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. 

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.

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.