“Chuck versus the Nemesis”; Is Your Klingon a Bit Rusty?

This week’s episode of “Chuck” marks another out-of-season holiday episode for our re-watch project. More importantly, though, this episode, “Chuck versus the Nemesis” marks the start of a tradition of excellent Thanksgiving-themed episodes for the show that also includes Season 2’s “versus the Gravitron” and Season 4’s “versus the Leftovers”. Plus, we get the return of a living, breathing Bryce Larkin, some very good (and very funny) action scenes, and a great cliffhanger ending. That’s a lot to talk about and before I get to that, I’ll mention that, as with all our reviews for this season, we’re playing around with the format this week. We decided to take one line from each of our normal categories (Comedy, Action/Special Effects/Scenery, Story/Suspense, and Romance) that we liked and one that we didn’t. Each line will be ranked using our traditional card ranking system (2-Ace, low to high) and we’ll talk about why we liked or didn’t like that particular line. With all that out of the way, let’s get to it.

“Chuck versus the Imported Hard Salami”; Is This a Hot Sandwich, In the Reuben Family?

A new week has come and with it the latest episode of our “Chuck” re-watch project. Last week’s episode “versus the Breakup”, pushed the show in unfamiliar directions, with Chuck ending he and Sarah’s cover relationship, while also setting up new romantic possibilities with the introduction of Lou, played by Rachel Bilson. This week’s episode would push things even further with a completely unforeseen development coming at the episode’s end and the introduction of the arc upon which much of the remainder of this season and the next would revolve around. Before we get to that though, as always, we’re shuffling the format of the review a bit this week. In the spirit of the London Olympics we’re abandoning our usual card assortment in favor of assigning bronze, silver, and gold medals to each of our usual categories (Comedy, Action/Special effects/Scenery, Story/Suspense, and Romance). With that said, let’s get to it.

“Chuck versus the Truth”; Are You the Big Potato?

We’re now more than halfway through the first season of “Chuck” (61.5% of the way in fact) and as our last few reviews reflect, the show really seems to be hitting its stride at this point. Not that there were many missteps, but the writing has gotten better and the show feels more comfortable with where the characters are headed going forward. This week’s episode is “versus the Truth”, the season’s eighth, and one that deals in present matters much more so than last week’s backstory-centric “versus the Alma Mater”. As important as last week’s episode was in the establishing many elements of the “Chuck” mythology and backstory, this one drops a pretty big bombshell as it relates to Chuck’s future. Before we get to that, though, as a reminder, we’re shuffling the format as we have for each episode review this season. I’ll be covering our usual review elements (Comedy, Action/Special Effects/Scenery, Story/Suspense, and Romance) with our usual rankings (2-Ace, low to high) as they relate to all the characters except Chuck and my occasionally tardy, albeit well-meaning, fellow blogger will cover all things as they relate to Chuck. With that, let’s get to it.

“Chuck versus the Alma Mater”; Are You Coming to the Toga Party?

This week’s installment of Chuck’s first season finds us at “Chuck versus the Alma Mater”, an important look back at Chuck’s formative years at Stanford and the events that led to the unraveling of his relationship with Bryce Larkin. As has been the case for all of our Season 1 reviews, we’re shuffling the format this week to bring you something new. We’ve decided to focus our reviews this week on specific characters. Since this is a very Chuck-centric episode, we decided that I would review all of our usual categories as they applied to Chuck and my fellow blogger would review all of our categories as they apply to everyone else. With that said, let’s get to it.

Review: “Chuck vs. the Sand Worm” Part 2, are you a tucker?

This week sees us reversing categories from the last installment and once again commenting on those card-areas that we do not review ourselves. With that simple introduction out of the way lets jump straight to the episode, the classically named “Sand Worm”.  Breaking the tradition of the past couple of weeks we are treated to another all around excellent episode with nice plot activity, character development, comedy and cultural references.

“Chuck versus the Sandworm” Part 1: Do You Want to See My Snake?

We’re back at it again this week, hopefully signaling our return to a more regular blogging schedule. This week’s entry will cover the sixth episode of season 1 of Chuck, “Chuck versus the Sandworm”. While we’re wildly out of season for this Halloween episode, very little of it was actually about Halloween. Instead, we got an in-depth look at some of the elements, good and bad, of Chuck’s important relationships with his friends, family, co-workers, and handlers. Unfortunately, I won’t be touching much on those dynamics, as we’ve inverted last week’s format. If you weren’t able to check out last week’s post, that means I’ll be covering the Action/Special Effects/Scenery and Romance categories and my partner will cover the Story/Suspense and Comedy categories. It’s a shame, because I really liked this week’s story a lot more than last week’s. Nevertheless, let’s get to my half of the review.

Review: “Chuck vs. the Sizzling Shrimp”, Part 2: did you bring a sweater or light jacket?

Part 2 because this week my fellow blogger and I have split the ranking category duty. You can see his thoughts on the Comedy and Story/Suspense categories in the Part 1 post, while following the break I’ll be laying out my review of the Action/Scenery/Special Effects and Romance categories. As an additional step this week we will both be commenting on the other’s post to help fill in thoughts on the categories we did not review, so feel free to jump in with us. We’re seeing a trend developing after the well rounded “vs. The Tango” episode with both subsequent episodes choosing to focus on particular aspects of the show more fully: the spy life in “Wookie” and family and friends here in “Shrimp”.  While I was a little more lukewarm on last weeks version, I was quite happy with the results from this week’s entry.  To the breakdown.

“Chuck versus the Sizzling Shrimp”, Part 1: Is the Guacamole Bad for Your Spastic Colon?

Our return to full time blogging of Chuck finds us at “Chuck versus the Sizzling Shrimp”. As with all of our re-watch project reviews, we’re using a new format this week. Like that first visit to the gym after a long time away, we’re not going to overdo it. Accordingly, we’ve decided to split our normal reviewing duties in half, with the Comedy (clubs) and Story/Suspense (Spades) categories handled by myself and the Action/Special Effects/Scenery (diamonds) and Romance (hearts) categories handled by my partner. We’ve also committed to commenting on each person’s review to provide a condensed version of our thoughts on the elements we didn’t cover. With that said, let’s get to (half of) it.

Review: “Chuck vs. the Wookie”, are you a Fett to someone’s Solo?

For the 4th episode of season 1 we’re continuing our ever-changing blog format, this time choosing one Ace worthy moment from each of our traditional categories and expanding upon it, instead of speaking of all the elements in the episode.  In hindsight I really wish we had chosen this format for “vs. the Tango”, which easily delivered Ace moments throughout.  While “vs. The Wookie” was a good episode it didn’t match the range of quality that “vs. The Tango” delivered and remained focused on spy life developments, with a strong “Star Wars” motif running through the entire episode. With that being said, here are my Aces for the week. 

Review: “Chuck vs. the Tango”, are you shaken AND stirred?

In keeping with our new format, which has us changing our blog structure with each new episode, “Chuck vs. the Tango” will present a shift in the way we use our card ranking system. Instead of ranking categories of the show (comedy, action, etc..) with the cards, we will instead present four categories, A,K,Q,9, and put within each category aspects of the show that we deem to fit there. Ergo, everything that was totally awesome will be placed in the A category, and on down the line. With that out of the way, lets talk about the undeniably entertaining third episode of “Chuck”. 

Review: “Chuck vs. the Helicopter”, do you have to be asked to be a hero?

Episode two will feature my rankings up front followed by my thoughts about the different categories in a free flowing format.  

Review: “Chuck vs. The Intersect”, Are you in the group hug?

As Crown Vic outlined in his first post back from our hiatus (here) we just couldn’t stay away from this amazing television show, and so we’re starting at the beginning.  Everybody should be involved in the group hug that “Chuck” provides its viewers.  And what a beginning it is, right?  This is what a pilot episode should be, front to finish. But before I break it down in my review I will echo my partner in letting you, our faithful readers, know that while our review of the pilot episode will follow the format we established in our Season 5 reviews, subsequent reviews will follow an ever-changing format as we seek variety and entertainment, so stay aware as we modify our structure weekly.

“Chuck versus the Wookiee”; Are You Pulling The 4-Leaf Clovers Out Of The Rotation?

This week, we’re taking a look at the 4^th episode of Season 1 of “Chuck”, “Chuck versus the Wookie”. In keeping with our recent trend, this week’s review is going to be different in format than previous ones. Specifically, we’re going to identify one thing from each element of the show we review (comedy, action/special effects/scenery, story/suspense, and romance) that we felt stood out from everything else and discuss why we felt it was so outstanding. In keeping with our playing card theme, the moments we select are automatically given an ace ranking, so you can think of this as “aces week” for the blog. With that said, let’s get to the standout moments from this episode.

“Chuck versus the Tango”; Did You Learn the Girl’s Part of This Dance?

Week of 3 of the “Chuck” re-watch project finds us at “Chuck versus the Tango”. This episode is not only a lot of fun, but also the point where I think the show really established its tone and character motivations. Not surprisingly then, I think very highly of the episode as a whole. I’ll get to that shortly, but first let me explain our modification to the blog this week. Readers of the blog know that we traditionally rank the elements of the show (comedy, action/scenery/special effects, story/suspense, and romance) using playing cards, with a “2” being the lowest score and an “ace” being the highest score an element can achieve. This week, at the suggestion of my inventive (if not punctual) co-blogger, we’re going to switch things up by having categories of “ace”, “king”, “queen”, and “9” and speak about the moments of this episode we felt fit into each of these categories. With that said, let’s get to it.

“Chuck versus the Helicopter”; Do You Kid About Quiche?

The second week of our “Chuck” re-watch projects finds us at “Chuck versus the Helicopter”. In truth, I’ve always considered it one of the weaker episodes of the early series. I say early series because I’ve always felt that seasons 1-3 were vastly superior to 4-5, even though I did largely enjoy seasons 4-5. So, while I might be a little harder on this episode than some from the season 5 reviews that are already up, keep in mind that I hold it to a much higher standard, especially after taking in that spectacular pilot episode last week.

As I said in my review of said pilot, my partner and I have decided to play with the format of our reviews week to week to keep things interesting and that starts this week. Instead of our normal section by section review of the article, this week you’re getting an essay-style look at the episode as whole from us. The card ratings will still be a part of the review, they’ll just be placed up front for you to see, independent of the text. Let us know what you think of these format changes and with that, let’s get to the review.

“Chuck versus the Intersect”; Are You Thinking Pancakes?

After a lengthy hiatus filled with a lot of reflection on “Chuck”, my fellow blogger and I have decided to keep this thing going by starting from the show’s beginning and working our way up to Season 5. Could this be seen as a shameless attempt to soak up any fanfare we can get long after our blog’s original purpose has been fulfilled? Sure, but “Chuck” was a great show from start to finish and we both enjoyed the process of blogging on it so much that we couldn’t resist. Going forward, we’re going to make some structural modifications to our format each week (after this one anyway) that should hopefully keep things interesting. We’d love to read and respond to any comments you the readers have if you’re making the journey from the start with us or just happened to catch whatever episode we’re currently discussing around the same time we did. With that said, let’s get to this week’s review of the show’s pilot, “Chuck versus the Intersect”.

Review: “Chuck vs. the Goodbye”, But it’s our story, don’t you want to hear it?

I just finished watching this episode for the second time, and I can’t begin to describe the emotional state it generated. This episode, this finale in total, is amazing. I was correct that the second viewing brought it into better perspective, and heightened the emotional impact as it did so. It’s an amazing payoff to five years of watching this show. I. Love. It.

Absolutely I want to hear this story, and I want to hear it again and again, and that’s the beauty of this finale. It wasn’t designed as a climax to the season storyline, it was designed as a legacy for the entire show, and in that regard it was an unbelievable success. Years from now I will care so much less how Chuck managed to defeat Shaw, or the Ring, or Fulcrum, but I will remember, and care, about the emotional payoff this finale delivered and will keep delivering upon repeated viewings.

Review: “Chuck vs. Sarah”, Did you change in the past five years?

Thus does it end. As the second of us to post on the finale (and substantially later than my co-blogger) I felt these last thoughts were deserving of separate posts. 

Once again I have the advantage of time on my side, writing this review after a second viewing much later than the air date. As has happened before, taking time between viewings made the second go-round much more enjoyable. My suspicion is that doing so allows the brain to process plot elements, and once I know what is going to happen I can sit back and enjoy what is happening much more than when I’m unsure of where the story will end. Perhaps it is a flaw of mine, but I’m a sucker for knowing what’s going to happen in the story and tend to over-focus on those elements when watching an episode or movie for the first time. 

 I think this episode, as the first part of the series finale, was great. I mean, really great.  The plot wasn’t necessarily the best, and there are problems with Intersect mythology most likely, but that’s not the point. And that’s my realization about the end of this, and other, great shows. The point is that they make you care, they get you invested, they tell a story that becomes part of your life. And this episode delivered that, because I cared about these characters and it left me in a heightened state of emotion at its conclusion, possibly more so than after watching it the first time. The “plot” for Chuck’s finale was not mechanics and storyline devices, it was about the characters. And that was so much easier for me to see on the second viewing. 

Quintessentially Chuck vs. the Poor Memory

Here’s the situation, as mentioned in previous posts this blogger does not have extensive (read: basically zero) exposure to re-watching Chuck episodes. This means I have not scene the vast majority of episodes in all seasons since their original air date. We’re talking five years here people. This makes recalling Chuck over the years a vastly different experience for me than for my co-blogger, but also presents an different viewpoint which hopefully will interest our readership. It also raises an interesting question on the very nature of TV watching, that is, watching a show pilot to finish via broadcast scheduling and all it’s inherent gaps, or starting a show after much of it has been aired and being able to view it in a much more rapid fashion, without weekly wait times and even without commercials. What are the differences in viewing styles and perspectives that can develop because of that?

Review: “Chuck versus the Goodbye”; Are You Mixing Your Spy Metaphors?

After a largely good and fun run, Season 5 and “Chuck” as a whole are done. I watched the last two episodes, “Chuck versus Sarah” and “Chuck versus the Goodbye”, without my trusty laptop at my side to take notes and write down comments as I wanted to sit back and enjoy the ride as a fan. I, indeed, did enjoy what we got. In essence, over the course of those two hours we got all that’s made the show what it is over the years: action, drama, romance, suspense, laughter, and Jeffster. Yet, when people look back on “Chuck versus Sarah”, it’s hard to believe that the focus of conversation will be anything but that ending. It was a crazy one and something wholly different than what I expected we’d get. For the most part, I think that’s a good thing, though, and I’m happy with how “Chuck” went out. Of course, that’s just my general feeling and this blog is very much about specifics. With that said, let’s get to it.

Review: “Chuck versus Sarah”; Did You Loosen Up That Leggy Blonde?

It’s over. “Chuck” has come to an end. Processing what we’ve seen in the final two episodes of this season and the show in general has taken me a couple of days, so my apology for the lateness of the accompanying reviews. Suffice to say, I’m shocked at the ending we got, although I think, overall, I like it. We’ll get to that in the next review I post, but since “Chuck versus Sarah” and “Chuck versus the Goodbye” are technically distinct episodes, I’m going to tackle them separately. Last week’s episode, “Chuck versus the Bullet Train”, was a pretty good effort that got the ball rolling on this final arc of the season. The real question going into this episode was how far the writers would go with that arc and, as we saw, they went pretty far. The Quinn/Intersect arc spanned 4 episodes (“vs Bo”, “vs the Bullet Train”, “vs Sarah”, and “vs the Goodbye”) and this was my favorite of the bunch. Let’s get to the breakdown.

Some Thoughts on the End……

I started watching “Chuck” as a result of friends who were really into the show. The first episode I saw was, I think, “Chuck versus the Ex” and it was pretty tough to follow, but fun overall. Having nothing to do one day a month or so later, I watched about 10 episodes of the season online and got hooked. I think it was “Chuck versus the Suburbs” that really hooked me. The blending of the completely ridiculous suburban stereotype with spy action and the Intersect was such an invigorating combination. That episode made me realize that “Chuck” is a wholly unique show. It’s unlike anything else on television. That uniqueness alone makes it significant in my mind. Beyond its distinctiveness, though, “Chuck” is simply great television. In 40 minutes, “Chuck” can weave stories about spies, nerds, losers, babes, and the government into something that is so undeniably entertaining that it defies description. Today’s “Quintessentially Chuck” moment, Jeffster’s rendition of “Mr. Roboto”, is the scene I use to describe the advantages of a visual medium over the printed word. After all the time I’ve put into “Chuck” over the years, I wanted to take time to write some thoughts down on the end of the show. This isn’t a formal essay on the merits of “Chuck”, it’s not a synopsis of the show, it’s just my thoughts on the end of something that’s been a big part of my life for the past 4 years.    

Quintessentially Chuck: Day 5

Today marks the end of “Quintessentially Chuck”, which is going out with a bang. Today’s moment comes from the show-defining second season in which “Chuck” could do no wrong. After watching the season again over the course of the past few months, there isn’t a single episode that I’d consider of even average quality in the overall canon of “Chuck”; it’s all that good. A season of any show with 22 episodes as of the quality of “Chuck’s” second season would be good enough on its own (great, really), but the pacing of the season was remarkably well done too, with some nice standalones at the start, then the fantastic Jill arc, a few more standalones, and then a full tilt sprint to the finish with the best arc in the history of the show, namely the Orion/quest to remove the Intersect/Intersect 2.0 arc that capped it all off perfectly. From this paragraph of gushing acclaim, you can probably infer that it was tough for me to pick just one moment from season 2. In fact, part of the reason I opted to cover all the seasons of “Chuck” for this series was to ensure that it wasn’t top-heavy with season 2 moments. With that being said, there’s one moment from Season 2 that stands out in my mind as the defining moment. It’s the one point in the show’s history where every plot line, every story, and every character detail that had been built and established over the course of the season converged perfectly in a single moment to produce a cataclysmic eruption of awesome.

Quintessentially Chuck: Day 4

Welcome to the penultimate edition of “Quintessentially Chuck”. Season 5 is the subject of today’s moment. If you’ve read the reviews on this site, you know that I haven’t been overwhelmed by what we’ve had so far this season. The drifting of the show away from its central premise has continued this season to the point where it’s a full-fledged spy show now, instead of a show about a normal guy in a spy’s world. Moreover, the writers appear to have abandoned several arcs, including Morgan as Intersect and the government conspiracy angle, ahead of schedule, which has left me with a very mixed impression. The challenge, then, was to find a moment that captured what the essence of the show is (or perhaps was), as the show itself changed and moved away from that essence. There’s some negativity implicit in that statement, and the quality of the show has gone down this year, but I do think the writers of “Chuck” deserve a lot of credit for developing and growing the characters over the years. That development feels very out of step with the current crop of television shows on the air and the sequel-heavy year of movies we had in 2011. In fact, it feels so out of step that I’m going to go ahead and call it quintessentially “Chuck”.

Quintessentially Chuck: Day 3

Welcome to the third installment of “Quintessentially Chuck”, a daily look back at individual moments from each season that could only have taken place in the “Chuck” universe. Today’s moment comes from Season 4. Choosing a moment from this season was tough because the show started drifting away from its central premise of a nerd in a spy’s world over the course of Season 4. As Chuck’s learned to control the Intersect 2.0, he became a much more confident, aggressive character. Similarly, the missions frequently took place outside of Burbank, CA and thus the opportunities for spy and Buy More plotline convergence were considerably lessened. Finally, Linda Hamilton as Chuck’s mother failed to leave the same indelible impression on the show that Scott Bakula made as Stephen J. Bartowski. That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy Season 4, however. There were a lot of really, really great moments, like Chuck’s proposal to Sarah, all the various Gretas, and basically any scene involving Timothy Dalton as Alexei Volkoff. When I started to think of possible moments from Season 4, one moment stood out as my top choice, and after reviewing the season’s episodes, that moment is still my choice.

Quintessentially Chuck: Day 2

The second installment of “Quintessentially Chuck” will cover Season 1. This was a tough season to choose from because there were a lot of really great “Chuck” moments throughout. Chuck and Sarah’s relationship begins to develop, we learn why the Intersect was sent to Chuck, Casey’s Crown Vic was blown up, we got some vintage Buy More shenanigans with Big Mike’s marlin, among others. The moment I chose, however, comes from the very first episode of the series.

Quintessentially Chuck: Day 1

With this week marking the end of “Chuck”, we thought it would be fun to look back on some of our favorite moments from the last 5 seasons. Each day this week, we’ll post a moment from the show that captured, for us, what the essence of the show is. While it’s tempting to pick several moments from Season 2, I’m going to try and take one moment from each season. This list is not meant to be a chronicle of the top 5 moments in the show’s history and the order they’re presented in has no bearing on how much we liked each one. It’s simply a list of five quintessentially “Chuck” moments that remind us why this is the show we write about each week.

Review: “Chuck versus the Bullet Train”, Are You Uniquely Wasteful?

The penultimate episode of “Chuck” (counting next week’s 2 hour finale as one episode) has come and gone. Going in, I felt this was a make or break episode for Season 5 , as the Nicholas Quinn story arc now feels like the most significant of the season, after the government conspiracy and Intersect Morgan angles were wrapped up in short order. I don’t think the show delivered entirely on the promise of the angle, however, this episode was just good enough to be keep me invested and get me excited for what should be an epic conclusion next week. And really, isn’t that the point of a television show in the first place? Let’s get to the breakdown.

Review: “Chuck versus Bo”, Are You Filled with Rainbows?

On the heels of what I consider to be the worst episode of the series, I came in with low expectations for “Chuck versus Bo”. I was pleasantly surprised to get one of the better episodes of the season, along with what looks to be the final arc in the show’s history. We got some nice comedy, a new big bad, and some additions to the Intersect mythology. Let’s get to the breakdown.

Review: “Chuck versus the Kept Man”, Are You About to go Nuclear on Your Biceps?

Another installment of Chuck’s final season has come and gone. Any hopes I had for a memorable addition to the Chuck canon were completely shot by this entirely forgettable, silly episode. While there were some decent comedic moments, anything taking place outside of Burbank fell completely flat with me. Let’s get to the breakdown.

Review: “Chuck vs. the Baby”, How About a Game of Sorry?

The funny thing about this episode is that broken down into the categories my instinct is not to rank any one category very high; yet when I think about the episode as a whole, ignoring the fact it really is a standalone episode that does not develop or continue any episode arcs I wish were in place going into the series finale, I think rather highly of it. So I’m going to attempt to highlight the good pieces with the average in each post this week, instead of focusing on the poorly executed that would tend to bring my ranking down. 

Review: “Chuck vs. the Santa Suit”, do you want to go for a run?

So, this episode felt like it was trying to hard to play heavy, emotional chords that just didn’t vibrate with this viewer, and the rankings reflect my overall feeling towards the episode at its conclusion.

Review: “Chuck vs. the Curse”, How Sturdy is Your Combat Roll?

I’m not gonna lie, Ellie and Awesome carried this episode. Loved seeing them playing the spy game again, but the rest of the episode just didn’t hold up as well, reflected in my rankings. 

Review: “Chuck vs. the Hack-off”, Can You Drop off the Grid Crazy-Guy Style?

This review of “Chuck versus the Hackoff” is admittedly coming in a bit late, but better late than never, right? I’ve re-viewed the episode and I’m not sure how having multiple looks at it will influence my opinion. I enjoyed the episode generally speaking but had a lot of issues with the story and writing. At any rate, let’s get to the breakdown.

Review: “Chuck versus the Business Trip”, Is Your Chain Considerable?

After watching Chuck last night, I have to say, what a fun episode. Chuck episodes seem to be either storyline/arc driven or humorous standalones, and last night was the best example of the latter this show has had in a long time. There was nothing spectacular plot-wise (aside from maybe the ending), but everything was linked together in a way that made the whole show, beginning to end, a fantastic way to spend an hour. And really, isn’t that the purpose of television in the first place?

Review: “Chuck vs. the Frosted Tips”, Is Your Core Really Tight?

Overall, I liked this episode. It felt very solid but didn’t leave me buzzing with that particular Chuck thrill I mentioned last week. 

Review: “Chuck vs. the Bearded Bandit”, Do You Have Creamy Skin and Unusually High Cheekbones?

Before I hit the highlights I have to say that for me this episode, more than the season opener, held me captivated by that special level of fun that only a firing-on-all-cylinders episode of Chuck possesses, leaving that tingling sensation of enjoyment behind after the preview for next week’s episode has ended. There is a sheer thrill that accompanies Chuck awesomeness (see previous post), and this episode had it. 

Review: “Chuck versus the Zoom”, Is Your Ball Warm?

I sit here typing with anticipation high for this the final season of Chuck. Last season’s finale sowed the seeds for some epic governmental conspiracy-style arcs that have always been a favorite part of Chuck for me. I think it gets at the lesser self-evident truth of American government, namely that the government does a lot of crazy, behind the scenes stuff that we’ll never be privy to. At the same time, the Morgan-Intersect project could either be a fun, unique twist for Chuck’s final season or a regrettable change in direction akin to Scrappy Doo or the Scrubs reboot.

To me, the results of Intersect 2.0 in general, Morgan or no Morgan, have been mixed. There have been some phenomenal moments, such as the spic Shaw/Chuck showdown of season 3 and some of the most cringe-inducing moments of the series, such as the wine glass juggling scene in season 4.

With that said, let’s get to the element by element review. For those who didn’t read the earlier posts, we rank the different elements of the show from 2 (low) to ace (high) as follows: clubs for comedy, spades for action/suspense/story, diamonds for special effects/scenery, and hearts for romance.

Special Sneak Peek of Chuck Review

Tacked onto the end of the extended preview of Grimm(found here), which premiers following Chuck this Friday, was a sneak peak of Season 5 that I would like to share my thoughts about, and which may be skewed simply because I was so excited to see new Chuck material finally!

  This clip was primarily a comedic one, and I felt that the efforts were on par with Chuck standards if not spectacular. Morgan as the intersect will apparently be used for comedic effect for at least a little while, which is good considering Morgan is the primary source of laughs left in the show (excluding Casey’s grunts, of course) with Chuck having moved into the sleek, suave spy realm finally (and I’ve got so say that Zach Levi is looking very smooth in his tux for this scene). Pretty much what I would expect, with the tip-toe run across the driveway being a highlight, along with dropping the vase at the end of successfully kicking bad-guy tail.

  The clip also featured a solid action scene with the comedy aspect, and I have to say that I was impressed. As a whole I felt again that the scene was on par with what Chuck can deliver, but I was particularly impressed with our first glimpse of Morgan as the intersect. My guess is that if I looked back at previous seasons of Chuck fight scenes some of the same moves might appear, but my initial impression of Morgan’s fighting style was that it differed from the style that “intersect Chuck” employed when flashing (perhaps they are using a different style of martial arts in the choreography of the show to emphasize the change? That would be cool) . The final leaping kick to disarm the villain with the gun and the summersault kick to finish him off were totally awesome. With Morgan being a much smaller person than Chuck they should be able to do some visually interesting things with him that will create some separation from “intersect Chuck” and establish Morgan as an intersect in his own right, but I’m certainly hoping the journey to get there is a little bumpy.

 Special effects looked good enough viewing out over the ocean that I wasn’t pulled out of the scene, and that’s all I really ask for from this show.

 Not a lot to say romantically here, however, if they stick with the Chuck and Sarah as an old, married couple routine I would be okay with that, it’s definitely time to put the drama that has been a story line staple previously behind us in the final season.

Chuck Rises From the Grave in 1 Week!

With Halloween so close, will the season premiere of Chuck be a themed episode?

Chuck Returns in 3 Weeks!

And these bloggers are very excited for that premier!