Chuck Vs The Leftovers

Welcome to the party, pal! More turkey?

Photo Credit: NBC

 Proving he doesn’t need an Intersect to have a multitude of skills, Zachary Levi stepped behind the camera again to direct his second episode. There were some slightly avant garde shots, but overall another fine work.
 This episode contains plot elements that bear some resemblance to those in the episode he directed previously, 'Chuck Vs The Beard'. In both, there is an enemy takeover at the Buy More, both looking to break in to Castle. Both have a big reveal; in 'Beard' it was Chuck revealing his spy credentials to Morgan, in this episode, it was Frost revealing to Volkoff that Chuck is her son, and that she has a family. Most importantly for me, both of them feature a Chuck who is unable to flash at the beginning of the episode, and has his kung fu restored by the end.

 Timothy Dalton was brilliant as the menacing, threatening villain, and the lovestruck villain who is apparently great with kids and wanted to meet the family. The menace carried through so that even in the supposedly comfortable setting of the family dinner, there was still that underlying feeling that anything could happen.
 Dalton has, for me, been outshining Linda Hamilton with his passionate performances, first as Tuttle and now as Volkoff. He manages to tap into that balance between serious and silly which is something this show does when it is at it's best. He may be best known for his role as James Bond, but he completely owns the Volkoff character.

  Was it just me, or did you expect someone to shout out ‘License to Kill’ or 'The Living Daylights' during the game of Charades? Well, it was a film, three words - although I have no idea what he was actually trying to mime!

 We had another great homage to Die Hard with Morgan filling the role of John McClane in clothing as well as action, although trust him to tape the gun to his back in such a way that it was unreachable! Yippee ki….oh.

 There was also the African-American computer hacker (with Nerd Machine sticker on his laptop!) and the very subtle inclusion of Dean Martin’s ‘Let It Snow’ when Chuck and Sarah are about to be attacked by Volkoff’s assassins.

 Speaking of which, considering that Chuck was willing to take on three ninjas in Castle just a couple of weeks ago, why was he so insistent that he couldn’t take on even one of those guys without having the Intersect? Is he really that uncertain of his own abilities?

 It turns out that the laptop is a portable Intersect, another curveball for us just as we started to think it wasn’t.

 I’m sure most of the business with the laptop will be quietly forgotten about, given the number of questions it raises. Awesome would need to explain to Ellie where it was, and he couldn’t convincingly lie if his life depended on it. What would have happened if Ellie had put in the correct password meant for Chuck? She knew the phrase ‘Aces, Charles’, having used it in the pilot. Then the business about WHY it was left for both Chuck and Ellie is a little vague at best.

 Ellie had to solve the first problem to unlock it for Chuck so that the Intersect could be restored. Does this mean that Papa B thought that Ellie would be helping Chuck in a professional capacity as well as in a familial one?

 Originally Steven didn’t want Chuck to be involved in the spy world, so I’m guessing that the laptop was programmed after he came to accept that Chuck was going to be a spy.

 I have my own theory as to why it was given to Ellie and then had to be passed on to Chuck. It is possible that, given Ellie’s background in neuroscience, she had to figure out the data storage problem for the Intersect so that she could help Chuck either to restore it, or possibly to come up with a more efficient storage method in the brain, thus enhancing it. She did say that Papa B had been looking at it from an engineering perspective, rather than a neurological one. She made a few adjustments to it, so perhaps this is Intersect 2.1?

 I liked the subtle references to, firstly the pilot, with Chuck falling straight backwards after absorbing the Intersect, and to the end of Season 2 with the line: “Guys, I know Kung Fu. Again.”

 One more thing, there was (I’m assuming) a little fan reference with Casey referring to Frost/Mary Bartowski as ‘Mama B’.

 Next episode: “But, soft! What light from yonder window breaks?” It’s Chuck Vs The Balcony – unfortunately we have to wait until January 17^th for our next fix. :(

In the meantime, here are some things you can do to fill the Chuck-less void.

- Watch Chuck again from the beginning; remind yourself how far they’ve come.

- Rent films like Terminator, Repo Man, Spies Like Us, Cobra, Die Hard and Tron; Chuck has referenced them all.

- Listen to the Chuck podcasts; you may have missed some.

- Go and see Tangled (if you’re in the US, it’s not out until late January in the UK)
- Join a Strip Kick class :) (I'm pretty sure these don't exist!)

- Fight your way across Thailand and earn an unflattering moniker!

 

Chuck Vs Phase Three

Forget taking names. Sarah Walker is just here to kick ass.

Photo Credit: Greg Gayne/NBC

 If you were still sitting on the fence regarding the awesomeness of Yvonne Strahovski/Sarah Walker, then this episode should have turned you into a fan.

 It has been suggested by a number of people on Twitter that Yvonne deserves an Emmy for her performance in this. I think it would be hard to find many fans that would disagree, and I’m sure those outside the fandom would admit that she should at least be in contention.

 This episode was, of course, Sarah-centric, and it showed us that she needs Chuck as much, if not more, than he needs her. Fighting her way across Thailand and taking on anyone who got in her way, Sarah proved that she was willing to do whatever it took to rescue Chuck.

 For me there was a great comparison to Chuck in last week’s episode. Chuck thought that he needed the Intersect to be a spy, and needed to be a spy to have Sarah; for that he was willing to risk anything. This week, Sarah was willing to risk everything to rescue Chuck because she realised she needed him to have as normal a life as possible.

 As well as the kicking of ass that went on, there was a great deal of heart and emotion to Sarah in this episode. Despite the loss of Chuck taking her dangerously close to crossing the line, there were also some very tender moments. The scene where she finds his proposal plan, when she smells his shirt, and when Sarah tells Chuck, as he lies unconscious, that she loves him, that she wants to marry him were very moving.

 I loved that Sarah referred to Morgan as ‘The Magnet’. This could be his permanent new nickname; it’s certainly better than ‘Organ’!

 Casey was a lot more reluctant in this episode to include Morgan in the mission than he has been recently. From taking him to rescue Chuck and Sarah from his old squad, to telling him he wouldn’t learn anything if he stayed in the van, it seemed that casey had been embracing the bearded one as his protégé. Okay, so Morgan has never been trusted with a loaded gun, but there’s plenty of time – baby steps, little ammo-less baby steps.

“You’re not getting bullets for a long, long time” – Casey to Morgan.

 Events in this episode did get me thinking how Casey would react if ever something were to happen to Alex involving the spy world. No doubt that scenario would largely involve bodies flying about, as The Casey would truly be unleashed.

 Ellie finally found the computer in the car that Papa B left for her, and it was indeed specifically left for her.

 It was nice to see the Buy More gang outside of the store, although why Awesome would agree to give them all a physical regardless of their contribution to fixing the Orion computer is beyond me. Nice callback to Season 2 with Lester referring to it as a Roark 7.

 It made for a wonderful cliffhanger having Ellie log into it and then that reaction. I wonder what could be on it? Luckily it seems not to be a version of the Intersect – I dread to think what would have happened in it were and Lester had activated it, or even worse, Jeff!

 It seems that the Intersect-less arc will continue, hopefully for a few more episodes. Will we see Chuck being a spy during a mission without having the Intersect to rely on? Perhaps he needs to have the confidence not to use it for it to start working again.

What are your thoughts?

 Next episode: Guess who’s coming to dinner? Chuck Vs The Leftovers, which has, for me, one of the most anticipated Terminator references. I know that because it was spoiled by the preview at the end of this week’s episode. Thanks NBC!

Chuck Vs The Fear of Death

Intersect 2.0 encountered a serious error. If this is the first time you have seen this screen, restart your system.

Photo Credit: Joel Warren/NBC

  At the end of the last episode, which feels like an age ago, Mama B seemed to de-Intersect Chuck. However, all is not lost, as it appears that it was merely suppressed.

 Cue a team of scientists working for a month to try and restore our hero to his full spy potential and lift the ‘psychological rock’ off the Intersect.

 Follow this with the most bizarre Psychological Operations agent I have ever seen, Agent Rye, whose methods are less than conventional.

  This episode, like many others has a dual meaning in its title. The fear of death is supposed to be the thing that coaxes the Intersect into working again, but it is also Chuck’s fear that his spy career will be ‘dead’ without it.

 Sarah also has a fear that Chuck cannot function as a spy unless he regains the Intersect, something she makes clear to him when he decides to do whatever is necessary.

 Both of them seem to have forgotten the number of times he’s managed to save the day without using the Intersect. Even before the upgrade to 2.0 he was capable of great things, and I’m sure he must have learned something from having used Chuck-Fu a number of times now. He even took that online Gemology class on the flight over to Gstaad and thought to bring the loop for studying the diamonds.

 It seems that General Beckman has become a lot more emotionally attached to the team. Not only does she allow Chuck to use the ‘But my mom said..’ excuse, but when Sarah is anxious about finding where DeSmet has taken Chuck, she tries to calm her down by using her first name rather than Agent Walker.

 “Sarah, he’s out there, we’ll find him.” – Gen. Beckman.

The idea of the slightly crazy PsyOps agent helping Chuck was a good one, but I felt that the spy story swung between serious and funny without really finding enough of a balance. I also found the fact that 'Chuck Bartowski is the Intersect' seems to be an open secret now a little odd, unless they have a team dedicated to it, possibly trying to recreate it for use in more agents.

 The story in the Buy More worked a lot better, with Jeff and Lester on the verge of uncovering the secret of ‘Greta’ and the fact that the Buy More is actually a CIA/NSA substation. Quite frankly, if they worked anywhere else, they’d have been fired by now.

 We learned a couple of new things about Jeff this week. Firstly, his damaged brain makes him see things like people having tails and turning into woodland creatures, something I’m sure a psychiatric team would have a field day with. The second thing we found out is Jeff’s second skill (after Missile Command) – he can identify the ingredients in a Subway sandwich from a distance, and possibly by smell if you watch that scene again – how can he see it?

 Since Summer Glau was appearing in this episode, I’m sure many of us were expecting a Firefly reference. It was fleeting, likely to have been missed by anyone not familiar with the show, but if you listen carefully it’s there.

 Who else liked the fact that Greta growled like Casey at Casey? Worthy of a little smile at least.

 I should point out that I liked the opening sequence with the scientists, although how watching YouTube clips of kittens and people having skateboard mishaps would work is anyone’s guess. That skateboard fail was quite funny though!

 I'm looking forward to next week's episode and the resolution of the cliffhanger we were left with. I'm hoping that Chuck will learn during this Intersect-less story, however long it lasts, that he has abilities outwith the computer in his brain and doesn't need to rely on it to be a real spy.

 Next episode: Chuck Vs Phase Three, which, from the promo photos, looks to have some serious Sarah Walker in butt-kicking mode in it!

Chuck Vs The First Fight

For Sale: One family house with secret underground base (both slightly fire damaged). May require some work. Unique opportunity.

Photo: Warner Bros. Television Entertainment/Michael Ansell

  Holy crap!!

 That’s the cleaned up reaction of a lot of people to last night’s episode of Chuck. It seems that our hero wasn’t the only one who was duped by Timothy Dalton’s character of Gregory Tuttle, or should I say Alexei Volkoff.

 We all seemed to think when we heard that Dalton had been cast that he would be playing Volkoff, then it was announced that his character was called Tuttle and it seemed that idea went out the window. Bluff!

 This episode had some great comedy, good action, and enough intrigue and twists to be worthy of a Bond film. Having been written by the wonder-duo Rafe Judkins and Lauren LeFranc, I had high hopes for it, and it certainly did not disappoint.

 I know that a lot of people will have loved the scene between Ellie and Mary, with Sarah sitting in the background. Once again, Yvonne manages to say so much without saying a word.

 In an interesting link to last season, I noticed that they played the same song when the house was blown up as they played when Papa B was shot. One death and then another for Orion; firstly he is killed by Shaw and then his life’s work is destroyed by Volkoff with a little help from his estranged widow. Not only that, but it appears that Mama B de-Intersected Chuck, most likely not for the same reasons as Orion did though. Hopefully the computer left in the car will provide something for Chuck, or who knows, maybe Ellie will accidentally be Intersected!

 Mary Bartowski/Frost seems to be an interesting dilemma, she’s torn between her feelings as a mother, and her duty as a spy, albeit for the wrong side. She’ll do something to sabotage the mission he’s undertaken as he is an enemy spy to her; then she will do something in order to protect him as, despite their conflicting loyalties, Chuck is still her son.

 It leaves me wondering whether something will happen later on this season that forces her to choose between saving her son’s life, or completing her mission. I have a feeling that would not be an easy resolution for her at the moment.

 Morgan is enjoying himself as he becomes more involved in the missions. He might not be terribly adept at it, but he certainly brings an undeniable enthusiasm.

 The scene at the bar was hugely entertaining, from Morgan’s entrance, in which reminded me a little of David Caruso, to the classic flubbing when he drops the earpiece into the glass of water and tries to retrieve it.

 I loved that he referred to Casey and himself as a couple, and Chuck’s reaction to that was brief but brilliant. The scenes between Morgan and Sarah are brilliant, but those between Morgan and Casey show a little more; there is both an element of annoyance and of growing respect, or possibly just tolerance, from Casey towards the little bearded one.

 Timothy Dalton seemed to be having fun playing the character of Tuttle, a bumbling wannabe spy, somewhat of a departure from his role as Bond (a role I think he is highly underrated in) and the roles he played most recently in Hot Fuzz and Doctor Who.

 Of course, we’d guessed that he would be playing Volkoff, despite the bluff, but it was no less exciting when he eventually showed up, sharp-suited and ready to kill (licence or no) and destroy Orion’s secret base.

 There are two things I’d like to point out, the first being Chuck and Sarah resolving their fight whilst fighting off Volkoff’s agents was a brilliantly ironic idea.

 Secondly, I thought that the “Burgundy ’68 Mustang” was a little pushed as an idea. It could have been done with a little more subtlety rather than spelled out so that even the village idiot could see that it would be of major import.

 As always, I recommend checking out the latest ChuckYouTuesday podcast – just click the link to the Chuckgasmic blog in the side bar, but please remember it contains strong language.

 Next episode: Chuck Vs The Fear of Death, which guest stars Richard Chamberlain, Rob Riggle and Summer Glau. It airs on Mon 15^th Nov.

Chuck Vs The Aisle Of Terror

Prepare to be scared - Black liquorice… Man feet… OTTERS!!!

Photo by: Jordin Althaus/NBC

  The Halloween episode of Chuck was pretty much all you could have hoped for, unless you were hoping to see more of Sarah in that Princess Leia costume!

 It was creepy in places, funny in parts, and had a cracking twist upon twist with Mama B double and triple crossing; lies within truth within lies.

 Of course, a large part of the Bartowski family relationship seems to be about secrets and lies. The interesting thing is that both parents disappeared in order to protect Chuck and Ellie. Steven was Orion, and so left to protect them from his enemies, but in the case of Mary, did she disappear to protect them from her allies, or even protect them from herself?

 Chuck’s desire to believe his mother’s story blinded him to the possibility that she may not have been all she claimed to be. He was aware of this just enough to acknowledge this and tell Sarah, but not enough to stop him from, possibly naively, believing her despite all that she’s done. I would probably have a hard time trusting anyone who shot me!

 In the end, Casey lies to Morgan in order to protect Chuck from the truth. Then he teams up with Sarah to seize Mama B in order to both interrogate her and to protect Chuck from both her and himself.

 This also lead to Chuck having to reveal to Ellie the reason that their mother left all those years ago, and in doing so, he may have revealed to her that he is still a spy.

 Coupled with this story of maternal ambiguity was the often amusing Halloween plot featuring Dr. Stanley Wheelwright, played with zeal by the original Freddy Krueger, Robert Englund. Although this story was downright silly in places, such as the payoff with memories from Jeff’s demented brain saving the day, it was enjoyable fun.

 I did wonder about the scene with the toxin device in Castle though. I assume that Chuck and Sarah thought it may explode if not de-activated; why else release Wheelwright? However, it doesn’t explain why, after the countdown restarted and accelerated on the double booby-trapped device, did Chuck just stand there as the gas was released? Also, wouldn’t Sarah have been exposed to some of the gas as well, since she was standing about 6ft away in an open area for about 20 seconds before Chuck initiated the lockdown?

 After a couple of incidents in Castle involviing chemical agents being released, surely they’d have some sort of airtight blast-proof containers for just this sort of situation. Whoever deals with Inventory needs to get on that!

 It was good to see Morgan still providing comic relief in both the Buy More and spy worlds. Only he would take a paintball gun to an informant meeting, although how he managed to hide it in that jacket without ruining the line of the suit baffles me! I think I also detected a Casey-style grunt from him. Is he taking on things from his mentors? With Big Mike he adopted a (small) fish plaque, with Casey is he adopting a grunt?

 As always, I recommend checking out the latest ChuckYouTuesday podcast – just click the link to the Chuckgasmic blog in the side bar, but please remember it contains strong language.

 Next week: Chuck Vs The First Fight, which guest stars former Bond actor Timothy Dalton and SNL’s Ana Gasteyer.

Chuck Vs The Couch Lock

Weekend at Bernie’s Casey’s!

Photo by: Michael Ansell/NBC

 This week saw a very Casey-centric episode; filling in a little more of his past while having the character grow a little more by the end of it.

 Serious kudos should go to all involved, especially Adam Baldwin who was able to convey so much whilst doing so little. I didn’t think it would be possible to emote whilst paralysed on a couch and wearing a Stormtrooper helmet, but he managed it!

 Who could fail to love Morgan in this episode? There is a real hero beneath that Halo-playing, beardy exterior, and I think that Casey has recognized that.

 Despite having nothing to prove to anyone, he risked his life to save his friends, thus proving his bravery. Well, as the saying goes, he’s either mighty brave or mighty stupid, and sometimes I think it’s a bit of both, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. Okay, so maybe part of his selfless act stemmed from the fact that he wanted to help find Casey and was sent packing back to the Buy More, but over all, Morgan has manned-up enormously since the first season.

 The relationship between Alex and Morgan should be interesting to see over the course of the rest of this season, and just how closely Casey keeps tabs on them. Despite giving his blessing (although not without warning) and having warmed to Morgan a little more in this episode, I don't think Casey will let him far out of his sight when it come to dating his daughter.

 Jeff and Lester managed to sink further down into the social gutter. We knew that Jeff has some substance issues, but Lester? I thought he was the one that was supposed to be keeping Jeff as close to the straight and narrow as is possible for someone that messed up.

 As a former player of Magic: The Gathering, I did like the reference, although I'm not sure I'd be up for an evening playing it with Jeffster. Also we had the amusing notion that Casey can detect Jeff and Lester by smell. Either of them are the man your man could smell like, if he’s not careful!

 We had the strongest 'indication' that Chuck’s mother might be playing for the other side. No, not in that way! I mean that she’s working with the bad guys, or at least working for them. The fact that Casey's A-Team flat out told Chuck and Sarah that Frost was their boss and Volkoff's right hand, to which Chuck voices his concern that his mom might be one of the bad guys was a little clichéd but I can't really fault the writing.

 There was also the cliché of Chuck telling Sarah that he was going to stop searching for his mom, followed by the phone call from her. It should be interesting to see what she has to say for herself next week.

 It must be something about the new writers coming in, with one minor exception; all of them have absolutely nailed it. Possibly because they have come in during the shows run, as opposed to those who started with the show, they have the benefit of having an outside perspective. It’s kinda like the best possible fan-fiction making it to the screen, all within the confines of an ongoing plot.

 Lovely pop-culture references sprinkled throughout the episode, including the A-Team shout out, which just had to be done.

 One point I would bring up is that if the vault with the gold had been sealed for 10 years, how come they'd not figured out another way of getting the gold out, other than using Casey's cold dead hand? Just a thought.

  As always, I recommend checking out the latest ChuckYouTuesday podcast – just click the link to the Chuckgasmic blog in the side bar, but please remember it contains strong language.

 Next week: Chuck Vs The Aisle of Terror which guest starts Freddie Krueger himself – Robert Englund. After this weeks’ cliffhanger ending, it should be a good one!

Extra: It has been announced that Chuck has been picked up for a full season with an extra 11 episodes ordered!

Chuck Vs The Coup D'Etat

You say you want a revolution, well you know, we all want to change the world.

Photo by: Chris Haston/NBC

 First off, apologies for the lateness of this week’s blog; I haven’t been shot recently, but I have been ill.

 This Monday’s Chuck saw the return of the enthusiastic Generalissimo Goya and our first visit to the wonderful (just see his promotional video) island of Costa Gravas.

 I think many of us were assuming that Awesome and Ellie would feature more heavily in this episode, given the promo pictures of Awesome and his giant statue. As it was, they had some comedy moments, such as Awesome patting his own statue on the ass, but largely they just provided a conduit for the story.

 We had some awkward moments with Chuck and Sarah stemming from their inability to discuss emotional issues properly. They are crap communicators, and it didn’t help the fact that Chuck used Morgan as an excuse to hide behind when trying to bring up the fact that they weren’t communicating on that level. Man up, Bartowski!

 Of course, they weren’t the only couple to have awkward moments. We saw the fledgling relationship between Morgan and Casey’s daughter Alex stumble, but ultimately move forward. It also gave us a great scene between Morgan and Casey, as well as some wonderful dialogue between Morgan and Big Mike.

 All in all, Coup D’Etat was a story about relationships, one starting out, one taking awkward faltering steps to the next level, and one brought back from the brink of collapse. The spy story was very much a secondary consideration.

 Hands up all those who liked the scene with Sarah trying on the bikinis. *counts* That’s a lot of hands!  If that wasn’t used as a promo already, it should have been. Just that scene with a little ‘Chuck, Mon 8/7c on NBC’ at the end would have done well I think, especially during the football.

  As always, I recommend checking out the latest ChuckYouTuesday podcast – just click the link to the Chuckgasmic blog in the side bar, but please remember, it contains strong language.

 Next week: Chuck Vs The Couch Lock which I’m assuming has nothing to do with the common definition of ‘couch lock’ (Google it if you need to) and guest stars Joel David Moore, Eric Roberts and Batista.

Chuck Vs The Cubic Z

Chuck Vs The Ducts – has a ring to it!

Photo by: Greg Gayne/NBC

  This Monday’s episode of Chuck had some themed stunt casting. Not only did we have the return of ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin as Hugo Panzer (S3: Chuck Vs First Class), but we also had another former WWE star in the shapely form of Stacy Keibler as this weeks Greta.

 And if that wasn't enough, Nicole Richie returned as Heather Chandler (S2: Chuck Vs The Cougars) in a story where there were twists of loyalty and some observations that hit close to home.

 With a transfer that was apparently arranged by the mysterious Volkoff, Heather found herself in the same transport as former Ring assassin Hugo Panzer. Presumably the breakdown was arranged, but whether the rerouting to Castle was or not, we shall probably never know.

 Another thing glossed over was how Panzer was able to escape his cell using a rolled up newspaper. Sure, you can kill a person using a rolled up newspaper (although I won’t tell you how) but I doubt it’s possible to get out of a bulletproof detention cell using one. Suspension of disbelief is the key phrase in this situation.

 It seems that crawling through ventilation ducts, a rather expansive labyrinth of them at that, is a learning, growing experience; it certainly was for Sarah. She realised how far she had come since she last encountered Heather, despite her former high school nemesis still being able to get under her skin.

 The spy side of this episode worked better for me than the Buy More side. While the script was generally quite tight, there were few laughs to be had. Perhaps it’s simply a case of new writer Nicholas Wootton not being sure how that world works. Aside from the odd moment, Jeff and Lester lacked that Jeffster spirit; do they help tackle a problem head on to try and stop a riot? No, they’d run and hide as soon as things started looking ugly.

 As to the riot in the Buy More, where were the CIA/NSA staff? They seem to have dropped off the radar except for Greta - and if you look closely, background artists. The undercover agents would have been able to sort out an unruly mob. I suppose it was one way to allow Big Mike to revisit his glory from Chuck Vs The Gravitron and bag him his second single-handed takedown of a stories villain.

 Does it confuse/bug anyone else that if the whole idea of the Buy More is as a cover for a CIA/NSA substation why does it only appear to be staffed by the Buy Morons?

 I enjoyed the fight scenes in this episode, with both Sarah and Chuck having to face off against their old nemeses in the same area but in radically different ways. Then there was the ‘cage match’ between Chuck and Panzer, although I can’t say I found it entirely convincing that a man like Panzer would have just left Chuck in the Cage.

 Then we had the rooftop gunfight where Sarah decided to let Heather help fight off Volkoff’s men. It showed that she was willing to take that risk in order that she and Chuck could get information about his mother and her relationship to Volkoff, which seems to be pointing in the direction that she is more connected to him than just having been captured by him.
 Poor Casey though, shot again! As Sarah pointed out, that's another Purple Heart for him, but let's hope they don't make up the majority of his collection!

 The final scene, which we were informed of every time it cut back to the ring falling through the air ducts, was played beautifully. Rather than it being some kind of sitcom moment in which the characters are in an awkward stunned silence, it was more a realisation by both Chuck and Sarah that this could be a sign. “Call it Fate, call it Luck, call it Karma” to quote Peter Venkman from Ghostbusters.

  As always, I recommend checking out the latest ChuckYouTuesday podcast – just click the link to the Chuckgasmic blog in the side bar, but please remember, it contains strong language.

 Next week: Chuck Vs The Coup d'Etat, which features the return of Armand Assante as Allejandro Goya and Mekenna Melvin as Casey’s daughter Alex.

Chuck Vs The Suitcase

Chuck is in fashion!

Photo: Dean Hendler/NBC

 Monday night’s episode of Chuck was definitely one for the guys; a former Victoria’s Secret model in the shower, Sarah in her underwear (again - although not that you'll get any complaints from me!) and a good old high-kicking chick fight between the two of them. Of course, the ladies were treated to a shirtless Awesome, which kinda compensates! It begs the question, why NBC have done so little to promote this season, especially this episode with so much flesh on display?

 The suitcase of the title we found to be both what Sarah has been living out of, since she has a fear of settling down given both her childhood and her job, and also a reference to her emotional baggage. This is keeping with trend that some episode titles, correct me if I’m wrong, but not all titles, have a double meaning.

 We got treated to the fact that Casey was banned from going to fashion shows, in a professional capacity at least, because of ‘The Yves St Laurent Incident’, although we were informed of some of what happened, unlike the famous and mysterious Buy More ‘Volleyball Incident’!

 In the world of the Burbank Buy More, Morgan got promoted to manager in order to protect its cover. He pointed out that it was too efficient to be realistic, enemy agents would instantly know it was more of a ‘Spy More’ than a ‘Buy More’ – not his words, my rubbish pun!

Of course we had the return of the Buy Morons, along with the ubiquitous ‘wind machine entrance’, this time provided by Morgan with a large fan, a little humourous nod to the entrances of a number of characters to the store.  The question is, will Morgan be able to keep the Buy Morons from finding out the truth about the store and their highly efficient co-workers? He’ll have help from Team Bartowski no doubt, but Lester is naturally suspicious most of the time, or maybe he’ll be too busy wrangling Jeff to notice.

 Speaking of Jeff and Lester, I liked the continuation of the ‘Buy Hard’ video diary aspect, linking those in with the show. We also got given some classic Jeff, first his tolerance to tranq darts – how many did it take?! - and his creepy come-on to a pregnant Ellie. Oh, and I can’t not mention the classic squeal from Lester when Casey turns up at their van – it’s like a distressed hamster or something, and very funny!

 A question that I find I’m asking myself now is how long will it be before Morgan hires back Big Mike to run the store, because we all know that Mark Christopher Lawrence is back at some point this season as our favourite donut-eating boss.

 We got a little hint of what may be ahead; Morgan has had more contact with Casey’s daughter Alex than he has, and Casey is none to pleased. I did like the fact that he was comfortable enough (eventually) to phone her and call himself ‘Dad’, with a little smile even. So it seems that both Sarah and Casey have something to tie them to Burbank, not just as a cover any more.

 We saw the Achilles Heel that Morgan informed Chuck existed in every relationship. Chuck is happy with the idea of getting married to Sarah and starting a family, whilst Sarah is uncomfortable with the idea. She was barely comfortable enough to unpack for eight months, so it’s not to be unexpected that talk of settling down like a normal couple wouldn’t freak her out a bit.

 On a final note, I think it was a pity that Bronson Pinchot’s role lasted only for a few seconds on screen. Whether the rest of his role ended up on the cutting room floor or if it was just a quick turn, I think to have a big(ish) name like that and not really use him was a bit of a waste.

  As always, I recommend checking out the latest ChuckYouTuesday podcast – just click the link to the Chuckgasmic blog in the side bar, but remember, it contains strong language.

 Next week we have ‘Chuck Vs The Cubic Z’ which features the return of Nicole Richie and ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin. Not only that, but we got legs aplenty in the shape of Stacy Keibler as Greta #3.

Chuck Vs The Anniversary

Welcome back Kotter Chuck!

Photo by: Jordin Althaus/NBC

 I’m a little late writing this blog post, so I expect most of you have watched the season opener a half-dozen times by now!

 This season started a little differently; no flashbacks to last season, no “Hi, I’m Chuck…” recap of what has happened previously. Straight into establishing that this is about the search for Mama Bartowski.

 I think it would be possible for people to jump in and be introduced to the series in this season. It felt, possibly because the lack of recap, that no back-story was needed in this case. It may have been simply that there wouldn’t have been enough time to do a recap. Of course, and I’m not trying to be pessimistic here, but it could be that they’ve realized, given the ratings (and you may know my feelings on those!), that the audience they have will be pretty much the audience they’ve always had. Unfortunately, the stunning lack of promotion by NBC won't do much for the viewing figures either! :(

 But back to the episode, and what a start to the season it was! It was the right mixture of what Chuck does best – comedy, drama and action. Chuck has a real heart in the stories; something that Bond, Bourne and Get Smart lacked, and it’s what puts this show above them in my opinion.

 There was a minimal main cast in this episode, no Awesome, Big Mike, Jeff or Lester. That may be due to the fact that they had not only Linda Hamilton, but also Dolph Lundgren and Harry Dean Stanton, so budget may have played a part.

 There were a number of references to get during the episode. There was, of course, the ‘Rocky’ reference – “I must break you” which most people expected. I thought it was brilliant that they not only had Harry Dean Stanton guest star, but had him play a Repo man. That was intense! True, it didn’t add much to the story, but if you’re gonna have a Repo man, might as well have the Repo Man!  If you haven’t seen the film ‘Repo Man’, then I’d recommend you rent it. It is very good, and you’ll also get the reference in this paragraph.

 With the lack of comic relief from the Buy Morons, it was up to Morgan to provide the humour, and he didn’t disappoint. The whole thing about the sexting was great; only Morgan would think that SOS could stand for Skin On Skin!

 I also liked the fact that despite his lack of experience in the spy world, he sees himself less as the assistant he claimed he was in ‘Vs The Other Guy’, but more as an equal, less an Alfred to Chuck’s Batman, but more as a Robin.

 I do wonder, now that the Buy More is a CIA/NSA substation filled with spies, gadgets, guns and trapdoors, how they will re-introduce Big Mike, Jeff and Lester. Surely you can’t have Jeffster in a spy base? Will Big Mike be working for Diane?

 One thing that I found interesting is that although Mama B was captured by Volkoff, she appears to be working for him in some capacity. All will no doubt be revealed as the season progresses.

 And finally, we have a new phrase to enter in the fandom – Tangiers – file it under ‘T’ in the Chuck-tionary!

 As I usually recommend, check out the latest ChuckYouTuesday podcast – just click the link to the Chuckgasmic blog in the side bar, but remember, it contains strong language.

 Next week, Chuck vs The Suitcase guest starring model Karolina Kurkova and Lou Ferrigno as well as Isaiah Mustafa as Greta.

Chuck Vs The Subway / Chuck Vs The Ring Part II

Bye Bye, Buy More!

I’m writing this intro just minutes after watching the jaw-dropping, quite literally explosive two-hour finale of Chuck Season 3. To be honest, I think I’m still in shock – OMG does not cover it, no matter how many exclamation marks you put after it!

We’d been told that this was going to be game changing; I feel that was an understatement. It would be like saying that the Sun is quite hot.

I think most people predicted, having been told that one major character would die, Papa Bartowski would be the unlucky candidate. If it couldn’t be any more obvious, he used the line  “This is the last time I’m gonna walk away from you, I promise”, which is equivalent to the clichéd horror movie line “I’ll be right back” – you just know they’re going to die.

There is still the question of what happened to his body, but more importantly, his Governor. Of course, I’m assuming that one of The Ring agents took it, because even though it may be damaged, they could still use it to make their own

Ellie finally found out that Chuck is a spy and discovered that her father is as well, or was. Not only that, but after Stephen was killed, she stepped up to the plate and helped to rescue Team Bartowski by using the B Team of Devon and Morgan. Somehow, despite their bungling, they managed to come through and get our heroes out of trouble.

Morgan managed to get in and out of trouble, especially with Casey after the latter discovered that Morgan had his daughter’s phone number. It might be interesting to see a Morgan-Alex-Casey dynamic next season.

Despite that incident, he did earn some respect from Casey by doing something that Chuck was never willing to do. That’s right – he broke his thumbs to escape the restraints, despite it proving amusingly unnecessary.

During most of this season I know a number of people, myself included, have thought that The Ring was a sub-par Fulcrum, but boy were we proved wrong. Whilst Fulcrum were very visible in their evil doing, The Ring were extremely insidious, playing a long game for much higher stakes.

Shaw has been taken into custody and The Ring is in disarray, but have we seen the last of either?

Talking about seeing the last of someone, how about Jeffster? Now that Jeff and Lester are fugitives, suspected of blowing up the Buy More, how can they go on to do the stadium tours?

Mind you, Jeff managed a whole new level of worrying in just one comment – “It’s my dream come true. Ellie is exactly like Chuck, but with lady parts.” Devon decided to leave at that moment, and even Lester looked worried. How much more can be done with the two characters without integrating them into the spy world, which would be interesting, but most likely a huge mistake.

We got a glimpse into the Bartowski family history, and it seems that Chuck has always been special, after downloading the proto-Intersect at a young age. I’m assuming that he got de-Intersected at some point, cos otherwise it would just be weird!

The references during the finale were grand in scope, ranging from pop culture – General Beckman and the Star Wars ref, Big Mike and the Planet of The Apes ref, to meta, to call-backs – the Mexican Hat ringtone from Vs. The Undercover Lover; all juicy titbits that’ll keep you watching and re-watching.

I’ve seen a few people comment that the Intersect vs. Intersect fight was a little disappointing. I think that it was played to the abilities of the actors so that there was as much face time for them during the fight sequence, just to show what they were capable of, with as little need for stunt doubles as possible.

So, for Season 4 we have a new threat, a probable lack of Buy More, Mama Bartowski, the possibility of Casey becoming a family man and so many more things.

As I usually recommend, check out the latest ChuckYouTuesday podcast – just click the link to the Chuckgasmic blog in the side bar, but remember, it contains strong language.

Until next season, Semper Fidizzle, Chuck fans.

Chuck Vs The Living Dead

Oh, boy – Chuck is Shaw-ly in danger now!

Chuck Vs The Living Dead marked the return of Papa Bartowski, played by guest star Scott Bakula. By that very fact you knew it was going to be an intense episode, and boy, was it ever!

Things are moving quickly towards their thrilling and terrifying conclusion. Nefarious Ring agent Justin, using her to track down her father, has drawn Ellie further into the spy world than she’s comfortable with. Orion has a fix for the Intersect 2.0 that will help regulate it so that Chuck won’t go crazy. Oh, and Shaw isn’t dead, apparently.

We had a good mix of the slow paced plot and the action scenes that were being built up to. There were touching moments between Chuck and both Sarah and his father.

The way that it initially pained Stephen to find out that Chuck had downloaded 2.0, was brilliantly played. It was lovely how quickly, either before or during his short conversation with Ellie, Stephen decided that he was going to help Chuck by building a fix for Intersect 2.0 rather than force chuck to get de-Intersected again. The resolution nearer the end of the episode was a lovely family moment, a little father and son bonding and support of Chuck’s career choice.

It seems that Stephen Bartowski’s oddball act might not be so much of an act after all. If Chuck is going a little crazy because of Intersect2.0, then it’s more than likely that until starting work on ‘The Governor’, Papa B was having similar issues with the prototype Intersect in his head.

With all the drama coming up, will he get to finish his work before it’s too late?

We saw Morgan having several beers and pretty much swooning over Awesome and his awesome romanticism.  Morgan also had that neat little scene in Castle looking for the bulletproof pants, the hiding behind the riot shield when Sarah started to interrogate him!

Then we also had nail-biting moments of tension; I was on the edge of my seat at times, there were the set-ups and feints, and then there were the set-ups and the OMG moments.

Jeffster split, but got back together again – as if it was ever in doubt. Our favourite ‘Indian lesbian’ frontman quit the band in a scene reminiscent of one from Hook – saying, “Don’t try and stop me” a few times to intimate that he wanted to be stopped.

The now solo Jeff, or rather Jeff?, was cringingly bad, cementing his ‘creepy’ reputation by hitting on women using a keyboard, a vocoder and disturbing pickup lines.

Justin has gained Ellie’s trust even further by fuelling her paranoia with regards to Casey. Of course, how could she know that she’s chosen the wrong side to ally with; Justin is convincing, after all, he does work for the CIA, so he’s a good guy, right? Ellie is unaware of the spy world that has been going on around her for the past few years, although she appears to be one of about four major characters left who isn’t aware of Operation Bartowski.

As I usually recommend, check out the latest ChuckYouTuesday podcast – just click the link to the Chuckgasmic blog in the side bar, but remember, it contains strong language.

Next week, the 2-hour season finale – Chuck Vs The Subway followed by Vs The Ring, Part 2.

If you’ve managed not to watch the promo for this, then well done. I won’t spoil it for you, but as Josh Schwartz himself said – it’s like nothing they’ve ever done before.

Chuck Vs. The Tooth

Chuck Vs The Tooth was everything I thought it would be and more. I am really excited to see the finale now. The storm is gathering and it’s both exciting and frightening to see these portents.

To quote Christopher Lloyd from Back to the Future; “If my calculations are correct …you’re going to see some serious shit.”

Let’s start, appropriately, right at the beginning. “Monday nights can be a bit of a wasteland.” In a few weeks that is set to be pretty accurate with three episodes left, the last two being shown as a two hour finale. It’ll be even more accurate if Chuck doesn’t get picked up for a fourth season (which isn’t going to happen – they’ll renew it, dammit!)

Spies Like Us was not only referenced, but also got some screen time. I detailed some of the references to that film from previous episodes in an earlier post. We had the phrases ‘spies like these’ (during watching Spies Like Us) and ‘spies like me’ (at the CIA psychiatric facility) so it got a good run this time out!

Other fun-to-spot items included: Morgan referencing Dune when talking to Devon: “Fear is the mind killer”, the Rorschach test images on the TV’s at the Buy More and, of course, Chuck calling Christopher Lloyd’s character ‘Doc’ on more than one occasion.

Somehow during the scenes at the mental institution, I kept expecting to see Hurley’s ‘friend’ Dave – note that this will only make sense if you’ve seen the Lost Season 2 episode ‘Dave’.

There were a couple of sweet ‘Awwww’ moments during the episode, most notably when Sarah is pleading with Dr. Dreyfus and it turns out that Casey is already there; he really does care a lot about Chuck, the big softy.

In terms of sinister plot developments; trouble is brewing for the Bartowski family. Ellie has been unwittingly recruited by The Ring in order to gain access to her father. What dastardly plans they have for him other than forcing him to build yet another Intersect is anybody’s guess – apart from the people who work on the show and those ‘In The Know’.

The only real problem I had with this episode was the bouncing between the quite dark moments and the light, and sometimes goofy, humour. While it was nice to see most of the cast on screen, and the return, albeit briefly, of Anna Wu, it felt as though some of the lighter scenes were there just to have those characters on screen. I really do hope that in the coming season (fingers crossed) that they do address the Intersect insanity problem, as I’m sure this story would have made a great two-parter.

Next Sunday (16^th May) NBC will announce the decision to renew Chuck – at least that’s what we believe and certainly what we hope. That might affect how we feel when watching the episode that airs the next night, the penultimate week of this season.

As usual, check out ChuckYouTuesday’s podcast – remember, it contains strong language.

Next week - Chuck Vs The Living Dead, which from the promos, looks set to be a scream!

Chuck Vs. The Role Models

Hello Kitty! or Lying and Tigers and Sarah – oh my!

Chuck Vs The Role Models was brilliant from the outset. Although not too familiar with Swoozie Kurtz, I knew that the inclusion of Fred Willard should be really good – everything I’ve seen him in has been great.

We got the opening scene based on the opening credits of Hart to Hart, of course, most of us had seen it a dozen times, but that didn’t make it any less awesome. In fact the whole pre-credits bit was a hoot and a half!

The episode was pretty much a stand-alone, apart form the last few minutes in which we find out that a Ring agent has poisoned Awesome and that something larger is afoot. Over all it was light with elements of drama with some brilliantly comedic moments from the unlikely teaming of Casey and Morgan. I loved the choice of music for his subversion test: more indicative of his perception of his abilities than of his actual ability.

Once again, Chuck’s ability to see the best in people and bring that out helped resolve a situation. In the beginning they may have had their jaded versus fresh views of each other – “Dear God, it's us 30 years ago," "Sarah, that's us in 30 years!" but in the end the Turner’s saw in Chuck and Sarah something that they had lost sight of over the years, that despite their differences they still loved each other and that was the important thing.

Morgan may not have had much success on his aptitude tests. He did almost pass one, but I wouldn’t really brag about that. Sure, he can name the guns, but Chuck was right to want to keep them away from him in the apartment as he’d be likely to kill someone other than his target. He may be the worst candidate the Casey has ever trained, but he put his life on the line to ensure Casey’s safety. As the big man himself says, “How many Marines you know go up against a Bengal tiger unarmed? You have to be a complete idiot.” Then again, as General Staal said in an episode of Doctor Who, “the bravery of idiots is bravery none the less”.

I did like the intercutting of Morgan and Chuck in their missions to steal something from around the neck of a sleeping giant, and the fact that Big Mike and a tiger sound very similar when taking a nap! Who would have guessed that Big Mike could help out in some way on a spy mission?

It intrigues me that Awesome has yet again been targeted by The Ring, this time in Africa. Initially we were meant to believe that they operated in decentralised cells, and that Sydney’s death would have prevented the misinformation of Devon’s status as a spy from getting to any other cells. Then he was targeted again in Vs The Beard, this time as a diversion, but surely this means that The Ring either believe him to be an agent, or know he is connected to Chuck. Either way, I feel a storm is coming.

Both this week and last week have been really fun episodes. I think that now the ‘will they, won’t they’ angst is no longer an issue, there can be a lot more focus on the balance between the comedic side and the dramatic side which the show combines, for the most part, brilliantly. Also the fact that Sarah is now comfortably with Chuck, it gives Yvonne the chance to do more of the light stuff which she had little of for the first two and a half seasons.

Next week is Chuck Vs The Tooth, an altogether more dramatic offering that guest stars the legendary Christopher Lloyd. Great Scott!

As usual, check out ChuckYouTuesday’s podcast – remember, it contains strong language.

Until next week, ‘Semper Fidizzle’ Chucksters!

Chuck Vs The Honeymooners

Chuck Vs The Honeymooners was the second outing for the new Chuck writers Lauren LeFranc and Rafe Judkins who proved that Vs The Tic Tac was not just beginners luck. Add to that mix Ali Adler, who always delivers great episodes, and you have what I think could be the Chuck Writers dream team. Not only that, but we had Robert Duncan McNeill directing, and that man has vision. I’m sure many will agree that he has directed a number of outstanding episodes.

But that’s enough about behind the episode; let’s get to the meat of it.

Morgan and Casey have to team up, to the annoyance of Casey, but the delight of the fans. I made a quick comment on Twitter, the sentiment of which is that Morgan has taken his place as the new ‘old Chuck’, albeit with a bit more enthusiasm for the spy game. His bumbling makes for great comic relief, but when it comes to the crunch he pulls out something really useful. Even part of one of the scenes, where Casey and Morgan were tied back-to-back, had echoes of Vs The Undercover Lover (“How do you like me now, sucka!”) As Casey himself admits; “Grimes here was resourceful and quick to action when necessary.”

Seeing as Casey got Morgan onto Team Bartowski, he was initially loathe to ask for his help, but seems to be commending him a lot quicker than he did with Chuck at the same stage. Seems to me that Casey has grown as a person more since the beginning of the season than in the rest of the series.

Chuck and Sarah started the episode wanting to quit the spy life, or at least believing that was what the other wanted. Eventually they realized that they don’t need to choose one over the other; they make too good a team both personally and professionally. During the fight scene in the café – which happens to be one of the best I have ever seen, and it would be criminal if the stunt team didn’t win an award for it – they have the dynamic which we previously saw with Sarah and Bryce, that synchronisation which allows them to be seriously kick ass.

Chuck now seems to be fully in control of the Intersect, being able to flash at will, which is nice to see. It was also really nice to see an episode, after all the darkness of the Shaw arc, where Sarah was enjoying herself most of the time, and with Chuck enjoying himself, and of course both of them enjoying each other ;) . Also, from a guys perspective, Sarah looked very seductive when discussing with Chuck about doing one last mission before they quit. :)

Devon and Ellie got a look in this episode. They are travelling off to Africa as part of Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières, but it’s not the last we’ll see of them this season. Plus we got an ‘unplugged’ performance from Jeffster; although why they were performing ‘Leaving On A Jet Plane’ dressed as ‘Bookends’ era Simon & Garfunkel is anyone’s guess. One thing is sure; it was much better than Ben Affleck’s version in Armageddon. I reckon that demand will be high for a Jeffster album, certainly after the season finale where we get to see the first Jeffster music video!

The most quoted line from this episode will undoubtedly be the one from General Beckman – “Off the record, it’s about damn time.” Ever so slightly meta, cos it’s what the shippers have been waiting for since season 1.

Laughs, romance, thrills and ass kicking skills; Chuck Vs The Honeymooners was an unabashedly feel-good episode. I know many of us were grinning from ear to ear after watching it.

As usual, check out ChuckYouTuesday’s podcast – remember, it contains strong language.

Next week, Chuck Vs The Role Models. It has guest stars Swoosie Kurtz and Fred Willard, so it’s bound to be a cracker.

Chuck Versus The Other Guy

Chuck Vs The Other Guy was billed as the Chuck we’ve been waiting for, and damn was it ever!

The other guy is of course Shaw, who has been looking a bit creepy in a number of episodes. Now we know why, or so it seems.

This episode is full of great moments for the fans no matter what your favourite element of the show is. We get to see Chuck gear up with a tactical assault team in the pre-credits, perhaps slight overkill, but then again, Sarah did appreciate the tank. Casey gets to kill some bad guys and capture the director of The Ring – a kind of reunion for Jayne and Badger if you watch Firefly – and gets his old job back. Morgan becomes an official member of team Bartowski, much to Gen. Beckman’s chagrin. I’m sure the biggest moments for a lot of fans are the Chuck and Sarah moments; Sarah finally admits that she loves Chuck and they get together, properly. I’m sure that in that hotel room in France, Chuck is hoping not to find another IOU from Morgan!

Despite the amount of planning that has gone into the operation to steal the Intesect plans and kill Sarah, Shaw seems to be somewhat a reluctant bad guy, he gives Chuck the chance to stay out of it, he didn’t want to hurt Chuck because he wasn’t involved in his wife’s death. He made sure that Sarah was drugged so that she didn’t suffer as much when he killed her, it was the CIA he wanted to suffer. In giving the Intersect plans to The Ring, he would harm the security of the entire country, but his mind was bent on revenge, so he wasn’t thinking straight.

On the NBC forums, not long after the season started, somewhere, although I can’t actually find the post, I said that Chuck would kill someone by the end of the season, but it would be in order to protect Sarah. I think we all hoped it would be Shaw that he killed and I guess our wish was granted J

One thing that doesn’t sit right with me is the question of when Shaw was turned by The Ring.

The most logical time would have been before he infiltrated Team Bartowski, but that is fraught with problems. If this was the case, why did The Ring try to get Shaw’s intel and destroy Castle, and why did he put on a performance of finding out about his wife’s death if that was a) what helped The Ring turn him and more importantly b) nobody was there to see it.

Sure, from a storytelling perspective, we needed to find out that Sarah killed Evelyn Shaw so we would understand Daniel Shaw’s motive. It was very much a reveal and deceive tactic if he was a double agent, but from a plot perspective, it didn’t make sense.

If The Ring turned Shaw after he found out that Sarah killed Eve, then more of the previous plot elements make sense. It also explains why the Director said that Shaw was his newest agent. However, what fails to make sense is the whole set-up of the ‘creepy Shaw’ that gave the audience the feeling that he had a hidden agenda. Given the fact that he must have been recruited in a really fast time, and a lot of other things would be put down to coincidence, and I don’t believe in coincidence, that whole idea falls apart.

As usual, check out ChuckYouTuesday’s podcast – remember, it contains strong language.

The next two weeks are repeats, Chuck Vs First Class followed by Chuck Vs The Beard, so no new blog posts, but remember to watch live as they still count on the ratings.

Also, as I said in the last post, why not rent Spies Like Us during the hiatus as well. It’s a film that is well worth watching, plus you get the fun of spotting the references from Chuck.

I’ll be back in three weeks with a rambling about 3.14 - Chuck Versus The Honeymooners.

Chuck Versus The American Hero

Chuck Vs The American Hero was another episode that contributes to the over-use of the word ‘Awesome’.

The American Hero of the title seems to be Shaw, Gen. Beckman refers to him as “..a true American Hero” as he was willing to sacrifice himself for the good of his country. We know that his agenda was more based on revenge and that the patriotism was pretty much a bonus.

Talking of hidden agendas, Casey, Morgan and Awesome all helped on Chuck’s ‘mission’ to win back Sarah for their own reasons. Casey wanted out of the Buy More and back into the spy life, Morgan wanted to be more included in the spy life, and Awesome wanted Chuck to go so that he no longer had to lie to Ellie.

Jeff and Lester proved that they are indeed world-class stalkers, managing to tail Shaw and The Ring agents without being spotted. Kudos. If they weren’t quite so creepy/stalker types they’d probably be impressive spies. An honourable mention must go to Jeff’s van ‘Loretta’, who managed to keep up with Shaw’s sports car – well, the van is honourable, the activities it’s used for are probably less so.

We had this season’s reference to ‘Spies Like Us’ with the soda machine elevator. If you haven’t seen the film, go and rent it during the two-week hiatus. It stars Dan Aykroyd and Chevy Chase and is a great film.

Season 1 had GLG-20, Season 2 gave us ‘Doctor, doctor, doctor … and doctor’, Chevy Chase, and, maybe by sheer coincidence, the character Emmett Milbarge – a combination of the title characters from Spies Like Us, Emmett Fitz-Hume and Austin Millbarge.

By the end of the episode Shaw knows that Sarah killed his wife as her Red Test, that would have been a bit of a roadblock in the relationship, were it not that she’d already chosen Chuck over Shaw. Considering she said that she was no longer in love with Chuck, she made a very quick turnaround when Casey revealed that he was the one who killed Hunter Perry on Chuck’s Red Test. This also reveals how much of a shipper Casey is; he’s willing to compromise himself in order to get Chuck and Sarah together. He sees that the two of them need each other to function properly.

Sarah has very much had the role of damaged goods for a lot of this season, having had her heart broken and seen changes in Chuck that she despised in herself. She’s had a crisis of confidence and of personality all because of Chuck. The most prominent occasions have been when she’s away from Chuck, she felt that she couldn’t talk to him because of the heartbreak and so confided in Shaw, who it has been stated is “as stiff as a board”.

Sure, we’ve had occasions where she’s gone back to being the kick-ass chick we love. Versus The Tic Tac is, for me, the best example of this, and of course, she crumbled and went crying back to Shaw when she saw Chuck about to kill a Ring agent in cold blood. Hopefully now that Chuck and Sarah are getting together, so long as manic Shaw doesn’t go completely mental, we should see a strengthening of the relationship that we left in First Class.

Next week, Chuck Versus The Other Guy, which looks set to be another cracking episode. Then of course the two-week break before we get to see the last six episodes of the season. I can hardly wait to see how good they are, but at the same time, I don’t really want the season to end, especially given it’s current status ‘on the bubble’

Chuck Versus The Final Exam

What an episode! Chuck Versus The Final Exam definitely makes the grade as far as I’m concerned.

A mission in two parts to determine Chuck’s future, this episode continues the theme that was brought to the forefront in Versus The Tic Tac; sacrifice. Unbeknownst to our hero, the intelligence gathering stakeout is just part of the test. The final exam of the title is to do what is necessary in the spy line of work. Can he kill to protect the country?

Chuck was presented with his own Kobayashi Maru scenario. Kill Perry, become a spy and lose Sarah, or let him live, fail to become a spy and lose Sarah. The problem that was never addressed was that he had a lot more to lose than Sarah if he failed his ‘Red’ test. They couldn’t let him wander around with the Intersect in his head, he would have to be killed, or they could spend ages trying to find Orion again to de-Intersect him, again.

Of course Sarah believes that Chuck passed the test by himself, even though we know he couldn’t intentionally kill someone. For Sarah to see him standing above the body, gun in hand, not only was it Chuck becoming the person she feared he would, there was also a metaphor; ruthless spy Charles Carmichael had killed loveable nerd Chuck Bartowski.

Throughout the episode we had callbacks to earlier in the series, most notably to Versus The Sizzling Shrimp, their very first stakeout. Not only do these remind us how far Chuck has come from his car-bound days, but they also remind Sarah of the Chuck she first met, and how, ever since Prague, he has been slipping away from her.

Her guilt is obvious; she looks uncomfortable in his company at times, especially after being reminded of the nerd she fell for and realizing who she has helped him become. She is ill at ease because she knows that she is the reason he’s doing all of this. “I wouldn’t be here right now if it wasn’t for you,” he says at one point, hammering it home to her. She’s following orders despite it being against everything she wants. During the discussion with Shaw before meeting at the train station it looked like she was going to tell him to go to hell. I know a number of people would have liked that!

We shouldn’t forget the lighter side; we had some great comedy moments as well. Chuck on the side of the hotel sans towel; that seemed to be quite a hit with some fans!

Buy More got a look in, Casey adapting, or not, to civilian life. Now that his job is working at the Buy More, all that aggression normally channelled into beating up bad guys was, well, channelled into knocking heads, Jeff and Lester’s to be exact.

Big Mike had some good lines; “Are you strong enough to bend like the reed and not snap like the Kit-Kat?”

His philosophy that to get your head right, you gotta get your threads right seems to work for Casey, for now. A dapper new suit for the temporary Assistant Manager seems to calm his temper, but how long before he can get back to doing what he loves (and we love) and ‘Unleash The Casey’?

I could be wrong, but did it look like he could almost give Chuck a little hug when he got his ‘present’ – “It was a thoughtful felony.”

But the episode ended on a low note for shippers. Sarah tells Shaw she is no longer in love with Chuck, and Chuck is of to DC to fill out the paperwork and be officially welcomed into spyhood. Fear not, for all will be resolved. I know it, you know it, so lets sit back and enjoy the ride!

Next week, Chuck Versus The American Hero in which Chuck goes to save Shaw, not because he’s told to, but for Sarah. He just wants her to be happy, even if it’s not with him. Sweet, in a sickening kind of way, isn’t it?

As usual, check out ChuckYouTuesday’s podcast – remember, it contains strong language.

Final note: the ratings were posted this morning, and they aren’t looking good. They stayed steady from last week at a 1.9, a series low. Hopefully it’s just a bit of a blip, but only time will tell. Don't freak out - yet!

Chuck Vs The Tic Tac

This season just keeps delivering the goods. Chuck Versus The Tic Tac may seem an odd title, but the episode was full of minty fresh drama and action. For those of you who watched the episode, the title makes perfect sense, if you haven’t watched yet, why the Chuck not?

Robert Patrick, probably most memorable as the liquid metal T-1000 in Terminator 2, guest starred as Casey’s old commander, James Keller, the guy who turned him from Alex Coburn into John Casey. He plays military types very well, and brought a menacing air to the character, as was needed.

The action sequence at Casey’s former fiancée’s house had me thinking of The Matrix for pretty much the first time since Chuck Versus The Predator. Chuck takes the Laudanol pill to calm his emotions and quell his fear and suddenly he becomes Neo, dodging bullets. All that was missing was bullet-time and the slo-mo 3D rotation.

I liked the parallel drawn between Casey and Chuck, Casey choking Keller to death and, not much later, Chuck being in danger of doing the same thing to another Ring agent. Interestingly, it seems that the antidote to the pill is Sarah Walker; Chuck sees her and his emotions come back, just in time.

I mentioned in a previous post about things being set up for later – this episode was less of a step in that direction and more of a leap. Casey was given his ‘second second chance’ by General Beckman and demoted to civilian, and how that must have hurt him. I think it pained him deeply; bad enough that he was giving Chuck relationship advice. Worse still, he’s now in a similar position to where Chuck started; the Buy More is his life now, but you just know that Casey being the kind of person he is will be the best he can be at that. There, that wasn’t as spoilery as it could have been!

Considering that this episode was written by Chuck first-timers Rafe Judkins and Lauren LeFranc, they managed to produce one of the best episodes of the season. Kudos. They had the spy action kick-assery for Chuck and a return to form for Sarah. There were two heartfelt chats, one between Sarah and Chuck, essentially her getting the ‘please don’t change, I love you for you,’ stuff off her chest, and one between Casey and Chuck regarding sacrifices made for the job.

As usual, check out ChuckYouTuesday’s podcast – remember, it contains strong language.

Looking forward to next week - Chuck Vs The Final Exam. Chuck has to pass a final test to become a proper spy and has to try and win back Sarah from Shaw. Morgan would tell you it’s on at Oh Twenty Hundred pm EST on NBC.