only Bank of America that is doing this, or is it all the big companies? I called my credit union (where I do all my banking) and they said they don’t have any kind of penalty interest rate at all, let alone 29.fucking9%!
Amanda in the South Bay
I’m amazed that people actually still watch shows on network television when they come out. My TV watching (of all kinds) has dwindled to almost near extinction over the years-nBSG was fine for the first couple of seasons, then turned to crap. SG-1 ended, SG-A ended, SG-U just ended, the Simpsons haven’t been funny since Clinton was POTUS…I pretty much just watch The Office and American Dad on Hulu.
And shows like Mad Men really turn me off, cause sooo many people feel the need to analyze the fuck out of them.
piratedan
@WaterGirl: and now you know why the R’s want to eviscerate Warren’s new lil group so badly, who makes profit! from such bullshit logic as that? It would be as if the bank made a mistake on my current balance and then I would send them a letter informing them that the new rate of interest on my savings account is now 25% because of the gaffe.
Cat
@WaterGirl:
There is no functional difference over 785, I believe, for the typical automated credit approval algo’s.
Just get a new credit card from your credit union, make sure its on your credit report before you close your BoA one and then call BoA up and make sure the CR rep closes it at “customer request”*.
You probably will want to check your credit report next year sometime to make sure its marked as closed by “customer request”* they tend to linger on as open for some reason.
* Its been 20 years since I worked in the ‘industry’ and I believe thats the term. You don’t want it to be shown as being closed at the issuers request as thats a bad mark on your credit report.
Cat
@WaterGirl:
It wasn’t supposed to be legal anymore, but I think thats one of the provisions of the that consumer financial protection bill that was stripped out of the bill to get it to pass.
WaterGirl
@piratedan: The whole thing is absurd, but as long as we’re going there, i love your idea! Things are ally out of hand, and it’s depressing.
@Cat: Thanks for all the info! This whole thing makes me so angry I am heading out to the gym to work some of it off.
Will check for any additional replies when I get back!
mws
Citi raised our credit card rate to 29.9% because we were paid a utility bill late. We cut up the card, closed the account, and changed banks (unfortunately to BoA). I think it’s time to go back to a credit union.
terraformer
@WaterGirl:
Agreed. We watched the first, oh, five or six episodes of Chuck’s first season, and I gotta say we were not impressed. Just didn’t break through for us – maybe too much juvenile banter and general silliness. Acquired taste I guess.
Probably why we like more “serious” shows with good acting and depth, like Rubicon. Dunno, maybe Chuck took off and got a lot better in later seasons, but the first several episodes were like “meh”.
slag
Can I just say, every time I hear someone mention the word “SEAL” in a political context, I still think of this text adventure from the days of GW:
Is it just me?
geg6
Could not care less about Chuck, but I’m happy if you’re happy, Cole.
You know what really makes me happy?
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal/2011_05/ensign_scandal_referred_to_jus029532.php
LGRooney
@Amanda in the South Bay: Sometimes, if art is art, if a production is done well, it can make you think. I agree that too many at times talk just to show they’re hip but sometimes there might be something worth analyzing.
MarkJ
@WaterGirl: I think it’s pretty much all the big companies, and probably some of the medium sized ones as well. I don’t ever carry a balance on mine so I don’t really worry about the interest rate.
What really steams me is they charge (on top of the interest) a $29 late fee if you are late with a payment, regardless of the size of the balance. I once cancelled a card because they charged me $29 because I was 5 days late with a $15 payment – that $15 was the ENTIRE balance on the account so in effect I paid double the balance as a late fee. THAT should be illegal.
I’m really psyched that Chuck is being renewed, to get us back to the original topic. I also liked Lie To Me – not sure why Tim Roth has to slum it on television but he was really good in that show. My faves are Chuck, Modern Family, Parks and Rec and 30 Rock – Ron Swanson is awesome.
geg6
@Amanda in the South Bay:
I don’t understand a statement like this. Other people like to analyze the show, so, automatically, you hate it? You are really cutting yourself out of a lot of entertainment if that’s your cutoff. Mad Men is a great show. It’s got great writing, acting, and production values and has a lot to say about where we were then and where we are now. It is an excellent show that I enjoy a lot and I feel little to no need to read anyone else’s analysis of it. In fact, AMC has a lot of great shows. Right now, I’m loving The Killing. One of the best shows on tv, certainly better than Chuck (for me, Cole, just for me).
jeffreyw
Thread needs moar kittehs.
burnspbesq
OT, but this is bloody brilliant.
http://ncronline.org/blogs/distinctly-catholic/breaking-news-catholic-academics-challenge-boehner
slag
@geg6: I like it too. Although, I don’t know why Benen scare-quotes “family values” here:
C’mon, his parents agreeing to pay off his mistress…what is family for, if not that?
burnspbesq
And here’s one especially for you, geg6 (link is to a PDF)
http://www.usccb.org/sdwp/Senate_budget_resolution_letter_May_5_2011_final.pdf
Violet
Chuck’s going to be renewed? Yay! That’s excellent news. I really love that show. Needs more Jeffster, though.
Poopyman
@geg6:
And I predict it’ll barely get coverage. Sorry Steve, them’s the rules of IOKIYAR.
Amanda in the South Bay
@geg6:
Well, I’ll admit this is entirely subjective, since I like delving into the technical aspects of sci-fi and whatnot, but its the…well, take Mad Men. I just want to be entertained, not be treated to treatises on 1960 America and sexism and blah blah blah.
See also the bazillion books about philosophy and the Matrix, etc.
FlipYrWhig
I’ve never watched a full episode of Chuck, but the bits I have seen reminded me of a short-lived campy spy series starring Natasha Henstridge called “She Spies.”
geg6
@Amanda in the South Bay:
But if you watch the show, it’s not like that at all. You start thinking about a lot of those things after watching it, but I find the acting and writing so good and engrossing that all those more meta things don’t matter or pop into my mind until after I’m done watching. That’s what I love about it. I’m totally engrossed with the characters and situations while it’s on. I’m rarely more entertained than when I’m watching Mad Men and I get the extra bonus of it being something I can think about later in a more complex way.
MarkJ
This is completely off topic, but what happened to Talking Points Memo? I haven’t been able to access the site for 3 days now. Is this something unique to my computer or are others unable to pull it up? Did they announce they’d be gone for a few days and I just missed it?
WaterGirl
@MarkJ: I was able to open talking points memo after reading your comment, so maybe it’s just your computer.
JPL
WOO…Good news indeed. The other day I read that it was on the chopping block.
ruemara
What can I say? I loves me some Chuck and considering how few programs on tv appeal to me besides HGTV & Food Network (will no one render something large and lumbering while discussing evolution or exobiology?) I’ll take what I can get. Disc and Travel seem devoted to redneck versions of the wild forager programmes, there’s heartily few science based programmes except for weapon nonsense and Hitler & Bible channel has no more life after people. Also too, bring on the Jeffster.
The Other Chuck
@terraformer:
Chuck definitely got better once they got the idea that there should be a nemesis rather than random bad guys. So we got Fulcrum, then their rebadged clone aka The Ring, then finally an interesting villain in Volkoff.
Unfortunately the show is executing the very predictable slow-motion shark jump that happens to virtually every show featuring romantic tension between the two leading characters. The day they write into the script that Sarah gets knocked up, I’m taking it off my DVR. But at least it’s still funny in the meantime.
HyperIon
@mws wrote:
fuck the banks.
join a credit union.
oops…i see you mention that option.
i swear it wasn’t there before.
WaterGirl
@HyperIon: I grew to hate every bank I ever had, then changed to the credit union in 1999, and I have been happy ever since.
I don’t know if it’s true for all credit unions, but both my credit union and my sister’s credit union have NO balance transfer fee for credit cards AND they don’t have these crazy penalties and other ways to screw over their customers.
tkogrumpy
I’m delighted to say I don’t understand a word of that post. You might as well be speaking Sanskrit, John.
YellowJournalism
Chuck renewed? You just made my crappy day much better with that news. Too bad about Human targert, though. The husband is going to be depressed. He loved that show. I was actually getting into it a bit, too. I enjoyed the whole storyline with the Indira Varma (?) Boss character.
guachi
Hooray!
Chuck has been my favorite show since I say the fun and not-at-all-serious opening credits on the premier episode.
My wife and I love the show. Any show that makes the NSA look way cooler than it actually is is good in my book.
Got the DVDs, a Buy More T-shirt, Buy More magnets. Wrote the cast and got a photo back. Yay!!!
Given what’s happened this season, I think one more season would be enough to wrap up story lines. The show really reminds me of all the best aspects of the silly spy/action shows from the ’70s and ’80s.