Search - Chuck: The Complete Second Season [Blu-ray] on Blu-ray

Easily one of the most delightful shows on TV

Robert Moore | Chicago, IL USA | 04/28/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"For me watching CHUCK at the beginning of each week increasingly became one of the high points of my TV watching week. If you can get past the rather silly premise for the show (and if you can, you have a real treat in store), that someone was able to have the entire contents of the CIA mainframe downloaded in his brain, you will discover one of the most entertaining and likable casts on TV. If you don't know CHUCK but are familiar with Josh Schwartz's previous series THE O.C., CHUCK is what that show would have been if you had isolated the Seth/Summer part of the show and made Seth a spy (I've read that Adam Brody, who played Seth, was originally asked to play Chuck, and Summer herself made an appearance in Season One as a potential love interest for our hero). Schwartz saved the Ryan/Marissa/Taylor part for GOSSIP GIRL. If the latter is all about the cool and hip, CHUCK is all about nerds and their universe. If the girls on wear their Jimmy Choos, Chuck wears Chuck T's.

But if you haven't seen the show, here is the main thing you need to know: all the spy stuff is secondary. The real reason to watch CHUCK is the comedy and the romance. The comedy comes from all directions: Chuck, his friend Morgan, the outrageous group of nuts who work at the Buy More store where Chuck has his day job, his NSA handler Casey, and, of course, Mr. Awesome. (I have a theory about Awesome. From various Season One episodes I think the original idea was for Chuck's sister Ellie (played by the gorgeous Sarah Lancaster) and her fiancé Devon aka Captain Awesome, played by the incredible Ryan McPartlin, to break up, creating some possible romantic tension between Ellie and Morgan. But I believe that they realized that Awesome was not, as they initially supposed, a disposable character. And Adam Baldwin as Casey is just a marvel. In the Season One extra features the creators Schwartz and Fedak reveal that Baldwin was invited to be on the show largely out of fandom (possible of his role of Jayne Cobb on FIREFLY?). I love the way that Baldwin (no relation to Alec, as many suppose) can flip from action tough guy to comic foil at the drop of a hat. Trust me, the show is funny and delightful from beginning to end.

But it also has romance! The tortured attraction between Chuck and his beautiful CIA handler Sarah (played by the marvelous Aussie actress Yvonne Strahovski) is one of the best on TV. One might imagine that it would be tough to buy the idea of a complete nerd and a knife-wielding glamorous spy could fall in love, but Zachary Levi and Strahovski easily pull it off. Yvonne Strahovski especially is great at making you feel that Sarah cares more for Chuck than any handler ought to and a lot of the enjoyment of the show focuses on their inability, for professional and other reasons, to act on their feelings. And all of this is wonderfully complicated by the fake relationship that they have to present to Chuck's friends, since her cover is that she is his girlfriend.


The fate of CHUCK is uncertain as I write this review. After a great Season Two finale, which has the potential to redefine the series. But there is a real chance that we won't get to see what happens next. CHUCK is one of several great series that is on the brink of cancellation. Despite a passionate fanbase - which includes several major TV critics - CHUCK's ratings have not been great. Worse, NBC has made one of the worst decisions in the history of television, deciding to gut five hours of scripted primetime television in order to give the extraordinary mediocrity that is Jay Leno the 10 EST/9 CST time slot Monday through Friday. What possessed the corporate nutjobs in charge of programming to come to this idiotic decision is a mystery we'll be debating for some time to come. But the decision not only does tremendous harm to television at large, but directly threatens CHUCK. But as things stand, this great show is in real danger of corporate murder. Along with two of my other favorite shows, DOLLHOUSE and TERMINATOR: THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES, some really great television is in danger of disappearing. It is unthinkable that shows as good as these are in danger of cancellation while horrors like Jay Leno and AMERICAN IDLE clog up primetime television.

Will Chuck and Sarah finally find love? Will he now be a real spy instead of merely a CIA asset? Will we see Chuck's father again? Will Chuck go back to work at the Buy More? Will Morgan? Will Chuck continue to live with Ellie and Awesome? Have Casey and Chuck really bonded like it appeared at the end of Season Two? These are just a few of the questions we want to see answered. Let's just hope that NBC manages to get past its insanity to preserve one of its most delightful shows. But with fully one-third of its weeknight primetime schedule given to mediocrity, good television might be in trouble.

Oh, Season Two, in true nerd fashion, ends with a famous line borrowed from THE MATRIX."

The best show currently on Television

JM Prescott | Tucson, AZ | 07/13/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This show is amazing... It's like "The Matrix" "Get Smart" "24" and "Friends" all put into a blender and mixed into the coolest, funniest, hippest Spy-Comedy-Action-Adventure show of all time. Actually has there ever been a show like it? I don't think so. It's not full of serious drama and heavy issues - it's not fine cuisine or a world class wine, but it's like having the best damn pizza & the best beer on tap you have ever had! "Chuck" is pure comfort - whatever crappy mood I am in I can always put a Chuck DVD in the player and instantly feel better.

Oh and the music is out of this world. Gnarls Barkley, Crooked Fingers, Bon Iver, et. all this show has a movie quality soundtrack!

You also get that feeling that either Zach Levi or Yvonne Strahovski are going break out in that major way eventually as movie stars or something else. Yvonne has got to be the most beautiful woman I have seen on television in two or three decades!

"Chuck" is destined to attain legendary status and it is fitting that it's NBC again, like 40 years ago with Trek they don't quite know what to do with a show that has a massive fan base but isn't quite exploding like it should. If NBC dumps it after 2 or 3 seasons, expect this to be looked back on in a decade or so as the 2nd biggest mistake in television history. :)"