just a thought

[ndnickerson]

I have a friend. (This is not "I have a friend who maybe accidentally attacked your neighbor's car with a shovel who may or may not be me," it's really a friend.) She didn't start watching Chuck until I was able to give her the Season 1 set, which meant she had to catch up on Season 2 with me because she didn't want to watch them out of order. So she was all primed and ready for Season 3 about 6 months before it began.

She's not in fandom. She doesn't read or write fanfic, she doesn't do our Twitter marathons. She might update her Facebook status when she's watching to indicate whether she enjoys or doesn't enjoy an episode, but that's the extent of her participation in the online presence of Chuck watchers. So I think she can accurately represent some of that segment of the Chuck audience that isn't vocal online.

My friend watches for the Chuck/Sarah. Secondarily, she watches for the spy plots. She likes the soap opera aspects of the show, but she's in it for the Chuck/Sarah.

So, my friend, who doesn't read spoilers, who catches up with Chuck when she misses it by watching it from the recording on my DVR, hates Shaw. She's irritated with his presence on the show and his interference in the Chuck/Sarah relationship. Whenever he appears, I think she actually has to convince herself to keep watching.

Now, I know that I've complained a great deal about the writing this season, but for her, it boils down to Shaw and the lack of Chuck/Sarah.

I think it's entirely possible that the show is losing viewers (if I'm not mistaken, the show has lost around 2 million viewers since the premiere) because they are also getting fed up with Shaw, and aren't going to stick around to see if that situation gets fixed. They have a lot of other options on Monday night. If they see Brandon Routh's smirking face and immediately change the channel, that's it. They're done.

My friend was invested in the show during the first two seasons because Chuck/Sarah was the heart of the show. It might still be, but it's buried under a lot of scar tissue right now. I blame the scar tissue on Shaw and shoddy writing, but for the casual viewer who might have been drawn in, I can very much see Shaw being the roadblock they just couldn't get around.

Don't get me wrong. I stick with shows, and Chuck, I'm pretty sure, is a show I'm going to stick with until the end. I did stop watching X-Files at the end because it was no longer about Mulder and Scully, and after Vince and Kathryn leave L&O CI, I doubt I'll be watching that much more either. I get invested in the characters. And when the characters get fucked with, that can make me irritated, and if it gets too bad, I find better things to do with my time. I really do love Chuck and want to believe that the writers are going to find a way to fix it, but, my God, when the showrunners themselves have identified Chuck/Sarah as the heart of the show, and have spent so much time this season keeping them apart, is it not unreasonable to think that frustration with that scenario has people leaving?

Comments

[shimmeryshine.livejournal.com]

I think you hit the nail on the head with this. I have no doubts that Chuck and Sarah are getting resolved, and soon, but while people like us will stick out the angst and shitty Shaw crap, the casual Neilson viewers WILL NOT. It was insanely arrogant of Schwartz and co to have this extremely down, depressing storyline encompass SO MUCH of the first half of this season when they were already toeing the canceled line so closely. I mean, I get the point of wanting to maybe go darker for an arc so that the payoff will seem epic, but this isn't the kind of show or situation you do that with. (Especially when it's so poorly executed lol) When your show is SAFE and you have room to play around like that, sure, but this is not that show. I feel like it was a huge missed opportunity here. Especially with the way NBC's schedule has been going, if Chuck could have held that 2.4 demo, they would have been back for a season 4 practically without a thought. Totally screwed themselves here lol.

And what's going to suck the worst is that from here on out (or maybe after this week, once Shaw is goneeee), the rest of the season is going to be amazing, but it's going to be too late.

[ndnickerson.livejournal.com]

true. i mean, if this had been a web-only series, when live traditional watchers didn't matter anywhere near as much, yeah, this huge risk wouldn't have been nearly as painful to the numbers. because i know some chuck-watchers aren't even able to bear watching it as it is and have to wait until they know this arc is going to pay off. i even know people who don't *start* a show unless they know their time investment is going to be worth something. (one guy in particular is waiting to start watching lost, if he's told that it ends well.)

another thing i didn't mention - people also don't like to get invested in doomed shows. i'm cursed with it (hello, pushing daisies!) but if chuck seems to be on the bubble, they're not sure if it's going to come back, why bother watching the rest of the season, y'know? it's different when a show is ending, and the writers and all the actors know it, but entirely another when it's just "oh, you won't be coming back next year." so all the exciting stuff that we're hearing about the finale? i'm hoping that payoff isn't fic-only, but hell, it might be. and that would be a shame. all this angst should be worth something.

[surreallis.livejournal.com]

I wish shows would stop with the whole 'we can't get them together or else the show will be over' mentality. It'll be over when you screw around with the viewers too much and have a lot of crappy writing too. How about less attachment to the old paradigms and more stepping outside of the box and writing a pairing that actually WORKS on a show? I refuse to believe it can't be done. It's only that they won't try or aren't good enough. Feh.

[ndnickerson.livejournal.com]

i get the whole "we don't want to lose viewers by putting this couple together," but it seems like the chuck/sarah contingent is a HUGE part of the audience, so it's more of a risk *not* to put chuck and sarah together. i wouldn't even mind if they went the x-files route, and we were 75% sure that mulder and scully were together, but they were already so close that it was almost an afterthought to be worried about it, since any outside flirtations were minor and it was clear that they were utterly devoted to each other. i wouldn't even mind if we saw chuck coming out of sarah's apartment early in the morning, or if they held hands every now and then and that was it, just throw me a frickin' bone here. c'mon.

and we all know that once chuck and sarah *do* get together, they will have other problems to face, so why not go ahead and get there? it's not that it'll be painless, but at least all this time will have felt like it was worth something.

[evilcherrysoda.livejournal.com]

I agree with you 100%.

I have found 1 thing more annoying than Shaw... The fact that people are blaming shippers for pretty much anything they can. I ship and will freely admit that. It's not all I'm watching it for but hey it's a good portion of it. Why exactly does that make me a bad person and (according to some self important people on twitter) the entire reason Chuck will get cancelled? Is it because I made everyone I know watch it? Or the fact that I multiple buy dvds so other people can watch them? Or the fact that I get so invested in it I actually care what happens?

http://fuckyeahkillshaw.tumblr.com/ Made me laugh. Oh my bad, posting that link will get Chuck cancelled. Not the writing or the budget or nbc etc etc

[ndnickerson.livejournal.com]

oh that tumblr made my day. hee. =D

honestly, screaming "please die in a fire!" at the screen every week he's on probably isn't the best thing for my mental health, y/y? so they should throw me a bone and let him actually die in a fire.

and yes. shippers do get people hooked. and that's a bad thing? of course not.