How to build a good show aka Chuck Season 1

So I spent part of the holidays watching Chuck, burning through the first season in about a week. Back when I first heard about it, the premise didn't grab me at all: how many shows have we seen about young male nerds forced through circumstance to become secret agents? Chuck sounded no different from the rest. But fandom kept saying, this is really good, so I figured I had to check it out.

There are many reasons I like this show. I like how Chuck is a good person. I like that he has a great relationship with his sister and her boyfriend, who on another show could have been so easily his antagonists. I like how the real secret agents assigned to protect him have to pretend to hold down customer service jobs. I like the fun and the banter. But most of all I like that the writers understand why viewers are won over by a show: the people.

Chuck is a show where the emotional story is given primacy over the physical story. No one watching gives two hoots about whether the spies steal the plans for the nuclear submarine or if the terrorists manage to blow up the embassy. We care about whether Chuck misses the special family dinner with his sister or if his rival gets promoted over him at work. These personal stakes feel so much more real than the political stakes, and the genius of the show is that the writers recognise their importance and focus the show on them. The A plot and the B plot are reversed, in that the mission of the week is merely a MacGuffin to trigger the development of the themes, relationships, and characters - and it all works.

A lot of shows could learn from this.

Merlin 1x01 and drabble

OKAY IT IS PRETTY.

Mostly I am glad that it is not another Torchwood, which also had people dancing about strewing flowers at its feet, but which had me blinking at the screen and saying, "Seriously? No, I mean, seriously?" (One might think that Captain Jack Harkness plus lots of slashy hijinks would add up to a good show, but no. Although it seems like the writers were hoping it would.)

Anyway, Merlin is no Torchwood, being a show that actually has a likeable protagonist, an interesting assortment of characters, and a solid though predictable plot. Though I have to treat it as a remix, because I come from The Once and Future King, and I don't know how you can have Arthurian legend without the sword in the stone. It's all about the sword in the stone! Unless it's all about Arthur and Guinevere and Lancelot, which gives you Camelot, or Arthur and Morgan le Fay and Mordred, which gives you the fall of Camelot.

I am a little sad that here Arthur is a prince, because behind this handsome but arrogant young man is the ghost of an orphan boy who knew humility and kindness. I guess here Merlin is like the Arthur character, and Arthur is like the Kay character. Which goes to show that there are certain patterns in story even revisioning cannot deny.

The last time I wrote drabbles was way back in Smallville days, but below is one for Merlin. Coda to 1x01. Spoilers for the episode.

( Merlin drabble: His Reflection )