Let’s Have Fun Again: “Chuck” Breakdown #2

Now that I’m back from filing my tax returns with the IRS for the year, let’s break down Season 3.1 of “Chuck”…

It was right after NBC ordered six additional episodes that the producers decided to have two main story arcs, effectively splitting Season 3. The first 13 episodes comprised the first arc, while the second arc (Season 3.2) consists of the last six. The end of Season 3’s Arc 1 could have been handled better, but it left “Chuck” in a good place: Shaw’s story wrapped up, Morgan became a member of Team Bartowski, Casey found out he has a daughter and Chuck and Sarah are now a couple!

I am relieved that the Shaw storyline finally played out. Not because of the actor’s ability to play the character, but because Shaw made the trio of Chuck, Sarah and Casey much too serious. Maybe Shaw didn’t have enough time to fully develop before he defected to The Ring, but “Chuck” is supposed to be a fun show, and it was always difficult to have fun when Shaw was onscreen.

One thing I like is that “Chuck” continues to grow. Now that Chuck has become somewhat competent as a spy, it only seems natural that Morgan fills the goofy component in the show’s spy missions. The spy team of Casey and Morgan promises to be extremely watchable! And as far as couples go, I can easily see Chuck and Sarah becoming the next Steed and Mrs. Peel or Jonathan and Jennifer Hart!

Can “Chuck” still be fun? Even at its worse, “Chuck” is entertaining. However, I’m hoping that the show can still be something unique on television, a show with cool characters that does action, comedy and romance equally well! I’m looking forward to watching Chuck and Sarah navigate their spy and real relationships, Casey and Morgan learning to co-exist in Spy-world, another Subway tie-in, the return of Anna Wu and Stephen Bartowski, and more Jeffster songs. I would like to see Jeffster tackle a ballad!

And on a personal note, could we have Sarah taking on bad guys in her underwear one more time?
My Favorite Episodes -- I had to pick two (So Far): “Chuck vs. The Beard”, and please don’t hate me for adding “Chuck vs. The Other Guy”

My Coolest Moment (So Far): Morgan finding out that Chuck was a spy.

My Favorite Fight Scene (So Far): Sarah in that nurse’s outfit. I would have picked Casey taking on the entire Parisian branch of The Ring by himself if they actually filmed it!

Charah Scene (So Far): Sarah telling Chuck she fell for him during the very first episode three years ago. “When you first fixed my phone and before you defused bombs with computer viruses.”