unwelcome casting news on Chuck...

[Christopher]

Oh, that's very disturbing if true. Way to ruin my illusions.

Come on, Christopher, let's be honest: How many of your thoughts about her involve sitting down and having deep, meaningful conversations?

I've been lucky in that the most stunningly beautiful women I've personally known have usually been highly intelligent, deep, kind, generous human beings. So unlike most people, I expect beautiful women to be smart, sensitive, and as lovely on the inside as the outside. Which has led to disillusionment in a few cases, of course.

 

[Scout101]

For sure, it's disappointing when women who have so much going for them physically just completely fall apart on the "personality" section of the test. Kinda like having all the physical skills to be a superstar athlete, and waste it smoking weed with your friends. Coulda been a contender!

 

[Temis the Vorta]

She's gorgeous. I don't know if she can act or not because the characters she plays are all incredibly lame.

Pretty much my opinion. I've never seen her in anything except Smallville where the writing definitely didn't do her any favors.

Mmmmm...I can think of cases where an actor was hampered by substandard material, yet for some reason, I could discern talent that was being wasted. Zachary Quinto on Heroes springs immediately to mind. For whatever reason, I knew he would kick ass as Spock and that we should not hold the horrible writing inflicted on Sylar against him.

And Sylar is one of the worst-written characters I've ever seen on TV, so it's a good test case. If an actor can rise above that mess and still show talent, then any actor of notable talent should be able to, regardless of the sabotage inflicted by the writing staff.

Another case is Jeff Goldblum, way back when he was relatively unknown, on Tenspeed and Brownshoe. That show didn't last long, but I immediately realized that that Goldblum guy had something special. And Sam Waterston's talent was obvious even in the absurd Capricorn One, which is just about the first thing I remember seeing him in.

With Kreuk, I get no vibe of immense dormant talent going to waste.

 

[Christopher]

Another case is Jeff Goldblum, way back when he was relatively unknown, on Tenspeed and Brownshoe. That show didn't last long, but I immediately realized that that Goldblum guy had something special.

Yeah, that's where I first saw him. I keep hoping Ben Vereen will guest star in one of Goldblum's Law and Order: CI episodes, but Tenspeed's probably too obscure a show for anyone to bother arranging a reunion.

With Kreuk, I get no vibe of immense dormant talent going to waste.

I've always found her acting entirely competent. She doesn't have a dull, monotone delivery or a limited range of facial expressions, which is more than can be said for Tom Welling for most of Smallville's run (though he's been improving this past season). Okay, so she's not one of the greats, but I've never understood the perception of her as a bad actress. Though admittedly I may not be seeing her entirely objectively.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Barely competent, maybe. But uninteresting. There have gotta be hundreds if not thousands of ingenue-style actresses in Hollywood who can do better than that. Then again, if Kreuk gets booted from the acting profession for being a pretty no-talent, what justifies Milo Ventimiglia's career? I guess I should stop being such a hypocrite.

“Chuck and Hannah definitely have feelings for each other,”

WTF?

Are they really going back to the will they/won't they of Chuck and Sarah?

Yeah, that's really the far bigger problem, that the writers are mired at the same damn level and won't just let Chuck & Sarah have sex (what is the problem now??? didn't they remove that obstacle in the S2 finale?) because they need to cling to that stupid UST gimmick as a crutch.

Really, they had a great way out of the UST crutch in Chuck vs. Santa Claus - simply use Sarah's bloodthirsty tendencies as a trained CIA killer as a wedge between her and Chuck. They can have all the sex they want; what the story requires is an ongoing source of tension and conflict (without which, there is no drama). Playing spy games has been a fun goof for Chuck but now he's starting to see the reality of it. The show can be still be flighty and fun but introduce more emotional reality.

 

[Chrisisall]

Sam Waterston's talent was obvious even in the absurd Capricorn One, which is just about the first thing I remember seeing him in.

He even made that lame cat joke work.