“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”.