{"id":15134,"date":"2015-04-03T07:00:42","date_gmt":"2015-04-03T12:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chucktv.net\/?p=15134"},"modified":"2015-04-02T21:31:39","modified_gmt":"2015-04-03T02:31:39","slug":"friday-five-chuck-musical-montages","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chucktv.net\/2015\/04\/03\/friday-five-chuck-musical-montages\/","title":{"rendered":"Friday Five: Chuck Musical Montages"},"content":{"rendered":"

This week\u2019s Friday Five comes to us from Ernie, one of the fine folks leading intelligent discussions about Chuck<\/strong> over at\u00a0Chuck This Blog<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

A montage is described as a technique in film editing in which a series of short shots are edited into a sequence to condense space, time, and information. A musical montage (my definition) is one that is somewhat, or largely without dialog. And for my purposes it doesn’t have to compress time if it is showing related events simultaneously by cutting between them. It relies on the characters actions or interactions with the music setting the mood to deliver the story they are telling. Sometimes some context is introduced before the montage begins and the montage fleshes things out, sometimes, like at the end of Chuck vs.\u00a0The Fat Lady, you only put together what you were being shown until almost the end, but in either case, the musical montage shows drama or change or movement in a very condensed and enjoyable form.<\/p>\n

I went through the five seasons of Chuck<\/strong> and picked what I consider the most important montage from each season (since I only get five). This leaves out a lot of great ones. I probably could have picked five from season two alone!<\/p>\n

1. Chuck vs. the Tango<\/h3>\n

“Tango” by Tim Jones<\/strong><\/p>\n

I know that people who read my stuff are probably sick of this, but the episode Chuck vs.\u00a0the Tango really established a lot of the show’s structural and visual style. The montage where Chuck learns to tango from Awesome, while the other spies also prepare, was a groundbreaking one for the series. One whose style would be copied until the end. And if you have never done so, watch it once just looking at Ellie and her reactions. In the context of the series, this was Chuck’s first mission, and his introduction to his new life.<\/p>\n