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.