Season Three of Chuck Brings Angst and Catharsis

There’s a certain melancholy attached to starting a really good series on DVD. You start off hoping to get sucked in but knowing that when the multiple marathons have brought you to the end of what’s available on DVD, malaise will set in. My family finished watching season three of Chuck a couple weeks ago, and I couldn’t quite bring myself to rush out and write the review right away. It felt too final. Of course, there is a season four, but I hate to plunge into it “live” having missed the first half of the season, so I have a feeling it will have to wait. I’m sure it will be worth it; the first three seasons certainly were.

Season three of the action-comedy-romance created by Chris Fedak and Josh Schwartz has a slightly different tone to it than the first two seasons. While there are still laugh-aloud moments in every episode, I’m not sure I would classify it as primarily comical. Each of the characters faces major challenges in this season, and at times their obstacles feel downright oppressive. In fact, there were several episodes that left me feeling depressed, though the season ends on a mostly uplifting note.

The biggest reason for the change is that Chuck Bartowski (Zachary Levi), the unassuming computer technician who unwittingly filled his head with government secrets in the first episode, has experienced a shift in his life plan. After spending two seasons largely focused on ridding himself of that unwanted knowledge, he had a brief taste of freedom before downloading the new Intersect, this time intentionally, in a moment of crisis. With this new version, he not only is able to identify baddies instantaneously, he has the chance to immediately learn how to accomplish complex tasks such as doing kung fu or performing surgery. These abilities come only intermittently.  He has to concentrate harder than usual to call them forth, and he doesn't always have control over them once he gets them, but just knowing that they’re lying dormant in his system is enough to change Chuck’s attitude toward espionage. He is no longer a reluctant spy simply waiting to go back to his old life. Instead, like Clark Kent, he feels a duty to use his newfound powers for good.

Because of these abilities, season three is the most action-packed yet, though I sometimes missed his more unconventional means of getting out of scrapes. That’s not to say that he never escapes his enemies primarily through his quick wits or that his two handlers, tough, pretty Sarah Walker (Yvonne Strahovski) and steely, deadly John Casey (Adam Baldwin), don’t ever have to come to his rescue. But we do get several fight scenes with him that are pretty much straightforward action. As he gets closer to becoming an actual, official spy, it becomes harder and harder for him to avoid making morally reprehensible decisions, and I worried along with Sarah that the season might strip him of many of the qualities that make him so lovable in the first place.

Of the main trio, Sarah has always been the straight man of sorts. She’s sweet and incredibly capable, but she doesn’t usually make me laugh as Chuck and Casey do. In season three, she’s not just rather serious, she’s angsty. This season begins several months after the season two finale, and we learn that Chuck declined an opportunity to run away with her, opting instead for the life of a spy. It’s a rather perplexing decision, considering how desperately he loves Sarah. On the other hand, it would have meant abandoning his beloved sister Ellie (Sarah Lancaster) and giving up the chance to help a lot of people, so his decision is at least somewhat understandable. But throughout most of the season, Sarah remains bitter over this incident, and her relationship with Chuck suffers. For at least half the season, it seems that there is a dark cloud hanging over Sarah’s head, and it’s draining to watch, though there’s a definite sense of exultation when she finally begins to come out of her funk.

Deadpan Casey has subtly, gradually softened up since the beginning of the series, and at this point, while he still looks like he could rip your head off – and would if he had the right motivation – he is as sympathetic as he is intimidating. Casey must deal with several significant changes this season, and we come to see just how important Chuck and Sarah have become to him. More surprisingly, he has several opportunities to bond with Chuck’s best friend Morgan Grimes (Joshua Gomez), and despite his initial irritation with Morgan, the two turn out to make a pretty effective team. Meanwhile, a secret long buried in Casey’s past comes to light and reveals a truly tender side of his personality.

Chuck’s beefed up spy duties threaten to drive a wedge between him and Morgan as his behavior becomes ever more erratic, but the strength of this lifelong friendship proves capable of withstanding seemingly insurmountable obstacles. After two seasons of frequently coming across like a doofus and a nuisance, Morgan really begins to grow up in this season. At the urging of paternal boss Big Mike (Mark Christopher Lawrence), he takes on new duties at the Buy More that demonstrate an unforeseen knack for leadership, and he shows both cleverness and bravery when he finds himself in the position of needing to come to Chuck’s rescue. By contrast, Chuck’s brother-in-law Devon (Ryan McPartlin), a buff, easy-going doctor who rarely seems rattled in the first two seasons, gets a taste of Chuck’s lifestyle that leaves him truly shaken, and he spends much of the season looking haggard and haunted. This leads to some funny moments, in particular a hilarious confrontation with Morgan as he tries to convince Ellie that they should leave Burbank to participate in Doctors Without Borders in Africa, but it’s rather unsettling to see the man Chuck refers to as Captain Awesome so utterly stressed out.

With the arrival of Chuck’s new “superpowers,” it’s not much surprise that Superman references would fill the season. This is most noticeable in two of the season’s casting decisions. Kristin Kreuk, known for playing Clark’s longtime crush and on-again, off-again girlfriend Lana Lang on Smallville, surfaces as a potential love interest for Chuck who, after meeting him on a mission, moves to Burbank to work in his Buy More. Generally, I found her character here more likable than Lana, who was sweet enough in Smallville’s first season but soon began to exhibit obnoxious and shifty traits. More significant to the arc of the season is Shaw, a highly accomplished agent who becomes Chuck’s boss. Played by Brandon Routh, who donned Superman’s red and blue suit in Superman Returns, Shaw has an impeccable record, not to mention killer abs, and Chuck’s not so crazy about the way he’s disrupting the cozy little trio he’s become so accustomed to, especially since he seems to have his sights set on Sarah.

Along with all the Superman stuff, the season remains steeped in pop culture references that sometimes seem to come out of nowhere. Chuck’s unpredictable kung fu chops lead to an episode-long subplot about a Fight Club in the Buy More, one of the more disruptive ideas cooked up by Lester Patel (Vic Sahay) and Jeff Barnes (Scott Krinsky), Chuck’s most aggravating co-workers. I must admit, though, that they got a big smile out of this folkie with a performance of a John Denver song while garbed like Simon and Garfunkel in what’s probably my favorite episode of the season. And really, they didn’t sound half-bad. Battlestar Galactica gets a prominent shout-out in one of the season’s most dispiriting episodes, and Subway, the corporate sponsor partly responsible for keeping Chuck on the air, is integrated in a number of amusing ways. While many pop culture moments throughout the season made me smile, my hands-down favorite has to be the out-of-the-blue nod to one of Sesame Street’s most popular segments.

Taken as a whole, I love the third season of Chuck as much as the first two, but this is definitely a darker season. Several likable characters get burned, some of them fatally, and the main trio face some deeply troubling crises that threaten their sense of self-worth and psychological well-being. However, when good things happen this season, they feel all the more cathartic, so the dark moments are worth enduring, especially since there is joy and humor to be found in even the direst episode. I’m so glad that Chuck got a third season, and I’m sure that the fourth will be just as engrossing.

Season Two Brings Us Chuck Versus Charlie Pace and Lots of Other Geeky Goodness

Here in northwest Pennsylvania, football fans are busy gearing up for an exciting Super Bowl. They’re either eagerly rooting for the Steelers or, because they hate the Steelers – usually favoring the Browns or Bills – they’re rooting for Green Bay. My Facebook news feed is all lit up with declarations of anticipation. But on Sunday, my dad has already declared that we will be spending the day watching a “Chuck-a-thon,” and that sounds grand to me. We can still have the party, but the main event will be different. We finished the second season of Chuck a few days ago and are now embarking upon season three. “This show is addictive!” noted my dad, who has seen several of the episodes twice, since he’ll watch them with Mom and then re-watch them with me when I get home from an evening of working at the mall. I quite agree. But I am not complaining.

Season two of the action-mystery-romance-comedy, created by Josh Schwartz and Chris Fedak, finds Chuck (Zachary Levi) temporarily believing that he is about to resume his normal life. He’s had the Intersect, a compendium of top-secret government information, in his head for about a year, but the new Intersect is finished, and the government is done with him. He hopes that means a shot at a real relationship with Sarah Walker (Yvonne Strahovski), the sweet and pretty CIA agent who has been his handler all this time. What neither of them knows is that the third member of their little team, tough-as-nails NSA assassin John Casey (Adam Baldwin), still my second-favorite character on the show, has been ordered to put Chuck out of commission permanently. This is the first of several times in the season when we find him torn between duty to the government and loyalty to his friends – because by this point, it’s unmistakable that he has come to care about Chuck and Sarah, though he rarely shows it outwardly. Still, while his stoic but sarcastic demeanor continues to bring the laughs, we get to see a bit more of his softer side this season, and its way of expressing itself is usually just as funny as it is touching.

When the unveiling of the new Intersect ends in disaster, steely General Beckman (Bonita Friedericy), who we mostly only see via videoconference, is left no choice but to reassess Chuck’s value to the government, and she almost begins to see him as a person rather than simply a piece of equipment. Meanwhile, it becomes more and more difficult for him to separate his spy life from his home life with his sister Ellie (Sarah Lancaster) and her soon-to-be-husband Devon “Captain Awesome” Woodcomb (Ryan McPartlin) and his work life at the Buy More with his best friend, Morgan Grimes (Joshua Gomez), and an array of oddball associates. It all becomes quite entangled, with his friends and family getting unwittingly involved in his missions in hilarious and something frightening ways, and one member of his inner circle even gets in on the spy secret this season.

We get to delve a little deeper into all of the characters this season. Retail annoyances Jeff Barnes (Scott Krinsky) and Lester Patel (Vik Sahay) reveal hitherto untapped talents and ambitions. One is a video game whiz; the other tries his hand at being assistant manager when Chuck declines the job, briefly believing that he will soon bid the Buy More goodbye. Both cherish surprising dreams of rock star glory with a duo known as Jeffster. Grumpy but lovable Buy More manager Big Mike (Mark Christopher Lawrence) undergoes serious changes on the domestic and work fronts that affect everyone in the store, particularly Morgan, and spicy Anna Wu (Julia Ling) finds herself torn when it comes to her relationship with Morgan. This season also introduces a new character, the deliciously irritating Emmett Milbarge (Tony Hale), who initially comes in to assess the productivity of the Burbank Buy More staff and stays on as assistant manager because he is so appalled by what he sees. Carrying himself with an effete sibilance reminiscent of LOST’s Ben Linus, whom he rather resembles, Emmett provided a lot of the season’s biggest laughs for me. On the home front, it’s all about the preparations for Ellie and Devon’s nuptials, which are stressing Ellie out big-time, mostly because Devon’s mother (Morgan Fairchild) is heavily involved in the planning.

The writing is just as sharp in the second season as the first, with all of the elements blended together perfectly but humor always mixed in just a little more liberally. The romantic tension between Chuck and Sarah increases as romantic rivals – most intriguingly, his ex-girlfriend, Dr. Jill Roberts (Jordana Brewster) – pop up and their missions require them to practice the art of seduction. Both Sarah and Chuck find themselves in some pretty steamy situations this season, usually not with each other. This makes the show feel slightly less innocent this time around. Overall, the tone gets a smidge darker as we explore Sarah and Chuck’s childhood traumas – when do we get to see Casey’s? – and the team goes up against a rogue organization known as Fulcrum. This year, they have a nifty control center that rests underground between the Buy More and Sarah’s cover job, which has been transformed from a schlocky hot dog stand to a trendy frozen yogurt joint.

The show still abounds with geeky references. The vintage TRON poster that adorns Chuck’s room and is one of the most iconic props in the series gains even greater significance here as a major plot thread late in the season has deep resonance to the cult classic. I found myself very glad that I finally saw TRON a couple months ago, as I think it deepened my appreciation for several episodes. Adding to the TRON-tasticness of season two is the casting of Bruce Boxleitner, who played Tron in the movie, as Devon’s dad. Among other hat-tips, I loved the nod to The Karate Kid and what I took to be an obscure homage to The Princess Bride courtesy of Morgan, and it was a big kick to see Scott Bakula of Quantum Leap take on an important multi-episode guest role toward the end of the season.

A key location late in the season is called Black Rock, though I’m not sure if that’s an intentional wink at LOST. However, I love that three of the Island drama's cast members have guest roles. Anthony Azizi, who played mercenary Keamy’s right-hand baddie Omar, turns up here as a slightly more sophisticated villain, while Mark Pellegrino, who at that time had not yet joined the cast as enigmatic Island leader Jacob, is a petty thug. While I’m sure LOST had little to do with those casting decisions, Dom Monaghan is another story. Chuck Versus the Third Dimension, so named because the episode aired in 3-D, marked Monaghan’s first television appearance since he ceased to be a regular on LOST, and his character, Tyler Martin, is pretty much just Charlie Pace at the heights of his rock star depravity. He still has endearing qualities, but he’s a libidinous lush who’s so out of touch with reality that he can’t tell the difference between Burbank and Cleveland. This is the only episode of Chuck to date that I’ve watched when it actually aired, and it was funny to see it again now, in the wake of the final season, and wonder whether elements of this episode may have, in turn, inspired LOST show-runners Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse. Charlie’s trajectory in season six seems similar to Tyler’s in this episode, with a level-headed person trying to keep him out of trouble. I love, too, that both Tyler and season six Charlie get hit with tranq darts and are told that it is vitally important for them to play a particular concert.

Season two includes three holiday episodes: Thanksgiving, Christmas and Valentine’s Day. Thanksgiving includes what may be my favorite Big Mike moment to date, and he’s a major part of the Christmas episode too, during which we get to meet his equally bulky cousin. As Christmas episodes go, it’s a little twisted, since most of the time is spent in a hostage situation, but it also has its tender moments. Valentine’s Day offers a glimpse of what domestic life might be like for Chuck and Sarah if they were ever able to have a normal relationship. The season culminates in one of the most unique weddings ever to grace a TV screen.

In a season full of twists and turns, one thing that remains consistent is Chuck’s core decency. This is a guy with a strong sense of ethics and an unswerving devotion to his friends and family. When I say that he’s lovable enough to give LOST’s Hurley a run for his money, you know he’s really won me over. This is a terrific, life-affirming show that makes me laugh and smile in equal measure. Bring on the Super Bowl Sunday Chuck-a-thon!

Number 2900: Comedy, Action and Romance Blend Seamlessly in Season One of Chuck

January has always been a bit of a dreary month, coming as it does after all the excitement and wonder of Christmas, and usually feeling like one long stretch of piercingly cold weather. But in recent years, I’ve come to look forward to January as a time for my family – including my brother, who’s home for the first two weeks of the month before heading back to college – to hunker down and spend our evenings bonding over great stories, especially those stretched out over the course of one or several television seasons. These days, I associate January primarily with TV-on-DVD marathons, so when I was browsing Amazon shortly after Christmas and found a killer deal on the first three seasons of Chuck, I took a leap. After all, I loved the one episode I saw a couple years back, and not just because of Dom Monaghan. Plus, I trust the taste of those I know who have praised the show. I figured I was past due for getting swept away in it myself, and by the end of the first scene I was confident I’d made a sound investment. So I now present my 2900th post…

Chuck, created by Chris Fedak and Josh Schwartz, stars Zachary Levi as Chuck Bartowski, a geeky, sweet-natured computer technician who lives with his sister and works at the Buy More, a fictionalized version of Best Buy, as a Nerd Herder (a label that simultaneously spoofs the Geek Squad and tips a hat at The Empire Strikes Back). There’s not a lot of excitement in his life until he opens an email from his former roommate and finds his brain embedded with millions of coded images containing thousands of government secrets. Now, he’s got two secret agents on his tail at all times, and it’s not enough for them to just keep an eye on him so that valuable information is protected. Chuck is in a unique position to help them track down the baddies and rescue their victims, so he soon finds himself caught up in a wild world of espionage, full of danger and deceit. And he still has to keep up with his day job and keep his nearest and dearest from becoming too suspicious.

When it comes to the action, the intrigue, Chuck’s insatiable desire to help people and the need for secrecy wreaking havoc with his personal life, I was reminded a lot of the first season of Smallville, in which Clark Kent is always rushing off to save the day and leaving his friends in the lurch. It’s a painful position to be in, but it’s the price you pay for being a superhero. Chuck’s “superpower” is his ability to draw unconscious connections between people and events. He never can tell what may cause a flash of realization, but the thousand-yard stare is a dead giveaway that something strange is cooking in his mega-processor of a noggin. Beyond that, Chuck has nothing but his own wits and charm, along with two very capable wingmen, to help him escape life-threatening situations week after week. There’s a lot of action, and sometimes it can get pretty tense. At the same time, however, the main tone of the show is humorous, and even much of the violence has a comical edge to it, whether it’s engaging in a deadly duel with mops and plastic forks for weapons or knocking a guy out with a microwave oven.

The show deftly juggles genres while almost invariably keeping a light-hearted tone. Even the most touching or dangerous moments are soon punctuated by some element of humor. Chuck is an incredibly lovable character, a fundamentally decent guy who cares deeply about his sister and best friend and who always wants to do the right thing, even if he knows it will come at a cost to his personal happiness. But he’s also incredibly funny, and a lot of that comes down to Levi’s expressive performance. He’s got a remarkably pliable face, and just a glance at his goofy grin or panicked jaw drop can be enough to set off a case of the giggles. Chuck also has the tendency to stammer and babble when he’s jittery, which is often. Sometimes just his way of wording things cracks me up; I think my favorite line of the season from him is when he asks, after a heart-to-heart with his sister, “How would you feel about a brother-sister hug situation right now?”

At first, I didn’t think I was going to like Ellie (Sarah Lancaster) very much, as our first introduction to her is when she finds Chuck hiding from his own birthday party, to which she has invited all of her doctor friends in hopes that he will find a potential love interest. While it was a nice gesture, it seemed like she was going to be the kind of sister who’s always nagging her brother to be something other than what he is. But that really doesn’t turn out to be the case at all. They move in different social circles, certainly, but Ellie loves Chuck just the way he is, and she’s really a very good sport most of the time. It soon becomes clear that these two would do just about anything to ensure each other’s happiness and well-being.

The dynamic among Chuck’s closest companions reminds me a lot of Freaks and Geeks, the short-lived but exquisite high school dramedy about high school students in the beginning of the 1980s. It’s so easy to imagine 27-year-old Chuck as a grown-up version of Sam Weir. He’s good-natured, kind-hearted and just awkward enough for it to be endearing. Many of Chuck’s passions appeared on that very show or probably would have if it had lasted long enough, since the 1980s was such a hotbed of geeky activity. There are more recent references, such as various video games and, much to my delight, a blink-and-you-miss-it allusion to LOST, but most it dates back a while. We’ve got nods to, among other things, TRON, Dune, Lord of the Rings, Star Trek and Star Wars. Indeed, it was Star Wars that really made me notice how compatible Sam’s world is with Chuck’s. At one point in the season, Chuck’s best friend from childhood, Morgan Grimes (Joshua Gomez), appeals to him with, “Help me, Chuck Bartowski. You’re my only hope.” In Freaks and Geeks, Sam uses the very same tactic on Neil, who sadly responds, “You had to go and quote the Star Wars…”

Like Neil, Morgan is much shorter than his best friend. He has a tendency to wear out his welcome, and he overestimates his own comic abilities. Instead of making people laugh, he often winds up making them want to throttle him. This is especially true of Ellie, since Morgan’s crush on Ellie is every bit as intense as the one Neil has on Sam’s sister Lindsey, and despite the omnipresence of her buff boyfriend, he’s not afraid to show it. But Morgan and Chuck have been friends so long and are so compatible that they are truly in sync with each other, and for all of Morgan’s shortcomings – he’s easily the most annoying character on the show – this is a guy who will always have Chuck’s back, even at great inconvenience to himself. The friendship is definitely a two-way street.

Ellie and Chuck are both as different from each other and as close as Sam and Lindsey. Meanwhile, though they couldn’t look less alike, in his interactions with Chuck and Morgan, her boyfriend Devon (Ryan McPartlin), otherwise known as Captain Awesome, reminds me a lot of offbeat guidance counselor Mr. Rosso. He’s so easy-going that it seems nothing could ever possibly faze him. He’s a little cheesy and a little overinvolved, but this is a guy you really want to have in your corner when you’re in a jam, even if his solutions are sometimes a bit uncomfortable.

The show’s romantic element comes in mostly with Sarah Walker (Yvonne Strahovski), a CIA agent who has been assigned to Chuck’s case. Tough, pretty and kind, she wins Chuck’s heart immediately, and it seems pretty clear that she has taken a shine to him as well. But even though they’re posing as a couple for the sake of their cover, genuine romantic involvement doesn’t seem to be in the cards for them. I find Sarah to be extremely likable and an even better sport than Ellie. But my favorite character on the show next to Chuck is surly NSA agent John Casey (Adam Baldwin). It wasn’t until after I’d watched a few episodes and checked him out on IMDb that I realized Baldwin had played antagonistic redneck outlaw Jayne on Firefly; he reminded me more of Frederic Lehne’s single-minded Marshall Edward Mars on LOST. This is an unsmiling, ruthless assassin who always seems to be in a foul temper, and yet I find his sarcastic, deadpan humor consistently hilarious, and as someone who is often most interested in characters in need of redemption, I love those moments when we get to see his buried sensitivity break through his carefully built-up armor.

While part of Sarah’s cover involves working at the hot dog shop across the street, Casey works with Morgan and Chuck at the Buy More, along with an assortment of oddball employees, including power-hungry Harry Tang (C. S. Lee), who nobody seems to like; skeezy buddies Lester Patel (Vik Sahay) and Jeff Barnes (Scott Krinsky); and wild child Anna Wu (Julia Ling). By far my favorite member of the Buy More supporting cast, however, is the boss, Big Mike (Mark Christopher Lawrence), who is grumpy and sardonic but ultimately a softie. He likes to hear himself yell, but his outbursts are more funny than threatening, and he has an amusing obsession with fish and Danish.

Because this is a spy show, there is a certain amount of violence involved, and while there’s never anything too graphic that remains on the screen for more than a brief moment, there are multiple injuries and a few deaths as well. However, nearly all of the deaths occur at the hands of the villains, usually not in the presence of the main characters. There are scenes in every episode to get the adrenaline pumping, but they are generally handled with a careful balance of action and humor so that even the tensest situation doesn’t seem too dire. I also appreciated that while there is innuendo on the show, it’s pretty understated for a spy comedy, and there’s little overt sexuality on display. There’s not much profanity to speak of, either, and for the most part, the show feels pretty wholesome, especially because of the way it lauds close bonds of friendship and family.

Nathan’s back at college now. Meanwhile, my parents and I still have two seasons to go and a dilemma as we consider whether we want to wait for him to finish playing catch-up. I suspect that any resolve we have on that score won’t last long; this show is just too addictive to leave it hanging for several months, and I’m sure that when he does come back this summer, I won’t mind watching those episodes with him again as he enjoys them for the first time. Neither my dad nor brother had any interest in the show when they saw it advertised, but by the end of the first episode, they were just as hooked as I was. We’ve found a new series to add to our list of favorites, and that’s cause for celebration. Three cheers for Chuck!