Chuck(2007-2012) TV Series Review

WARNING! This review features plot points that may be considered

to be spoilers. You have been warned!

I'll admit, when I first heard of this show coming out, I wasn't impressed. The premise really didn't jump out and grab me. However, I soon heard really amazing things about the show shortly after it had run it's course and left the airwaves. A few months back, I had ordered all of the seasons from my local library and have finally, over the course of 4-5 months, finished the show. I'll also admit that when it ended, I cried. Chuck went from being a show that I wasn't willing to go near, to becoming my favorite television show of all time. 

Chuck Bartowski(Zachary Levi) is a man who works for his local neighborhood Buy More as a part of the Nerd Herd. One day he receives an e-mail from his old Stanford buddy, Bryce Larkin(Matt Bomer). Once he opens it, a bunch of flashing images fills his computer screen. He is eventually hunted down by the C.I.A. because what he has in his head, is a super computer called The Intersect, which, when looking at certain people or images, he "flashes" on crucial information on that person. The two people who find him are Agent Sarah Walker(Yvonne Strahovski) and Colonel John Casey(Adam Baldwin), the former being a beautiful woman whom Chuck develops feelings for, and the latter being a "take-no-gruff" tactics kind of guy. 

Chuck Bartowski is a fun-loving guy. Zachary Levi portrays him with nerdy aplomb. I'll admit, when I saw that he was playing the main character, I was a bit worried, but that's only because the only thing I had seen the guy in was the less than stellar 2009 film, "Alvin And The Chipmunks The Squeakquel". However, thankfully, I was proven wrong. Not only is Chuck loveable, but he also is incredibly funny and has a giant heart. The constant, "Love Me, Love Me Not" game that he keeps playing with Sarah begins to really develop and bloom into something as the show goes on.

Let's talk about Sarah Walker(Yvonne Strahovski). She may not be the best spy around, but she certainly is the most beautiful. When she first meets Chuck, she keeps a lot of things boxed up and is decidedly reclusive about what she tells to who. Australian actress Yvonne Strahovski is the perfect choice to play Sarah Walker and pulls off an American accent quite well. Which makes me wonder why she ever did the film "I, Frankenstein", but that's neither here nor there. Sarah sticks with Chuck through thick and thin and their relationship is the best I've ever seen.

John Casey(Adam Baldwin) is the biggest hard-ass anyone has ever come across. He served in the military and when he was done, he joined the C.I.A. Whenever he comes across anyone, his tone of voice never raises above "gruff monotone". Adam Baldwin is wonderful as John Casey, and the best of the Baldwin Brothers(Yes Alec is also quite good, but Stephen is dead-set passionate about making a "Bio-Dome" sequel and Daniel and William, well, they're there). He rarely ever cracks a smile and his deadpan delivery is absolutely hilarious. 

There is a wonderful plethora of side characters. You have Morgan Grimes(Joshua Gomez) who is Chuck's best friend, who sometimes doesn't know any better. You have Chuck's sister Ellie Bartowski(Sarah Lancaster) who's very protective of her little brother. There's Devon "Captain Awesome" Woodcomb(Ryan McPartlin) who is married to Ellie and a pretty awesome dude. We have the people who work at the Buy More. We have the boss Michael "Big Mike" Tucker(Mark Christopher Lawrence) who loves Subway, Jeff Barnes(Scott Krinsky) and Lester Patel(Vik Sahay) who are two eccentric people and have their own band, Jeffster! There's Anna Wu(Julia Ling) who is Morgan's beau for a period of time, until she meets a culinary chef in Hawaii. Finally, there's General Diane Beckman(Bonita Friedericy) who is the person who supervises Chuck, Sarah and Casey. Before I continue on about more aspects of the show, lets take a look at my top 10 favorite episodes of the show.

#10 "Chuck Vs. The Aisle Of Terror"(Season 4, Episode 6)

In this episode, Chuck, Sarah and Casey track down a scientist(Robert Englund)  who is making a toxin that induces nightmares, while the Buy More gang is planning to celebrate Halloween. This is, really, the only Halloween episode. While it isn't scary, it is incredibly funny and successfully achieves the atmosphere that it's going for. Plus, having Robert Englund, Freddy Kruger himself, in an episode of Chuck is just purely amazing. 

#9 "Chuck Vs. The Colonel"(Season 2, Episode 21)

General Beckman promotes Casey to Colonel and orders him to bring back Chuck and Sarah. Casey tracks Chuck and Sarah to a motel in Barstow, CA near the Fulcrum facility code-named Black Rock, where he arrests them, despite some interference by Fulcrum. Suspicious of Casey's involvement in Chuck's disappearance, Devon breaks into his home. Casey confronts Devon but is prevented from killing him by Chuck and Sarah, who escaped their holding cell during a blackout. Chuck reveals the truth of his spy life to Devon. This episode is wonderful, not only for it's plot, but the final scene, which is an attack on rival agency Fulcrum, is wonderfully ballistic. This has to be the best action scene of the show.

#8 "Chuck Vs. The Intersect"(Season 1, Episode 1)
Chuck receives an email from Bryce Larkin (Matthew Bomer), an old roommate and friend who is now a rogue government agent. The email contains all the government secrets once contained within a computer called the Intersect, which are then downloaded into his brain. Upon discovering that the data on the Intersect had been sent to Chuck, the CIA and the NSA send their agents Sarah Walker and John Casey to retrieve the data. I have to put the pilot on here. It's the one that started it all. Simple and fun at the same time. Bonus points to Chuck for referring to Sarah as Vicki Vale from Batman(1989)

#7 "Chuck Vs. The First Date"(Season 2, Episode 1)
Chuck prevents Colt (Michael Clarke Duncan) from obtaining the Cipher – a device that would ultimately lead to a new Intersect. Chuck is told that this successful mission marks the end of his espionage career and the beginning of a normal life. Free from bullets and bombs, Chuck finally asks Sarah out on a real first date. But Chuck's role as the old Intersect is not good news for everyone as Casey deals with a difficult order assigned to him – that Chuck must be terminated when the new intersect is activated. This one has a great story line and shows that at this point, Chuck is Ok with having the Intersect in his brain but would prefer to get it out as soon as possible. The issue of Sarah and Chuck in this episode brings up quite a lot of questions and theories as to what's going to happen. Plus, you have the late, great Michael Clarke Duncan. He's always fun.

#6 "Chuck Vs. The Ring Part II"(Season 3, Episode 19)
After being saved by Morgan and Devon from Daniel Shaw, the team is out of harm's way and Chuck finally meets with Ellie to explain his spy life to her. They decide that after they have taken down The Ring, Chuck's spy life is done. The team learns from an imprisoned General Beckman that the Ring leaders, known as the Elders, are going to be at a special conference to take over the CIA and NSA. Team Bartowski is able to capture the Elders and expose Shaw. Chuck suffers a brain attack when flashing on Kung Fu, and wakes up in Castle, where he is being cared for by Sarah. Shaw escapes and comes to the Buy More and demands that Chuck face him. This is a really good one because we have a nasty villain, wonderfully portrayed by Brandon Routh, which not only makes up for Superman Returns but poses a lethal threat to the gang, seeing as how he killed Chuck's dad. Thrilling and fun.

#5 "Chuck Vs. Santa Claus"(Season 2, Episode 11)

Christmas Eve doesn't go as planned when a criminal crashes his car into the Buy More and holds everyone hostage, including Chuck, Sarah, Casey, Ellie, Awesome and Morgan. This episode is not only intense but very funny and very sweet, especially during the subplot involving Chuck giving Sarah a bracelet for Christmas. Plus Big Mike's brother is revealed to be Reginald Vel Johnson who plays a cop in here and played Carl the cop in Family Matters and Al....the cop in Die Hard. Typecast much?

#4 "Chuck Vs. The Cliffhanger"(Season 4, Episode 24)

In this episode, Chuck and Sarah get married! And it's just as sweet and beautiful as you can imagine. Chuck also gets the Intersect out of his head! What could go wrong? Well.....The glasses that took the intersect out of him are picked up by Morgan, who doesn't realize it when he puts them on, they give him the Intersect. This episode, for a little while, brings closure and hope that Chuck can get his life back. Morgan also gives a few great zingers in this one and Chuck and Sarah getting married is pure bliss watching it unfold.

#3 "Chuck Vs. The Ex"(Season 2, Episode 6)
Chuck reunites with his college girlfriend Jill(Jordana Brewster) and thinks that their relationship has come back full force(They had broken up when Bryce Larkin framed Chuck for cheating on a test in college).  This one is not only a great one but also delves into the past of Chuck a little more. You would think that Chuck and Jill really wouldn't gel together as a couple, but they project a sweet embrace of each other. It certainly doesn't help when you find out she's from Fulcrum.


#2 "Chuck Vs. The Fake Name"(Season 3, Episode 8)
Chuck puts aside his usual spy identity, Charles Carmichael, to become Rafe Gruber, the world's most trained assassin for his latest assignment. I love this episode mainly because Chuck really pulls off being a bad-ass, with a deep gruff voice and a slicked-back persona. The final ten minutes, where he has to perform a very tricky sniper shot or else he'll be found out, is both intense and funny.


#1 "Chuck Vs. The Goodbye"(Season 5, Episode 13)
Yes, the final episode of Chuck is my favorite episode. Kind of cliche, I know, but, I have my reasons. Of course everything is wrapped up in this episode. Chuck has been through hell the past couple of episodes. Sarah had to upload the Intersect to find and save Chuck, who was kidnapped at the time, but it malfunctions. She gets kidnapped by a man named Quinn who brainwashes her to kill Chuck, dueto her memories being erased by The Intersect. After Chuck convinces and saves her, they go on one last mission. They have to find and kill Quinn, who has panted a bomb at an orchestra that General Beckman is attending, that goes off when the music stops. Just as the orchestra dies down, Jeffster! comes in to save the day with their cover of A-Ha's "Take On Me", which is pretty amazing. Chuck has to upload the Intersect one last time which hurts him to do it because this means Sarah won't get her memories back. After they successfully disarm the bomb, using a tactic they did to disarm a bomb in the first episode,Morgan and Casey's daughter, Alex move in together, Casey relocates to be with an old flame, Ellie and Awesome and their newborn Clara move to Chicago and Chuck finds Sarah at the beach. She tells him to tell their story. He does and they embrace each other(Seen photographed to the left). The screen fades to black, the words "Chuck" come on for one last time, and the series ends. This show ended the best way possible, and I'll admit, this was really hard to watch and not cry by the end of it.

The action scenes improved as the series went on. The fight scenes in Season 1 felt a little staged, whereas they flowed normally  by the end of the series. The gun-fighting sequences are great to watch as well, especially watching the vast assortment of guns used. Of course being a gun lover(in a good way) I notice on numerous occasions that the guns don't recoil at all, but that comes with many TV shows.



The comedy scenes are done well, as they should be for an Action-Comedy. There are scenes where Chuck feels uncomfortable in his surroundings. This is notably highlighted when Sarah and him join a nudist colony. Their friend Gertrude(Carrie Anne-Moss) jokes that Chuck has "Not a lot" to be embarrassed about. The antics of Jeff and Lester are extremely amusing to watch and Big Mike is extremely lovable and funny as a Big-Hearted boss.


There is one thing that I have to nitpick. There is the character of Emmett who runs the Buy More for a little bit. In the first episode of Season 3, he comes across a criminal and runs his mouth to him. The criminal turns around and kills him. The characters wonder where he is the next day and Chuck tells them he's on a retreat. The characters never bring him up again for the rest of the series. Wouldn't somebody say something about this?


This going to sound a bit cheesy but, here goes. Zachary Levi, Yvonne Strahovski, Adam Baldwin, Joshua Gomez, Sarah Lancaster, Ryan McPartlin and the creators of the series Josh Schwartz and Chris Fedak, If any of you are reading this, I just want to say, thank you, from the bottom of my heart. You guys have given me and a lot of other people the greatest TV show that was ever created. You guys provided quality entertainment that is extremely lacking in TV today. I am a fellow Chuckster, and I am proud of it! I would love to meet all of you one day. That would be "Awesome!" Make Jeffster! a real band, that would be amazing! And hey, I might just write this Chuck movie myself. I think I have an Idea in mind. I thank all of you from the bottom of my heart.