Tuesday, December 23, 2008

TV Review: A masterpiece of pop references

God bless the DVR.

We just finished watching last week's episode of one of our favorite shows, Chuck (in the spirit of the holidays, it was an episode titled "Chuck vs. the Santa Claus"). Cementing its place as the finest current example of geek humor around, this episode was even more chock full of laugh out loud pop nuggets than usual, if you're in on the jokes. Among the gems...
  • an homage to an incidental yet memorable character in the brilliant Bill Murray film, "Groundhog Day", as the man who takes the Buy More staff hostage is named Nathan Edward Rhyerson ("My friends call me Ned")
  • a multitude of "Die Hard" gags, right down to the final movement of Beethoven's Ninth, an appearance by Reginald VelJohnson reprising his role as Sgt. Al Powell (apparently a cousin to Big Mike, the Buy More's manager), and the eating of Twinkies
  • a tip of the cap to Police Academy's Lt. Mauser
  • the dangerous version of "Jingle Bells" from the original Lethal Weapon
All it was missing was a cameo by Bruce Willis or Bonnie Bedelia. Chuck, the gift that keeps on giving!

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