‘Chuck,’ the little spy show that could, ended a pretty remarkable 5 season, 91 episode run last Friday night. The show, low-rated from the start and always on the cancellation bubble, managed to beat the odds and come back year after year thanks to strong critical praise, a small but devoted fanbase that campaigned to keep the show on the air by buying Subway sandwiches (Subway being one of the show’s sponsors), and the fact that those low ratings were actually quite constant and therefore worth keeping around when compared to the rest of NBC’s lineup.

I had been sort of putting off writing this, opting instead to read all the other reviews and retrospectives online (there’s a great 5-part interview with the show’s creators on Alan Sepinwall’s blog), to see if the critics loved this finale as much as I did. With a number of callbacks to the show’s past (particularly the pilot), and the same humor and heart that’s made it a favorite of mine for the past five years, these final two hours gave me everything I could possibly want in a finale, the most successful part of which is the fact that it didn’t simply resign itself to wrapping everything up in a tidy, happy little bow. Don’t get me wrong, there was still a happy ending (it wouldn’t be ‘Chuck’ if there wasn’t), but not in the way I expected. Continue Reading

Aside from its Thursday night comedy block, NBC really doesn’t have much going for it these days. It feels like half their schedule is made up of reality shows, none of which seem to be even half as popular as ‘Dancing with the Stars’ or ‘American Idol.’ No one’s really watching their few drama series, new or old. And as good as ‘Community’ and ‘Parks and Recreation’ are, they’re not attracting big audiences either. So things have been kind of grim for the peacock for a while now (Speaking of which, their new supernatural procedural ‘Grimm’ debuted last night, and I couldn’t be bothered to watch past the first ten minutes, it was that boring), but I know at least one good thing has come out of it: Spy comedy-drama ‘Chuck,’ which has never been a ratings hit, has managed to survive for five — count ’em, five — seasons, thanks to Subway sandwiches, Comic-Con, a loyal fanbase, and, most importantly, being a good show. Back when NBC was the king of network TV, a show that pulled in the consistent but subpar ratings that ‘Chuck’ has been getting over the years would’ve been canceled no problem. So here’s one case in which we can be thankful that the rest of NBC’s shows have done so poorly: it made ‘Chuck’ look a lot more appealing, and as I watched last night’s premiere for the show’s final, 13-episode hurrah, I couldn’t stop smiling. It’s not because the episode was one of the series’ finest (it wasn’t); it’s because I couldn’t believe the show made it this far, and I was pretty grateful for that. Continue Reading

Chuck
Aired 4/11/2011

A lot of subplots to keep track of in this hour, with Sarah surprising Chuck with a prenup, Casey conflicted over Alex going behind her mom’s back to see him, Ellie digging deeper into Orion’s computer and not telling Chuck about it, and the team enlisting the imprisoned Alexi Volkoff (Timothy Dalton, not missing a beat since his last appearance) to retrieve a key component of some doomsday device from a Somali terrorist. All that, and some serious father-daughter strife between Alexi and Vivian, which more or less gets wrapped up by the time we’re done here, paving the way for a showdown between the younger Volkoff, our heroes, and the mysterious Agent X.

With so much to keep track of, “Family Volkoff” feels more scattered than usual, switching between characters and locations at a dizzying pace. I didn’t necessarily have a problem with it, but it gets to be a little too much once we reach the double and triple crosses in Volkoff’s secret base in the Swiss Alps. Speaking of which, putting aside that I still don’t buy Vivian’s instant turn to the dark side, the blocking of that particular scene was very problematic. I mean, didn’t those henchmen work for Vivian, and why wouldn’t they attempt to leave the vault with her after arming grenades to blow it up? More of an annoyance than anything, but still annoying.

Aside from that, a good melding of the spy and nerd world in this one, courtesy of the life or death UNO game and the life or death game of chess. And it was very funny seeing Morgan and Casey going through a daily routine now that they’re roommates. And despite the overall hurried plotting of the episode, there were some nice moments for Casey and Sarah as they dealt with their past families and settle into their new ones.

Chuck
Aired 03/21/11

Much has happened since the last time I wrote about Team Bartowski. Volkoff’s daughter discovered what her father actually did for a living and decided (rather unconvincingly) to carry on the family business, and Casey, feeling like the third wheel next to Charah (his own hilarious term), found a new team to headline thanks to Director Bentley’s (Robin Givens) new Intersect initiative. Needless to say, it doesn’t work out. Some of the ‘fixes’ Bentley made to the Intersect end up doing more harm than good and one of her new agents (Stacy Keibler as a former Greta) accidentally shoots a terrorist with a dead man’s switch hooked to a nuclear device. Chuck saves the day using his Intersect and a juice box. The incident leads to Chuck being handed the reins of the new Intersect project, but Bentley, not content with taking orders, sneakily enlists an unaware Ellie into helping her crack the secret to Orion’s computer. Continue Reading

Chuck
Episode 2.14
Aired 02/07/11

The brilliance that is John Larroquette returns as old school secret agent Roan Montgomery in this week’s Chuck. I spoke in my review of last week’s episode about how I would like to see the show go back to being a little lighter, after half a season of darker plots and a lot of tension involving Chuck, Sarah and the whole Volkoff thing. My prayers have been promptly answered with “Seduction Impossible,” in many ways a sequel and perfect companion piece to season 2’s “Chuck Versus the Seduction,” which first introduced Agent Montgomery. Not only did this episode bring some levity to Chuck and Sarah’s relationship and the spy mission itself, but it also managed to touch upon many other significant relationship hang-ups the season has been dealing with, including Ellie and her mom and Casey and his past. Continue Reading

Chuck
Episode 4.13
Aired 01/31/11

I found out last week that Chuck‘s creators had to plan for the possibility that they were only going to get 13 episodes this season, so “Chuck Versus the Push Mix” had to serve as a season and possible series finale in case NBC decided not to order the additional 9 episodes that make for a standard 22-episode season.

Well, there’s one reason right there why TV networks are strange/stupid. What a disadvantage they put showrunners at when they hold back on ordering more episodes until it’s too late to make the necessary changes to a season’s major storylines. It’s for this reason that I can’t fully blame Josh Schwartz and Chris Fedak for the episode’s problems. I can, however, commend them for bringing the Volkoff arc to a mostly satisfying conclusion, and giving Chuck and the gang a happy ending (for however long that lasts). Continue Reading

Chuck
Episode 4.12
Aired 01/24/11

Well that didn’t take very long. One episode later and not only has Sarah infiltrated Volkoff Industries (acting as a rogue agent), but she and Mrs. Bartowski have already devised a plan to bring down Volkoff and his organization for good. Meanwhile, Chuck is having a hard time adjusting to life without Sarah, and Morgan might be ready to take his relationship with Alex to the next level.

There was quite a lot to like in this week’s episode, but it suffers from some poor plotting, a rushed feel, and it opens with a flash forward, an overused device that I absolutely hate. It also happens to be following one of the best episodes of the season, which makes its faults stick out a little more. Continue Reading

Chuck
Episode 4.11
Aired 01/17/11

Things were looking really good for Chuck and Sarah, weren’t they? I had no idea the brief, seemingly throwaway exchange Sarah shares with General Beckman early in the episode would turn out to be the inception of a very cool idea: Sarah is chosen to go into deep cover in order to bring down Volkoff’s organization from the inside, and save Mary Bartowski in the process. She told Beckman she’d do anything to save Chuck’s mom and defeat Volkoff, and the CIA, thoughtful and caring organization they are, take her up on the offer, effectively ripping Chuck and Sarah apart the second before he asks her to marry him. Chuck’s determination to find the perfect way to propose and this new twist in his and Sarah’s relationship make for a very good episode and a solid return in the new year. Continue Reading

Chuck
Season 4, Episode 10

I’m not going to bother explaining why I’ve told myself time and again that I would start working on this thing for real, only to end up doing nothing. I’m just going to jump right in.

This episode was a blast. Chuck is one of my favorite shows on the air right now, and when an episode is this entertaining, it’s that much easier for me to ignore plot holes or elements that don’t work for me in retrospect. But this being my first real entry on the blog, I want to make it clear that my reviews won’t just end up being love letters to the episodes I like or rants against the ones I don’t. “Chuck Versus the Leftovers” was a lot of fun to watch, but it had some flaws.  Continue Reading