The Town That Hell Calls Home: A ‘Silent Hill’ Retrospective

by Derek KraneveldtOctober 23, 2012

With Silent Hill: Revelation 3D opening up in just a few short days, I thought what better time to do a retrospective on what used to be the pivotal survival horror franchise.

Sometimes I’m ashamed to admit it, but I’m still a huge fan of Silent Hill. Though I should be used to the mediocre offerings that the last few iterations have given us, for some reason I still find myself anticipating every release, and I always end up grabbing them right on release day. One day, I hope I’ll be able to pick up a new title and get that same feeling of sheer terror and extreme polish that the older Silent Hill games offered, but until then, at least I’ve got the memories.

I’ll be taking a quick look at all the main games in the Silent Hill series (with the exception of Origins, as it’s a title that I never got to experience). I have a lot of memories of these titles as I mentioned above, so I’ll be sharing a few of those with you as well. If you’ve never experienced any of the games for youself, I’ll recommend you a jumping off point, and also tell you which titles to avoid (however, you’ll have to read on to find out!).

Silent Hill

Konami’s first entry into the survival horror genre would come in 1999. It was initially hailed as the company’s answer to Capcom’s Resident Evil franchise which was already nearing launch of its fourth title. Upon release players realized they had signed up for something much different. Instead of an action heavy game where your biggest fear was coming across a pack of zombie dogs and not having enough ammo to take them out, you found yourself in the shoes of Harry Mason, an everyman who kind of sucks at combat. Your best defence in Silent Hill is not a weapon of any sort, but instead a radio that warns you of the approaching horrors and quick feet that can run in the opposite direction. Silent Hill also had some technical achievements that Capcom hadn’t included in their franchise: the game tended to look exponentially better, due to the fact that it used real-time environments rather than Resident Evil‘s prerendered backgrounds.

Use your imagination, it used to look amazing.

I still remember being a nine year old kid (it feels like so long ago!) and popping that disc into my Playstation for the first time. I remember running through those foggy streets in search of Harry’s lost daughter. I remember following her into a dark alleyway (greeted by freaky fixed camera angles) before being torn apart by a pack of strange, unexplainable creatures. I remember immediately turning the game off after this, because I was freaking nine years old and scared as hell.

After that first taste however, I just couldn’t stay away. Within hours I found myself turning on that matte grey console again. The story was just too intriguing, the atmosphere too interesting. I’d turn the game off in stress countless times before the credits would roll, but a week later I would find myself at the end of the game. I was terrified for my life at that point, but I was already itching for more. I had just experienced one of the most interesting games of that age, and few other titles that generation would ever leave me feeling the way Silent Hill did.

Of course I wasn’t the only one who felt that way: the game would go on to sell over two million copies (a lot back then!), and ended up on many “Best-Of” lists throughout the history of the first Playstation.

Silent Hill 2

2001 would see a new Sony console, and a new Silent Hill too! Sadly it would take me a couple extra years to experience this one (it took a lot of allowances to save up for that sexy black PS2). The Silent Hill sequel would up the ante on every single element that the first game introduced. The game would be heralded by many (even to this day) as both the best survival horror title in gaming history, as well as the most terrifying game of all time.

I feel just as strongly about it: no movie, no game, no piece of media has terrified me on the same level that Silent Hill 2 has. Those damn nurses all over that disgusting hospital, the introduction of the now iconic Pyramid Head, the insanely deep plot elements and extremely disturbing overtones, all topped off by the hauntingly beautiful score of Akira Yamaoka.

‘Silent Hill 2’ fuels nightmares to this day.

The plot would follow newcomer James Sunderland on a mission to the cursed town. He receives a letter from his thought-to-be-deceased wife with a request for him to meet her there. Everything goes to shit of course, and the beautiful place from James’ memories becomes a horrible nightmare. The game was ripe with new characters, previously untouched subject matter (for any game), challenging puzzles and countless terrifying moments. Though a few years older than when I played the first title, I still found myself turning this one off constantly. Silent Hill 2 was simply too stressful.

Silent Hill 3

2003 would see the series’ third entry (aptly titled Silent Hill 3). The third chapter would feature the series’ first female protagonist. Unlike Silent Hill 2, which was a new story altogether, the third game acts as a direct sequel to the first and expands heavily on the overarching themes of that game.

You find yourself in control of the teenage Heather as she finds herself drawn to the horrific town. The cult from the first game has some special plans for her, and she’d like to stop these plans before they come to pass. You’ll get to visit the series’ staple hospital in Silent Hill 3, and some new locales as well, including an amusement park that’s straight out of a horrible nightmare.

The third game would have you ending nurses in style.

At this point, people were starting to get a sense of deja vu with the series. Though each game features largely different stories, the gameplay had remained the same throughout the franchise. Combat was clunky, and though you would typically visit different locations in each title, the method of progressing through each one was very similar.

Despite this fact, Silent Hill 3 still received mostly positive reviews. Though I definitely felt that familiar feeling, the game itself was still a blast to play through. In any case, the thing that the Silent Hill franchise has always been best at is atmosphere, and Silent Hill 3 may have the heaviest atmosphere of them all. While the story overall may not have been as powerful as Silent Hill 2, the strong sense of connection with the first game made the entire experience feel much larger in scale. Silent Hill 3 was also praised for its graphical prowess and remains one of the best looking PS2 titles to ever be released.

Silent Hill 3 is also the basis for the upcoming film Silent Hill: Revelation 3D.

Silent Hill 4

Silent Hill 4 came just a year later, and was both a breath of fresh air and the first misstep in the iconic series.

The game takes more of a Silent Hill 2 approach to plot, meaning Silent Hill 4 is not related to any of the previous games. It instead tells the tale of Henry Townshend, a lonely introvert that couldn’t leave his apartment even if he wanted to. The front door won’t open, the windows are locked, and the phone doesn’t work. He’s stuck in every sense of the word, and has been for days. He wakes up one day to a strange tunnel in his bathroom and has no choice but to enter it.

The game never actually takes you into Silent Hill. Instead you’ll learn about the plot and mythologies by visiting surrounding areas. While weird (if you’re playing a Silent Hill game, you’re likely looking to visit the town), it was also welcome to visit locations that we hadn’t seen before.

Konami tried to respond to some of the gameplay criticisms that the last game received by introducing a first-person element to the title. Any time spent in Henry’s residence would be spent in the new perspective. It certainly added a new level of fear to the game, as your field of view is simply much more narrow than you’re used to. There is much less to be afraid of in the apartment however, so the first person elements tend to get old rather fast.

I still had a lot of fun with Silent Hill 4, but it was definitely the weakest of the Team Silent developed games. It simply isn’t overly memorable, and feels much more like a spin-off than a main title.

Silent Hill 4 would also be the last game developed by Team Silent before they were disbanded by Konami in 2005.

Silent Hill Homecoming

I was an 17 year old broke high school student on the day that Silent Hill Homecoming would hit store shelves. I decided to skip school that day and wait for my local Blockbuster to open. I had to use both straps on my backpack as it was stuffed full of games to trade in (not because I wanted to trade them, simply because that was the only way I’d be able to get the game home on launch day). I still recall racing home only moments after the store had opened, gleaming with excitement and eager to place that disc into my PS3.

I was instantly in awe with the graphics and sound, the insanely crisp voice acting, and the other technical achievements that Homecoming had to offer. The realization didn’t set in for an hour or so: this was not a Silent Hill game. Sure it looked like Silent Hill, and an insanely beautiful rendition of it at that, but the game just felt off.

The game may have stunk, but boy did it look good.

As I mentioned above, Team Silent was disbanded soon after the release of Silent Hill 4. Konami entrusted Double Helix Games (a company that didn’t have the greatest track record) to develop the next iteration of the series. People were excited to see a western developer take on the horror franchise, but sadly, the game did not turn out as good as it looked.

Silent Hill Homecoming was a much more action oriented title than any of the games we’d seen before. If I remember correctly, guns were much more plentiful and enemies tended to go down without much trouble. This was severely detrimental to the experience: in past titles you’d typically turn to running before you’d stand and face an enemy, but in Homecoming you feel like it’s never necessary. The combat controls were completely reworked for this game, but the sheer amount of combat you would face highlighted the fact that it was still clunky as hell. Homecoming was also the first title that gave the player complete control over the camera. In this age it’s basically a requirement to have this “feature”, but again, in a title like this it can hurt the experience: while past games had you moving slowly around corners in case of a surprise attack, in Homecoming you could simply look at where you were going before you got there.

I’m still pretty torn on Silent Hill Homecoming. On one hand, you have a visually (and audibly) beautiful rendition of the town and the terrors inside it, but on the other, the game severely lacked the terrifying elements of the older titles and was rarely, if ever scary. You could fairly easily have removed the fog and threw another title on the box, and few people would ever know, it simply felt that different.

Silent Hill: Shattered Memories

December 2009 saw the release of the only Silent Hill title for a Nintendo console (though it would later release for PS2 and PSP). The game was a reimagining of the first Silent Hill, and kept only the premise of Harry trying to find his missing daughter. Nearly everything else was unrecognizably different: the plot and characters within it were not the same, and even the world of Silent Hill had changed from a fog covered plateau to a frozen wasteland. Combat was completely removed from the game, leaving you only able to run from any of the monsters you may encounter.

I was so impressed with Shattered Memories that I nearly played the entire game in one sitting. Thinking back on the title, I can’t really think of anything that I didn’t like about it. The story may not be as strong as what Silent Hill 2 had to offer, but by far, Shattered Memories was the best survival horror title in years.

I was really impressed with the original content that Climax Studios added to the franchise as well. Shattered Memories opens with a creepy first person psychotherapy session that asks you to answer questions honestly. These sections are interesting, thought provoking, evocative, and also effect what you’ll see during the time you’ll spend in Silent Hill: NPC characters will look and act differently, and entire areas of the game may be different or inaccessible, all based on the choices you make.

The game was also a perfect fit for the Wii, and the motion controls made you feel like a much bigger part of the experience. The luminosity of the town tends to be very low (of course), but pointing with the Wii Remote gives you full control of the ever important flashlight. You would also receive the occasional phone call in the game, and the rarely utilized Wii Remote speaker would act as your earpiece. It’s pretty creepy listening to screaming characters when the sound is emitting so close to your ear.

Sadly this would be the only Silent Hill title that Climax Games would get to develop. Though this was Konami’s most successful Silent Hill in some time (quality wise anyways), the next title would again go to a different developer. Silent Hill: Shattered Memories would also be the final title composed by series regular Akira Yamaoka, which was a sad day for series fans as Akira’s beautiful music was always one of the strongest elements of any Silent Hill title

Silent Hill: Downpour

Silent Hill: Downpour released six months ago to mixed reviews. For some reason I was still excited for the game, though previews looked muddy and gameplay looked clunkier than ever.

I took in every moment of the game that I could, but it turned out even worse than anticipated. Downpour was filled with technical issues that were never apparent in prior titles, including constant (constant) framerate issues (sometimes dipping into single digits), freezing, and audio sync issues (or missing entirely) among others.

The plot was decent enough: inmate Murphy Pendleton would find himself near the ill-fated town when the bus he was being transported in was destroyed. After discovering what was in store for him, Murphy’s main mission was simply to find a way out alive, though he didn’t seem opposed to doing weird side tasks along the way.

Welcome to Bright Falls… Oops, wrong game.

Silent Hill: Downpour was the franchise’s first (and hopefully only) attempt at an open world game. It was stupid. Sure it was cool to be able to run around the whole town at your leisure, but that fact that the town was basically empty and that you could interact with very few of the buildings made the majority of the experience extremely boring. You could literally run around for the better part of 20 minutes without anything happening. It was also hard to tell at times if the quest you were attempting actually had anything to do with the story, or was just some sort of side silliness.

Downpour is also the epitome of bad creature design. The Silent Hill games of yore to this day have some of the most atrocious, disgusting, disturbing, amazing monsters you could imagine. Those creatures fit the town and the subject matter perfectly. While wandering the streets (and many other areas) of Downpour, you’ll likely just see the same zombie man or woman over and over again. They look bad, their AI is bad, and they’re so easy to take down that you’ll never, ever fear them.

Downpour was not all bad of course. The sound design was excellent for the most part, and though Akira Yamaoka would not return to compose this game, Daniel Licht managed to fill his shoes pretty well. Combat, though dragged down by the awful AI, played better than any Silent Hill title before it. Developer Vatra Games also added a stereoscopic 3D option to the PS3 version of the game, which was very welcome and gave a new dimension (haha) to the few scares that the game did offer.

Closing Thoughts

It wasn’t until beginning this retrospective that I realized just how far the mighty had fallen. Over the last 8 years, nearly everything the franchise had to offer has been of dismal quality compared to the titles we used to get.

What used to be one of Konami’s first-tier games seems to have become a joke even to them: the company entrusted a mobile developer to remaster Silent Hill 2 & 3 in HD, and it seems as though the “remastering” was never actually completed before release. In many cases, the Silent Hill HD Collection looked noticeably worse than the original PS2 titles, and had a myriad of issues that were not present in the source material. Konami eventually issued a statement saying that they could not fix the game, but would be happy to exchange it for another title. This is something I’d never heard of before, and basically showed us that Konami just didn’t give a shit about the game. This being said, Silent Hill: Downpour was released just one week earlier, and the insanely distracting technical issues present in that title as well made it feel as though it was not an isolated incident.

All this being said, I’m quite looking forward to Revelation. The first Silent Hill film was nothing to write home about, but if it did anything right, it was taking the source material seriously. Creatures and music were ripped right from the game and thrown onto the silver screen. The town looked fantastic and had a wonderful atmosphere. Though the plot was a nigh-unrecognizable amalgamation of series’ themes, the film felt mostly coherent, and in my opinion is probably the best video-game adaptation to this day (though that’s not saying much). If Revelation can at least match that, it will be well worth my $10.

If you’re looking at getting into the Silent Hill series, your best bet would be to start with Shattered Memories. Again, it’s simply a great re-imagining of the first game for the current generation. Silent Hill 2 and 3 hold up well and are fantastic stories, but I’d try and track down the original versions and skip the atrocious HD Collection altogether. Unless you can find Homecoming or Downpour for dirt cheap, I’d avoid those ones too, as they are definitely the biggest disappointments in the series. Silent Hill 4 is not bad, but is mostly unrelated to the other games, and definitely is not one of the necessary games to play.

I hope that one day Konami realizes what they’ve done to the series. I hope that they decide at some point to take Silent Hill seriously again. When this happens, I think we’ll get another game worth playing. Until then, you could always catch up with Resident Evil.

In my restless dreams I see that town… Silent Hill. Cue Theme of Laura:

Make sure to let us know what you think of the series, and of course if you agree or disagree with what I had to say!

The 20th Anniversary of Wayne’s World: Which Totally Sucks After 20 years… NOT!

by davelossoFebruary 14, 2012

VHS and my grandparents’ basement.

Weird way to start off an essay? Sure, but it’s what comes to mind when I think of Wayne’s World. See, my aunt Jen is only about six years older than me, so whenever I went to my grandparents’ house, I was treated to some cool new movie she had gotten on VHS: the various Chris Farley/David Spade team-ups, Richard Linklater’s Dazed And Confused and, of course, Wayne’s World.

Am I saying that Wayne’s World is a feat of filmmaking greater than Dazed And Confused? Hell no. But in the cultural landscape of early 90’s comedy, it certainly stands out as one of the best and more importantly, an influence on my sense of humor.

As maligned and lampooned as Generation X was (and still is), the writers, directors and showrunners (okay, maybe not all of them) of the early 90s made large strides in comedy, bringing us out of the slapstick of summer camp titty movies. Self-aware, irreverent humor became the norm, even in kids shows like Pete & Pete.

But how do you take a three minute skit about two dickheads in a basement and turn it into the second feature film to represent the SNL brand? How the hell do you make an already great Queen song so popular?

Hire the lady that directed The Decline Of Western Civilization, of course.

With a script by star Mike Myers (with SNL writers Bonnie and Terry Turner), Penelope Spheeris crafted a sly, self-referential comedy amidst the haze of sphincter jokes and late 80’s cock rock. Naturally the film starts just like any Wayne’s World skit but what it does after is what makes it worth revisiting after all these years: allowing the characters to break the fourth wall, recite monologues about homoerotic sex-fueled murder, parody asides and satirical subtitles.

The scene that truly kicks the film off for me is the introduction of Ed O’Neill’s Glen, the manager of the unfortunately fictional Stan Mikita’s Donuts. It wasn’t enough to introduce the sullen Glen but to allow him to address the camera about killing a man “in the heat of passion” really sets the tone for the rest of the film.

Ed O’Neill is just a part of a really fantastic supporting cast. You get a great oily villain in Rob Lowe, great That Guy spots from Kurt Fuller, Mike Hagerty and Brian Doyle Murray and of course cameos from Meat Loaf, Robert Patrick, Alice Cooper and Chicago Blackhawks legend/ donut entrepreneur Stan Mikita. The small amount of cameos is really a strong point (something that really weighed down the sequel), allowing a lot of great character actors to have enough screen time to make some memorable moments. Even if those moments are brief, no one’s screen time is wasted.

Obviously we have our leads in Mike Myers and Dana Carvey but by 1992, they’d been doing these characters for almost five years, so why should we expect anything different? The script, however, builds on these characters and fleshes out some of their traits from the show, particularly Garth’s neurosis. For the sidekick on the couch, Garth’s character is explored well and played with such well-crafted subtlety by Dana Carvey. He puts in some great comedic work in the film and it’s a shame to know that shortly after he’d be seeing his labor of love solo show dive-bomb, only to fade into obscurity. Granted, maybe it’s better to fade into obscurity than to complete destroy your career with sequel after sequel after sequel like his Wayne’s World co-star. But now’s not the time to run an analysis of Mike Myers’ career against Dana Carvey’s career.

Surely I’m being a Wayne’s World apologist, right? I mean, am I really sitting here giving you 1000+ words about why an SNL movie is an important part of 90’s comedy? Is this not just Lorne Michaels’ attempt at cashing in on a popular sketch just to ultimately date himself in a long line of failures?

But what stops Wayne’s World from being dated?

Go back to the story. Ultimately, it’s about corporate media trying to exploit the youth generation. The set up of the movie is simply that an arcade maven wants to reach the stoners and slackers any way he can, even if it means funding a public access show based around debating who’s a bigger babe. Surely he knew a few years later he’d be chasing after the next bit of bullshit that he could use as a commercial. It doesn’t matter that they were going after dudes in acid-washed jeans who were way too into Aerosmith. How is that any different than today?

Like mash-ups? Sprite had a mash-up contest to promote the 2007 NBA All-Star Game. Internet memes? Keyboard Cat for Wonderful Pistachios, Rebecca Black for Kohl’s, Chuck Norris reading his own facts for Blizzard. And I bet you’re really interested in what Sears Hardware has to say on their Twitter feed.

Somewhere along the line, when Mike Myers sat down with the Turners to write this film, he knew that he’d have to stop lampooning these slice-of-life metalheads and start going after the people that want to exploit them. That’s where the jokes truly are: Who’s more pathetic?

Wayne’s World knew it didn’t have to be slapstick. It knew didn’t have to be gross-out humor (a lesson Mike Myers should have never forgotten). It didn’t need fucks, shit and nude scenes. It’s a comedy lover’s comedy. It’s what the people involved learned every day they stepped foot into Second City or improvOlympics or Rockefeller Plaza: take the skills that you have, be funny and be smart with them.

It’s what’s kept me coming back all these years. It’s not Paddy Cheyefsky. It’s Mike Myers. Good Mike Myers. It’s absurd, it’s intelligent and it’s dumb at the same time. And it’s what I want in a comedy. It’s why the tape that VHS would probably snap in two if I tried to play it right now.

“This man has no penis.”

Dave Losso is a genius that lives in Chicago and is the creator of various comic books including the irreverent children’s series The Great Sandwich Detective. He’s currently writing the digital comic series Kill The Wonderhawks for Paper + Plastick Records and has many on the way including Fuck You: A Parkour Story. When he’s not writing, he’s posting doodles on his blog. He likes food, fireworks and Huey Lewis & The News.

Things That I Learned From Chuck – A Nerd Herd Manifesto

by LandomanFebruary 7, 2012

“For us, the originality of the show clearly spoke to those individuals out there in the audience who also felt unique and original. And the final thing I’ll say is it was the story of a guy who felt he had all this potential but never lived up to it. A guy who felt he had the promise to be something better than he was when we first met him. This underdog, this nerd, who’s thrust into this life and lives up to it and becomes a hero spoke to people. A lot of people saw themselves in Chuck, and want to believe that if given their own opportunity they could also become a hero.” – Josh Schwartz, Co-Creator of Chuck

A Quick Summation of What Chuck Meant To Me aka The Reason For This Article Existing

Chuck is a show about an underachieving 25 year old guy who receives an email from an old college friend that contains tons of U.S. secrets, imprinting them into his brain and giving him “flashes” whenever he sees something from the Intersect in his head. Two government agents named John Casey and Sarah Walker are then assigned to be his handlers, but throughout the course of the series, become his friends. For five years, it combined romance, drama, comedy and action in a way that I’ve rarely seen attempted in a network show, let alone done well.

I’ve seen every episode of Chuck, some multiple times, some only once, but once Chuck finished it’s run recently, I didn’t really know what to do with myself. Where would I go to be happy, sad, angry, giddy, all the while being on the edge of my seat… every week? Where would I go for the awesome pop culture references that seemed like they were made just for me? Where would I go to reinforce my belief that there’s true love out there for every nerd, even if it may not come in the form of a beautiful CIA handler like Sarah?

Now was the time to face my own quarter-life crisis and become the hero that my friends and family always knew that I could be! I knew Chuck would have said, “don’t freak out!” so let’s start there…

Lesson 1: “Don’t freak out,” or How To Channel My Emotions

As Chuck’s handlers Casey and Sarah learned during the course of the series, Chuck is very emotional. Many a time during the series, Chuck’s emotions hindered missions, sometimes even ensuring the mission’s failure. As Chuck grew as a person and as an agent, this flappability began to change. Chuck came into his own as he burned an asset, became a handler himself, and began to formulate missions and lead a team of spies rather than always being delegated to the spy van. Part of this change involved Chuck being more realistic and more focused on the missions as his personal life began to fall into place, and part of this change involved him taking a more active role in the spy world.

For me, the journey from emotional man-child to a grown up is still in progress, but I’m taking some cues from Chuck along the way. I’m learning to use my ability to empathize to understand other people better and try to see the other side of arguments. I’m also learning to focus my energies better at work and in my personal life so that I can use that emotion to make even the most mundane things seem important.

As a teacher, why just make standard lesson plans when you can guide students on epic adventures through literary analysis? Why simply describe two teenagers trying to fix a mess they created instead of engrossing students in a tale of two outsiders trying to save kids from a towering inferno about to burn down the church that was their safe haven? The more genuine and focused my emotion gets, the more the students will be able to see the merit of these stories and being able to analyze and use the skills they learn in class to interact with their world around them in a more substantial way. Instead of just being passengers in their own life, they can take the wheel and steer.

With regards to my personal life, I’ve always prided myself on being a good friend. That used to mean I would drop everything to be with as many friends as possible, spreading myself so thin nobody felt they were getting 100% of me. Being a good friend doesn’t mean you have to go overboard to impress people. Just be there for them. I simply needed to channel my emotions to be what my friends or family needed, whether it was a voice of reason, a devil’s advocate, or a distraction. I’m finding that my closest friends and family are noticing that the change in my emotional stability means that my ability to say no to people has increased, making it easier to just relax, take my time, and be a good friend.

Lesson 2: I Shouldn’t Always Be Content To Simply “Stay in the car, [like] Chuck!” But Believe In My Own Creativity

Much like Chuck, I have an almost childlike trust of others, which can be boring as I have always wanted people to like me and thus usually did what I was told. But why should I just be boring and “Stay in the car!” as Chuck’s handlers Casey and Sarah told him to in the beginning of the series? I’ve learned that I can help the “mission” and can try something new that might not have as wide an appeal to others but that I may love.

This new attitude has led me to try several creative projects this summer like making a clay maquette of Voldemort for a friend, dressing up like Lando Calrissian for Comic Con, and even starting a musical story of my life experimenting with different genres. I even had the pleasure of meeting up with Zachary Levi, Joshua Gomez, Mark Christopher Lawrence, as well as Isiah Mustafa, Olivia Munn, and Danny Pudi! I would have never gotten the chance to meet these people at this year’s Comic Con if I weren’t actively trying to step outside of my comfort zone.

I’ve also become more engaging as a teacher because I understand what may have helped me to learn certain lessons does not always work for others and that’s perfectly okay. Chuck didn’t force Casey or Sarah to change throughout the series. He was, as the quote from Gandhi says, “the change [he] wish[ed] to see in the world.” There’s nothing wrong with using my own experiences to relate to students in a way that’s new for both of us, instead of just using the same old teaching practices that have been accumulated like an Intersect that all teachers should follow. Chuck’s not your average spy, so why should I be your average teacher?

Lesson 3: “True Love” Is Not a Fairy Tale, But There’s Someone Out There For Us All

The hopeless romantic in me takes the series’ ending as a chance for the couple to fall in love again as Sarah continues her life with Chuck. With that in mind, Chuck’s romantic entanglements did not always include Sarah and Sarah alone. When we meet Chuck at the beginning of the series, he has been pining for his ex-girlfriend Jill, and as Sarah enters his life as his handler, becomes his girlfriend as a cover. The next season Chuck develops real feelings for Lou the sandwich girl, and “breaks up” with Sarah, in order to pursue a “real” relationship. Unfortunately, that relationship doesn’t work out and after things get complicated with Sarah, there was Hannah, a girl that Chuck dumps in order to get back together with Sarah. Chuck genuinely had feelings for these girls and wanted things to work out with all of them, even if he subconsciously or in Hannah’s case, consciously, cared deeply for Sarah at the same time. Ultimately, he was able to slowly help Sarah realize she loved him back, get married, and get the happy ending he so richly deserves.

I haven’t always had the most luck in love, but I don’t want to go through life thinking that my ability to feel is my Achilles heel. I’d rather it be an asset that will help the right girl fall in love with me. While I’m Chuck’s age now, I am starting to realize that the less I actively look for a girlfriend, the more likely I will be to find one. Along the way, much like Chuck, I have had a long-term girlfriend who ended up not being the one, and a few girls that I dated for a while, but each of these relationships taught me a little more about what I’m looking for and what I need in a relationship as well. When you have your own life in order and you don’t need someone to complete you, someone can step in and simply add to your awesomeness and make you even better. Eventually, I have faith that somewhere out there there’s someone who will like me for me, which brings me to my final lesson.

Lesson 4: There’s Truth To The Saying “Always Be Yourself”

Chuck has had many roles throughout the course of the show: unofficial Nerd Herd commander, The Piranha, Rafe Gruber, The Analyst, The Intersect, Charles Carmichael… but the biggest role that Chuck plays is Charles Irving Bartowski. In fact, the best Chuck episodes were when he didn’t even have to use the intersect to save a mission. He simply used his latent geek skills. After all, Chuck is an awesome show not because he is a spy a la James Bond, but because he is a spy a la Chuck Bartowski. He chugs wine when hacking into government computers. He uses a tranquilizer gun when he has a vast arsenal at his fingertips. And he always thinks with his heart.

While sometimes this frame of mind may have left him vulnerable at times, it also infused the show with a sense of relatability uncommon to most network shows these days. You simply care more about his hero’s journey because he makes choices you’d like to think you would make in the same circumstances.

Speaking of the Intersect, remember the episode where Chuck took the emotion suppressing drug and was finally able to use the Intersect on command? As part of my quarter life “crisis”, I’ve at times suppressed my emotions to be someone that I’m not. I am guilty of thinking that my emotions and empathy for others was a weakness instead of one of my strengths. Luckily, I’ve begun to realize that trying to be more Charles Carmichael than Charles Bartowski might get me more girls or more single serving friends now, but being myself might actually bring me lasting happiness.

So in Closing…

Over the last five years, I have realized that being a hero in my own life means realizing the potential that I had all along, instead of relying on a perceived crutch or false identity to reach my potential. I don’t need an Intersect or a million dollar Volkoff fortune. I just need to believe in myself, as cheesy as that sounds. My friends and family have always known my potential and have pushed me to reach for it instead of settling for the best that I could get through easier means. I’m glad that I’ve grown secure enough to finally listen to them. And as the sun sets on this chapter of Chuck’s life, I’d like to think that my story is just coming up over the horizon, with plenty of lessons still left to learn.

Nerd Herd Employee of The Month: Pravin Kaipa