TV on Blu-ray Review: Chuck -- The Complete Third Season (2009-2010)

Now Available to Own




Season 2 Review

Originally, Buy More Nerd Herd team member Chuck Bartowski (Zachary Levi) become a secret government operative after opening an e-mail from an old Stanford classmate in the show's ingenious series premiere from series creators Josh Schwartz and Chris Fedak.

And over the next two entertaining but slightly repetitive seasons, we followed Chuck's struggle to live a duplicitous existence as an underachieving computer techie on one level and the assistant to CIA and NSA handlers Sarah Walker (Yvonne Strahovski) and Colonel John Casey (Adam Baldwin) on another in a surprisingly successful blend of mundane workplace humor mixed with top notch spy action.

Yet because Chuck never had a say in the direction his life had taken, there was always an undercurrent of pathos mixed in with the series as we watched him deal with endless lying to his best friend Morgan (Joshua Gomez), big sister Ellie (Sarah Lancaster) and her husband Captain Awesome (Ryan McPartlin) throughout.

And his dilemma was particularly magnified by the fact that our clumsily geeky lead had fallen head over heels in love with his CIA handler turned “cover girlfriend,” Sarah which became a dragged out “will they or won't they” subplot of epic proportions.

Admirably taking great strides to not only remedy these issues but also expand upon the character arc for the eponymous hero, the previous season ended with a major game changer for Chuck.

This time around, instead of accidentally opening an e-mail, Chuck opted to subject himself to another intersect download delivered right into his brain which in addition to the secret files to bring down traitorous super villains also gave the computer techie spy level combat knowledge in how to handle himself physically on a mission.

Now well on his way to becoming a real life super-spy in his own right, Chuck hopes his days of being told to wait in the car will now be over but before he can be sent out into the field solo, Chuck must prove to his handlers in both Burbank, California as well as those watching in Washington D.C. that he's fully capable of turning his emotions on and off so they won't interfere with the call of duty.

And despite Sarah's fears that the man she loves is changing before her eyes, sure enough Chuck becomes far less conflicted than he ever was before about lying to his friends and family members, which no doubt is helped along considerably in this season since a majority of the main cast members eventually discover the truth about the man they thought they knew so well.

Moreover, the decision to get everything out into the open so that the characters can start fresh appears to be not just the theme for the season but no doubt the strategy for the show at large as well as Schwartz, Fedak and the writing staff continue their perpetual fight to keep this fan favorite series on the air, regardless of its less than Earth shattering ratings.

Unfortunately even though it promises major changes given the Intersect 2.0 download and development of Chuck as a spy, overall the third season of Chuck succumbs into more predictable repetition as it continues.

While personally I found it dubious that so many people could be in on Chuck's secret life that by the time Ellie and a few others were worked into the plot it just became silly, it does earn bonus points for finally doing something with the traditionally annoying character of Morgan Grimes as well as providing us with a fascinating backstory for John Casey.

Needless to say, given how many orders are disobeyed and obvious villains and double crosses are let into the circle of government trust including a newcomer to Castle we see right through from the start, it's a good thing these individuals aren't really in charge of our national security. Nonetheless Sarah Walker continues to be the coolest female heroine on TV since Alias's Sydney Bristow.

But unfortunately since they've devoted so much time to sabotaging the on again and off again relationship between Chuck and Sarah, it even becomes a onscreen joke when they finally do hook up, making the romance lose some of its heat before we're presented with a Hitchcockian train adventure episode.

However, things perk up considerably when too many loose plot strands come together to form an intense multi-episode tapestry of a finale that shocks us completely by the sudden death of one major player before introducing us to another offscreen in what's become an expected Chuck style season cliffhanger.

And while overall given some of the silly work subplots and run-of-the-mill missions, I'm not completely confident that the writers have a clear game plan for where they want the characters to all end up including which twists they need to plant to maximize an eventual arc or payoff since it seems like priority number one is trying to keep it on the air, it's still a mindlessly fun diversion.

Similarly, it benefits from the fact that it doesn't fit into any specific genre as well as the simple truth that as original premises go, you won't find something this unique anywhere else in a sea of traditional cops, lawyers, medical, and dysfunctional families series.

However, I only wish that the behind-the-scenes staff could worry less about ratings and more about injecting that much unexpected originality throughout each and every season since they're clearly capable of knocking our socks off.

And even though the technical quality of this slightly grainy four-disc Blu-ray set most likely wouldn't meet the standards of the electronics store snobs at the show's fictitious Buy More, the content always usurps our attention as despite its flaws Chuck still remains the type of series you watch with a smile each and every week.


Text ©2010, Film Intuition, LLC; All Rights Reserved. http://www.filmintuition.com Unauthorized Reproduction or Publication Elsewhere is Strictly Prohibited and in violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

FTC Disclosure: Per standard professional practice, I received a review copy of this title in order to evaluate it for my readers, which had no impact whatsoever on whether or not it received a favorable or unfavorable critique.

TV on DVD: Chuck -- The Complete Second Season (2008-2009)

Both Seasons Are Now Available to Own
On DVD & Blu-ray





Photos



Season 3 Review

If you manage to sell the story and you’re a straight bachelor who forgot the cardinal rule of never leaving home without your wing-man (or better yet, wing-woman), then telling a woman that you work as a spy has definite “date bait” potential. And unless you’re Matt Damon on the run and desperately in need of assistance in Europe, obviously you're aware that the last thing a spy would actually do is tell a stranger they’re a spy, even if that stranger looks like Angelina Jolie. Therefore, your target would have to be inebriated, in the spy game herself, or in the possession of a low IQ for the spy routine to work at all.

Yet, what if you’re caught in between the spy world and the real world and the only woman with whom you were truly in love is not only an official CIA agent but your cover girlfriend as well?

Welcome to the world of Charles Bartowski (Zachary Levi), known to millions of television fans as Chuck.

After getting kicked out of Stanford because of a phony cheating accusation just a few credits shy of earning his baccalaureate degree, Chuck found himself the victim of actual cheating when his best friend and classmate Bryce Larkin (Matthew Bomer) stole his girlfriend Jill (Jordana Brewster) away from him as well.

Returning home to Burbank where he lives with his sister Ellie (Sarah Lancaster) and her fiancé Devon aka “Captain Awesome” (Ryan McPartlin), Chuck’s ambition and self-esteem crumbled when he fell into a pattern of what Levi described as “arrested development.”

And before the CIA and the NSA landed into his life, Chuck was simply a member of the “Nerd Herd” performing technology repairs at the homes of both customers and at the Best Buy like electronics store Buy More where Chuck works alongside his even geekier best friend Morgan Grimes (Joshua Gomez).

Yet after Bryce sends him a cryptic e-mail in the pilot episode of the series created by Josh Schwartz and Chris Fedak, all of the top secret files of the USA government are downloaded from the e-mail’s attachment directly into Chuck’s head.

Dubbed the “Intersect” because his brain doubles as the nation’s most important computer, allowing him to “flash” on people, words, or images that tie to some diabolical plots of America’s most dangerous enemies, the computer geek who earns twelve dollars an hour becomes the top priority of both the NSA and the CIA when spies from both agencies are sent to watch the asset (Chuck), keep him out of harm’s way, and ensure his true identity stays a secret.

Essentially using the “good cop/bad cop” routine, Chuck is given as the creators’ describe both Alias’ Sidney Bristow and 24’s Jack Bauer in the form of his beautiful CIA handler Sarah Walker (Yvonne Strahovski) who poses as his girlfriend alongside Adam Baldwin’s no-nonsense, military tactical expert NSA Agent John Casey who assume the identify of a fellow Buy More employee.

Unfortunately, he’s obligated to keep his true identity under wraps from his clueless friend Morgan who thankfully now has his own social life dating fellow co-worker Anna and more sadly from Ellie as well, who worries about her brother’s lack of motivation to do more with his life.

Yet as the second season begins, Chuck believes that his double life of the nine to five grind and dangerous overnights dedicated to undercover espionage are coming to a close when they discover that the government has created a second Intersect.

As Chuck looks forward to finally asking Sarah out on an actual date instead of endless fake dates alongside Ellie and Awesome now that their professional relationship will have come to a close, fate (aka the show’s talented writing staff) has other things in store when that leads to a dead end.

Although it’s bad for Chuck’s unrequited, indefinable “will they or won’t they” relationship with Sarah whose feelings for Chuck she’s having a hard time compartmentalizing as well, the continuation of Chuck as the Intersect turns out to be a very good thing for the Nerd Herder since unbeknown to Sarah or our hero, John Casey had been given orders to take him out once he was no longer needed.

With the rival rogue organization Fulcrum growing stronger than ever, Chuck proves he’s much more than merely a human computer when Jill, Bryce and some unexpected visitors from Sarah’s past return throughout the 22 episodes contained in this 6-disc compact DVD set.

Also including two pairs of 3-D glasses for the full-length twelfth episode “Chuck versus the Third Dimension” that aired entirely in the 3-D format during its 2008-2009 season which will never air in that format on television again, fans will find the episode in two different places in the set. Although unfortunately it isn’t labeled in the beautiful booklet that comes with the box set, to experience the 3-D episode the way it originally aired and with the two specially designed Chuck cardboard models, you have to go to the sixth disc where it exists as an extra.

Without any notation on the main menu of the disc that contains “Dimension” in the order NBC originally aired the titles, it was confusing to this reviewer who slid on the glasses until realizing that the booklet had no direction of just how to find this particular goodie, which Warner Brothers states will be released in the set “for a limited time.”

Still, despite this minor annoyance, the transfer quality is excellent as the first season of Chuck was actually one of the first Blu-ray sets I ever purchased. Although WB was kind enough to send me this product for review, initially I worried about the quality comparison of an HD filmed show in regard to its DVD counterpart but when played on an upconvert Blu-ray player, I discovered that there was minimal difference.

While one of the problems of the second season in terms of plot was that, in contrast to its dynamite pacing displayed in the premiere kick-off of thirteen episodes due to 2007’s WGA strike, they were creating nearly ten more shows and it showed as more time was wasted on The Office like Buy More humor and an all too familiar Chuck comedy/action paradigm of his double life.

Despite this, two of the largely Buy More focused episodes were among the series best, first in the A Fistful of Quarters: The King of Kong like showdown of a video game and a Rush song that could save mankind in “Chuck versus Tom Sawyer” and the pivotal holiday episode borrowed from Die Hard with “Chuck versus Santa Claus,” wherein he’s startled to see the woman he loves use her license to kill.

Yet, aside from a few clunkers and my fear that the show was repeating itself a bit too often, in the second season, the writers began building towards a wonderful twist as Chuck’s undercover work is ramped up and more is revealed about not just the Intersect program but also who designed it, why Chuck was chosen, and in an exciting twist now paying off from the recent start season three, just how he would evolve in the future.

In “Chuck versus the Cougars” and “Chuck versus the DeLorean,” we finally get a better sense of Sarah’s background, however it isn’t until the handful of episodes near the end of the season that we realize that it’s Chuck’s background—consisting mainly of plot devices, people, and motivations in which he wasn’t aware—that offers the most surprises when he tracks down his father.

Although the creators joke that all you need to know to understand Chuck is that he’s good and that Fulcrum is bad, there’s no doubt that knowledge of the first season helps considerably since what appears to be a rather run-of-the-mill premise about a retail employee grows into a mythology.

In fact the plot-line is so complex that there are two bonus features dedicated to unraveling it and they serve as a great refresher for those who want to either quickly catch up for season three or clarify the contents of the previous two seasons with explanations and spoilers.

The set also boasts series webisodes, “Declassified Scenes,” fun promos and educational shorts like “So You Want to Be a Deadly Spy” with John Casey and “Captain Awesome’s Tips.”

And while you wish there would’ve been behind-the-scenes commentary or perhaps a couple of pop up trivia tracks given the show’s love of homage and references that no doubt would’ve struck a chord with its Chuck-like “Nerd Herd” audience of loyal fans who continually leap into action to save the show from cancellation, in the end, we’re just happy to continually root that the nerd will have his day, get the girl, and defeat evil all in as long as it takes you to install your operating system.


Text ©2010, Film Intuition, LLC; All Rights Reserved. http://www.filmintuition.com
Unauthorized Reproduction or Publication Elsewhere is Strictly Prohibited and in violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

FTC Disclosure: Per standard professional practice, I received a review copy of this title in order to evaluate it for my readers, which had no impact whatsoever on whether or not it received a favorable or unfavorable critique.