CHUCK
Season 1 Episode 8
“Chuck Versus the Truth”
Written by Allison Adler
Directed by Robert Duncan McNeill
(WARNING: SPOILERS)

Alias’ Kevin Weisman stars as Reardon Payne, a former Olympic gymnast who now sells secrets to the highest bidder, and when he poisons Mason Whitney (Judging Amy’s Sanjay Chandani) in an attempt to get the codes to the US nuclear arsenal, Ellie winds up getting poisoned herself. Before anything else though, the victim is forced to tell the truth, which becomes the hook of the episode, as Chuck, Sarah, and Casey also subsequently get poisoned.
So a lot of truths emerge, and some lies as well, as Sarah has been trained to withstand sodium pentathol, so when Chuck asks her, right before they down the antidotes, if they have any chance as a couple, Sarah says, “Sorry, but no.”

See, Chuck’s just met Lou Palone (The O.C.’s Rachel Bilson; yahoo!), who owns a sandwich shop at the mall, and comes into the Buy More to have her phone fixed.
Lou up front tells Chuck she likes him, a lot, but the thing is, he’s got a girlfriend, or so Chuck’s cover goes.
Sarah even sleeps over in Chuck’s room, if only to make Ellie and Awesome think Chuck’s finally getting lucky with her. Actually, the evening is Sarah’s idea, ostensibly to further the integrity of their cover.
After Sarah’s “confession” though, Chuck fake breaks up with her, so he can start seeing Lou, something that clearly troubles Sarah.

The Buy More subplot meanwhile, effectively writes C.S. Lee off the show, as he actually stumbles into the TV room, thinking to catch Morgan diddling his wife (Emy Coligado, from Malcolm In The Middle and Crossing Jordan), but instead barges into one of those spy meetings.
Casey pulls Harry aside and sends him off to Oahu, making Harry believe he’s now working for the US government.
Harry’s sudden relocation makes everyone happy, except for Big Mike, who, as it turns out, was the one diddling Lady Tang.

Again, the personal character bits are what sell Chuck, and watching the whole Chuck-Sarah-Lou thing unfold should prove to be interesting.
This episode also works as we finally see Chuck experience collateral damage as Ellie gets affected by all the spy stuff going on.

There are some ruptures in logic though, as a) if Morgan made that innocent assignation to meet Lady Tang—as part of getting a surprise birthday present for Harry—where was Morgan and why was Chuck and company in the TV room at said time?; and b) after Casey and Sarah—Sarah in a wig, both toting guns—chase Payne down the hospital corridor, why does no one make any comment about this later on?
But hey, Chuck’s still entertaining me, and Rachel Bilson’s here (again, yahoo!), so I’ll try and overlook those loopholes.

(Image courtesy of nbc.com; image of Zachary Levi with Kristen Bell on the Heroes set courtesy of gregbeeman.blogspot.com.)

TV WATCH 2007 (2)
REAPER Pilot

Sam Oliver (Bret Harrison; Grounded For Life and The Loop) is having his 21st birthday, and it’s turning out to be a strange one. Dogs are chasing him, he’s suddenly become telekinetic, and the Devil (genre icon Ray Wise) tried to carjack him.
Well, no, not really. The Devil couldn’t care less about Sam’s ride.
Actually, the Devil shows up in Sam’s life to tell him that even before he was born, his parents sold the soul of their firstborn to the Devil to save Sam’s father’s life. And Sam, being the Olivers’ firstborn, is now indentured to the Devil as the Prince of Darkness’ bounty hunter, whose task on the earthly realm is to hunt down and capture escapees from Hell.
Not bad for a 21st birthday gift.

The biggest draw for me to check out Reaper was to see whether Kevin Smith (who directed the Pilot) had managed to put together something that I might actually enjoy. (The last Smith film that agreed with me was Dogma, which was quite awhile back.)
And on that score, Reaper passes muster. Undoubtedly helped by the writing team of Tara Butters and Michele Fazekas (who’ve written for Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and Ed), Smith pulls this one off, his triumph being more notable considering this is also an effects-heavy piece, which isn’t normally Smith’s style.

He also manages his cast well, getting some good performances from Harrison and Tyler Labine (who was excellent in the sadly cancelled Invasion) as Bert “Sock” Wysocki, Sam’s partner-in-crime. And Wise clearly appears to be having a lot of fun as Old Scratch.
What’s interesting to note though is that Nikki Reed (who originally played Andi, Sam’s co-worker and erstwhile love interest at The Work Bench) is being replaced with Missy Peregrym (Candice from Heroes). I’m not entirely certain what the reason for the change is, and considering that Reed (who may be remembered by The O.C. viewers as Sadie Campbell) wasn’t horrible in the role, strikes me as a strange casting decision.

Whatever the case though, Reaper is a fun romp, and if it can avoid the pitfalls of becoming an episodic “demonic escapee of the week” show, it may lead to some interesting places.
I also hope the show can explore how something that may appear negative (working for the Man is one thing; working for the Devil… well…) can have positive effects. In the Pilot, they successfully argue how Sam is actually doing a good thing ‘cause he’s putting bad guys away, but down the road, I’d like to see Sam transform from the slacker he is to a motivated individual who sees his calling as far more important than himself.
Now whether they can do that and still keep things funny, I don’t know, but I think it would be good if they tried. Otherwise, the show will reek too much of sitcom.

(Images courtesy of about.com and nymag.com.)