After all is said and done, Monday night was probably a wasted opportunity for Chuck. The fledgling NBC certainly did their darndest to promote the worthy series, with several promos, including a 3-D one (albeit, paired with a kids' movie and a puzzling Sobe commercial). The show pulled in more viewers against more competition (House, The Bachelor, etc.) but it was still fourth in its slot, and I'm not sure it even did enough to bring back the newbies who stopped by to see what this Chuck thing was all about. The 3-D experiment didn't help matters much, as it had too many technical requirements for it to work properly. For the payoff, you had to have an HD flat screen TV and feed along with the special glasses from displays for Sobe drinks (old-school red & blue 3-D glasses didn't work).

Even if you were equipped, there wasn't much wow factor after the first few minutes -- the credits, to my eyes, worked the best, which makes sense given its use of line art. I actually found it worked fine watching the HULU 420P broadcast at the 640x360 size presented (resist going full-screen, resist!). But aside from the gimmick, the episode was just alright.

There were plenty of cultural references to go around, but I'd argue they were a bit too obscure for the purpose of bringing in more fans. With Butterman, former Steeler great Jerome Bettis, as an ex-con, there were at least three Shawshank Redemption references: Jeff warning he'll "bite down hard"; Butterman saying he's going to "Zihuatanejo"; and Jeff's response of "Get busy living, or get busy dying."

Then there were shout-outs to The Empire Strikes Back (the grenade's id is IG-88, which is an assassin/bounty in the movie), and Weird Science, when Chuck says, "See you in the emergency room" before taking a shot, and even Bachelor Party, in the scene where Chuck is hanging sans pants from the elevator, ruining a romantic moment. Oh, and then there was also the pointless "To Be Continued" graphic at the end, in Back to the Future style. Why?

But we did get the former lead singer of those '90s one-hit wonders -- Drive Shaft ("You All Everybody") as a special guest star. Dominic Monaghan did an admirable job, but not enough to shake Charlie from Lost. His Tyler Martin character had some nice lines, like the flowery first two times he was hit by a Casey tranq dart ("Daisies..." and "I feel like a daffodil...").

Musically, it was all over the map, without a whole lot of focus or plot-driven purpose. Even the use of Europe's "The Final Countdown" felt like it's done before. I did enjoy hearing Okkervil River's "Lost Coastlines," though, as it was one of my favorite songs of last year. But I'm not sure what it contributed other than, "Hey, I like that song." Next time, we're hopefully back to some brilliance.

Playlist: Chuck - Episode 2.12 (incomplete)
1. "Good Days Bad Days" - Kaiser Chiefs
2. "Try it Again" - The Hives
3. "I Like Dem Girls" - Sizzle C
4. "The Final Countdown" - Europe
5. "Out at the Pictures" - Hot Chip
6. "Tales of a Thousand Fears" - Vienne
7. "Lost Coastlines" - Okkervil River

Previously: Music on Chuck: Buy Hard with a Vengeance (Episode 2.11)

drake lelane
curator of the music/soundtrack blog thus spake drake

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