basically i am a huge nerd! awesome.

[elapses]

Last week during my "WHAT UP, CHUCK IS WAY TOO AWESOME" phase (which is not over but has lessened in intensity) my friend Ian was like "...so, is it better than Friday Night Lights?" (he has seen neither but he, you know, knows me). Questions like that are the bane of my existence. Like, why do people have to compare things with completely different tones? It just doesn't work! You would have to be a crazy person to stack up the O.C. next to the West Wing. Are they both awesome? Yes. Is one more awesome than the other? Well, okay, obviously yes, but the purpose of the two is so vastly different that it is almost unfair to say that. ANYWAY!!! A solution!

Let me introduce to you the Bones-Wire scale of television tone:



Where 1 is fan service (and that is not an insult-- we all know how I love my Bonez) all the way up to a 10 for gritty realism (I think-- I have never seen the Wire, because my tone comfort zone is 3-8. FINE, OKAY, more like 1-7). It's kind of a measurement of how seriously you have to take something to get something out of it.

Anyway, then you stack tone against overall quality! Et voilà! Now when asked whether Chuck or Friday Night Lights is more awesome, you can come out with, "Well, Chuck and Friday Night Lights are both high quality, but Chuck is maybe a 4 or a 5 on the Bones-Wire scale, and I think Friday Night Lights comes out to a 8 or a 9 (if, of course, you disregard the second season)."*

*Unfortunately I can guarantee that no one will know what this means, so maybe you should not actually come out with it.

It can also be used as a predictor, i.e.:



(ACTUALLY, I think if you had a scale for "amount of heart" and then "ratings" you could pretty much have a fake fandom math number that could tell you everything you would ever need to know about a television show. However, uh, measuring heart. I am not sure that is possible.)


While we are kind of half almost talking about Chuck (AND I'M SORRY, because I do know that this is basically all I have been talking about lately which is probably crazy obnoxious-- but at least it's only this much! Because I was thinking of leading up to the finale with a Bakula a day. This one would have come first and you cannot tell me that would not have haunted you ALL THE WAY TO MONDAY), but have we all read this article? Specifically:

If, in two weeks, that is the last episode of the show to ever air, it will be one of the least satisfying finales of all time. Chris Fedak, the guy who created the show, said people will set their living rooms on fire.

Well, blerg.

Comments

[calikalie.livejournal.com]

Not even going to lie here, but Chuck is basically the only thing I want to post about lately. It's crazy. Also, your graphs are so spot-on and awesome. I have the same problem when it comes to comparing shows.

[chibirhm.livejournal.com]

I LOVE THAT YOU MADE THESE CHARTS. SO MUCH. ASKDJFLAKSDFJSKAD. YOU'RE LIKE MY OWN PERSONAL NATE SILVER.

[stepliana.livejournal.com]

I love that this makes perfect sense to me. Brava!

[silverstars.livejournal.com]

I love how your brain works! That scale is PERFECT and it's totally the way I judge television too.

And yeah, I am totally incapable of talking about anything aside from Chuck lately too. I don't see that changing any time soon. I am a nervous wreck about this show getting renewed. :/

[dudski.livejournal.com]

Um, you can totally measure heart: It's directly related to the number of times I want to break down into a blubbering mess and shout "THEY ALL JUST LOVE EACH OTHER SO MUCH" over the course of a single season.

[thelittlespy.livejournal.com]

I love your charts. And I feel like "the Bones-Wire scale" sounds important and professional enough that we could trick people into thinking it's a real thing. Let's do that!

Questions like that are the bane of my existence. Like, why do people have to compare things with completely different tones?
I haaaate that! Why do people have to compare things at all? I feel like, as a person who is enthusiastic about things, I get shit like that a lot. Like people want to poke holes in my enthusiasm, as if making me choose one over the other will invalidate what I've said for the "loser," like it'll mean I didn't REALLY like it that much.

I told my parents, who also watch Chuck about the quote from Fedak, and I think they may actually set their living room on fire. It's kind of adorable how much they like this show.

(I have no Chuck icon, so Lucille "it makes me want to set myself on fire!" Bluth will have to do.)

[shimmeryshine.livejournal.com]

LOL OMG CHARTS. You are my favorite.

My last like 10 posts have all turned into giant Chuck love fests, even if they don't start out that way! I LOVE IT THOUGH.

I heard that Re: Chris Fedak's comments on the finale making us "burn our living rooms" if it's the series finale, he has been saying recently that it almost acts as a first episode of season 3. That it whets the appetite for what Season 3 is going to be all about. So I think that's what he means by "unsatisfying" as a SERIES finale, rather than as an episode overall if the show gets picked up.

THIS ARTICLE (http://series.nu/Chuck/exclusive-nbc-renews-chuck/92/) says Chuck is getting a 13 episode order, but I have NO IDEA how legit this is. But it makes me feel marginally better! Things need to start leaking! I'm watching out for a more reputable source breaking the same news. If it is true, I hope those 13 are for the fall with the option of picking up the back 9. EDIT: Apparently Josh Schwartz says that rumor isn't true, but idk. Good rumors are a good thing at this point though I think.

[stop-theworld.livejournal.com]

I just-- I--

I LOVE THIS. This post, it fills me with indescribable joy, etc. YOU!

[secondstar.livejournal.com]

OH HEYYYYY
MY DAY OF ARRIVAL IS COMING UP FAST
*flails around*

[outofdoritos.livejournal.com]

Haha I love how much you've thought about all this. Great charts - I agree with your assessment of TV and comparisons like that. :)

[superskittles76.livejournal.com]

YOUR CHARTS MAKE MY LIFE IDEK HOW AMAZING IS THIS POST?!?!

I have an irresistible urge to try to rate every show I watch or love according to these graphs. Although I have a feeling they all fall in the OOH SHINY area because I pick my shows for enjoyment and escapism instead of OMG AMAZING DRAMA THIS SHOULD GET AN EMMY.

No seriously, HOW MUCH DO I LOVE YOUR CHARTS LET ME COUNT THE WAYS :D

[thatlldopig.livejournal.com]

hahahahaha, you're brilliant.