Chuck vs The Combo (The Santa Suit&The Baby)

First = Happy New Year, hope you guys have a great 2012!! now moving on…

So last week I was half way through my review of "Chuck vs the Santa Suit", but then it was Friday and I thought, why not see what the "the baby " is all about, right? and then maybe I do a combo.

Well if you didn't have you head blown by these two last episodes, really?seriously? in which world of series you live, cos those 2 were by far the best episodes of this Chuck season, and actually comparing with all the other series I watch, too.

I hate that the series has only 5 episodes to go, but knowing that this time they had to write a final ending has its advantages, for examples you can bring back blasts from the past as Shaw and close little gaps of information that fans as me, have been longing to know.

Bringing Shaw back, was really clever, if they hadn't advertised it, it would be even more clever, cos no one was expecting his return,especially at this point. It never crossed Chuck's team minds, that an old nemesis was responsible for the Omen virus or that someone would have so much hatred against, not only Chuck,but his entire family and friends.

But hey think again, and go back to season 3 to remember, Shaw: the most hated character in Chuck, and damn Brandon Routh played him in the meanest, psycho possible version, it really makes you hate the guy, making him the perfect villain.

As is a Chuck episode, there were plenty of moments for every single character, some funny other tense:

General Beckman kissing Chuck,

Morgan actually rescuing Sarah with a little Casey help

Casey opening an electric door with the insides of a stuffed bear

Chuck finally being able to fight agains Shaw without the intersect and using all of his nerdiness to recruit Jeff and Lester, to do what they do best, hack computers with a little extra motivation= the good old sub.

Sarah knife on her heels

Stan Lee cameo

Ellie, frying pan on Shaw's head ( anyone?she did the same with Casey=))

General offering the entire team their positions back in the CIA

Casey telling Alex to give another chance to Morgan

Shaw teasing Sarah about the Baby "Does Chuck know about "the baby"?

And now we are at the point I wanted, the last line on Chuck vs The Santa Suit, was able to freak every fan out, cos the way the following episode was advertised by NBC, really makes you think, the baby in question, is really Sarah's. But then you think, no way, Sarah would hide something like that from Chuck and if she did, why?

Last week we had our answer delivered in the form of a beautiful, emotional episode and awesome Matrix style opening sequence.

"Chuck vs The Baby" was full of flashbacks of a Sarah in full killer mode, being manipulated by her old handler Ryker (Tim Dekay - White Collar) to recover a package, that turned out to be a baby, and the reason she quit her relationship with her mother.

The story the writers were able to come up for Sarah's relationship with her mother adorably played by Cheryl Ladd was absolutely amazing, it delivered the long question of Why Sarah relationship with her mother was so complicated? and it turned out to be a simple answer, so she could be protected and safe, not just her mother but "the baby" too.

When we first meet Sarah back in season one, we see a flawless agent that hides her emotions as much as she can, and was that what we saw in the initial flashbacks of Chuck vs The Baby, except that now we know that underneath all of that she had a heart and Shaw knew exactly what to tackle, to make her shift back to Sarah can do all by herself , putting herself in danger, but good thing Chuck was able to convince her to use Carmichael industries back up team, emphasis on : not as her husband but as the CEO.

Anyway good try Chuck, but thanks to that they were able to rescue Sarah from Ryker, too bad he ended up finding out where the baby was, as Sarah was carelessly finally telling the secret to Chuck ( really no sweeping for bugs before?), and incredibly touching scenes during those final flashbacks, as Sarah finds out what would happen to the baby if she turned it to the CIA or in case Ryker got hold of it… so she gives the baby to her mom to take care of the little one. Unfortunately to keep them safe she wouldn't be able to contact her mother anymore, and asks her mom o give all the things she wished for her, to Molly. : "going to prom, and soccer games, all of those normal things you wanted for me, will you just make sure she gets them".

Then we got ourselves in a rushed wish that Sarah's mother remembered Sarah's signal and rushed drive , to then a super breaking walls fight between Ryker and a Sarah disguised as her mother, finally stabbing the threat with a knife ( a very Buffy kill if you ask me), followed by one of the most emotional scenes in the series, Sarah reencounter with her mother, if you didn't have tears by then? really, I rather think you were like me, and had them…Molly being introduced to Sarah as her sister, super sweet family moments in the best Chuck style.

The other nice moments of the episodes were brought by Ellie and Devon hilarious role playing agents again and then with their mission to reunite Morgan and Alex, using a very touching story from their own relationship, and as they are awesome they succeed, cos as Morgan starts to act more as himself, playing games with Molly, Alex has no other alternative but to melt and take him back.

In my book that makes a great pair of episodes for a season finale, and even if they have some little plot wholes, I actually made them work in my head, in timeline terms, if you go back to season 1, the entire story works really well, when Sarah was in Ryker's mission, Bryce was rogue, when she got assigned to handle Chuck, they had just killed Bryce and recovered the hard drive he used to send Chuck the intersect, so hey nicely done.

Personally, I loved Chuck and Sarah's mother conversation, so honest and very motherly, it was nice to know her concerns about her daughter and that she was happy to know that in a different way , Sarah had the things she wished for her.

As an ending, the door frame scene was perfect, we know that the house with the red door its gonna be theirs, but it was a nice touch, hosting the house,definitely better then back in s2,and it was a nice moment first Chuck saying everything he wanted to give to Sarah, and then to her really wanting all of those things but not at the cost of the CIA controlling her life again, Sarah came a long way, it was for sure nice to see that character journey!!!

Once Upon a time ...there was snow white trapped in time and prince charming was in coma...

Ok so a couple of episodes rolled in some of my A list series are already in hiatus and sadly enough will only come back in January, while others will stick around for a couple of rounds more like " Once Upon A Time" that had a late start in the fall season.

Once Upon A Time has a new take on the classic farytales with a blend of real world thanks to a curse made by the Evil Queen, making all the classic farytales that we know forget who they were and be forced to leave in the real world without happy endings , now guess who is the only hope. ??? Prince Charming and Snow White 28 years old daughter , ow yes I know, did they have a kid? In this classy series yes , and she is the saviour bringing back time to Storybrook and making the time roll!

At this moment the serie is at episode 4, and we were introduced to some of the main character and some alternate stories to the classics were presented as the last one about Cinderella having her fairy godmother getting killed by Rumpelstiltskin and pregnant of a runaway prince!!!

A totally brave choice in my opinion taking the risk to update the stories with our reality!

It's amazing how much they accomplished in terms of technical aspects, each episode has an enormous number o special effects and an amazing use of the green screen ( come on let's consider the craziness of building actual sets for each castle and ballroom) and I would be lying if I said the first time I saw the trailer I didn't think it was a movie, it looks quite a bit like a movie and the stories arcs and references to the farytales on the real world are quite strong and nice to pick up !!!

I don't even have to go into the actors land, cos they have an amazing cast just to name few Ginnifer Goodwin, Jennifer Morrison, the adorable Jared Gilmore, Robert Carlyle, Lana Parrilla... Once Upon A Time airs on Sundays 8/7c on ABC.

Doppelgängers Season

So first was Katherine who we heard an entire season about ,till she decide to show up and mess Mystic Falls around, then it was Bolivia who exchanged verses and passed by the original Olivia, now we have two twins exchanging lives, Bridget and Siobhan, and hey we have two more even If I don't watch the Lying Game I know enough to tell that Emma and Sutton are twins.

Now making my point, is Doppelgänger season and we all know it. Ok maybe in some cases not in the complete sense of the word, but let's just stick to the simple sense of the word, that being, a double or a look-alike of a person.

So when the Doppelgänger landed at the Vampire Diaries, it was just Elena, learning that Katherine ,the love of Salvatore's life looked just like her, and by some unexplained reason the girls were linked, then to Katherine be actually alive ( it's vampire world here, go for the 100's of years), and that she back to mess with everybody's life, but not before trying to pass by Elena and succeeding a couple of times, she isn't gone for good, but the trick remains straight hair = Elena, curly=Katherine, except when Katherine is trying her charms on the Salvatore brothers.

Then Fringe just pushed the boundaries , and hey parallel worlds where the same people that lived in the normal world had different choices over there, and entire cast with double characters Olivia -Bolivia, Walter- Walternate… ow except Peter (remember 1st Peter died), till they exchange Olivias between verses, and then is Doppelgänger season cos she had everybody fooled for quite a long time, while original Olivia was stuck over there. Now everybody is back to their verses and normal hair colors, but aware of their doubles and even working together.

Now we have estranged sisters coming together , in double doses, honestly CW (Ringer) and Abc family (The Lying Game) launching series with very similar ideas at the same time but clearly to different audiences (so weird) . Ok will focus on "Ringer" that Im actually watching.

Well at this point we have more information about Bridget than about Siobhan, making the audience have more empathy for Bridget.

Summing up the story ,basically both sisters get in touch after a long time without talking to each other, an accident happens and Bridget takes Siobhan life,believing that she is dead. While Siobhan goes to Paris and who knows what are her plans, anyway Doppelgänger is in place, and no super different hair to help here this time is about places ,at least for now, USA = Bridget, Paris= Siobhan.

So not the first time Doppelgängers appear in series, and is extremely common in Mexican soap operas (Maria del Barrio, Usurpadora…) in Buffy The Vampire Slayer they appeared quite a few times, Willow and Vamp Willow in Doppelgangland is a classic one, but then we had a Xander episode too, and even a Buffy Bot, well but that was a robot so it doesn't count.

Anyway Doppelgängers have been around for a long time, they tend to cause quite a mess when they appear, as an audience I love to see the actors in question playing a different character in the same series, it must be a challenge, but Im under the impression they love.

I know nowadays it must be easier in terms of production nonetheless still tricky every time both characters are in the same scene.

So who is you favorite Doppelgänger?

Thursday combo!!!

So it's Thursday. This week passed so fast, anyway quick one on my Thursday picks ;)

The Big Bang Theory - I confess i took a while to start watching this series, but when I did, couldn't let go, those nerds/geeks are absolutely hilarious, with their experiments and crisis,specially when you put their relationships in the spotlight.

By the end of last season we could expect their circle of friends to be a little estranged, but by the end of this season first episode, Penny and Raj were only friends again so all the others.

Who can help but to laugh when Sheldon freaks about a chair that Penny got from the trash because he thinks is infested with bugs, and guess what?! In the end he is right, just so the guys end up taking said chair from the trash to his apartment.

The Vampire Diaries - It amazes me how much the series changed from the first couple of episodes in the 1st season, to what is now. The characters developed a lot, the stories arcs are concrete and really interesting, the blends of the mythologies make sense, and not just that ,create an intriguing mystery.

I confess I like the idea of having Stephan away of Elena so she becomes closer do Damon, and loved that Stephan turning off his feelings so he could follow Klaus was completely different from when Angel lost his soul in Buffy ,and Angelus was back.

On top of all of that, I really enjoy Caroline's arc with her parents dealing with finding out she became a vampire, taking out the vampire fight, it was quite human, like a fight that you can imagine any teenager having with her parents when she did something they didn't approve. Also liked Tyler becoming nicer as he finds out he is a werewolf, and Im a bit curious to know what part will Katherine play this season. And hey Stephan diary appeared again!!!

Grey's Anatomy - For sure is not the show it used to be,

but I still have hopes it get's better and make the characters less miserable, last week , hum well they were a bit less annoying. Let's see how the season unfolds. Anyway we always have Mc Dreamy, for this season at least!!