Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Haven't we seen this before?

Alias - The Complete Second SeasonChuck Versus the Anniversary

I absolutely love Chuck, but I feel like I have already seen the current storyline done in the exact same fashion on another beloved spy show you may have heard of called Alias. During season two of Alias, the writers brought in Lena Olin to play Sydney's ambiguously shady mom who was a double agent. Now in its fourth season, Chuck is doing the same thing with the title character's mom, played by Linda Hamilton.

Both shows feature Olin and Hamilton playing mothers who may or may not  be fighting on the good side and who may or may not love their children. The ping-ponging back and forth (the "is she or isn't she?" motif) is eerily similar and frankly sort of starting to get on my nerves as far Chuck goes.

Hamilton, whose acting I've always enjoyed and who set the bar for female action heroes in the awesome Terminator 2, is doing a phenomenal job (a scene with her character's daughter Ellie in last night's episode was especially moving) but I felt almost exhausted when the most recent episode closed.

In an otherwise stellar episode (with a hysterically funny performance by Timothy Dalton) Mama Bartowski had gone back and forth so many times I got dizzy. Just finish up this part of the storyline, please!:)

No comments: