I have a confession to make. I have a hard time believing that Chuck actually managed to get a 4th Season pickup. While I love the show Season 2 especially, Chuck saw a distinctive dip in quality during the 3rd Season which it was just starting to recover from by the time the season ended. This wasn’t just me. The ratings for the show quite clearly reflected the growing viewer discontent. In virtually every way Season 3 was a failure. It drove away die-hard fans and new viewers alike.
Fortunately, by the end of the season Chuck had recovered from much of its missteps from the early and midseason. And Chuck managed to squeak by and get a 4th season pick up, despite its drop in viewership. To be honest the fact that Chuck survived had everything to do with NBC’s desperate schedule and the Jay Leno fiasco. Chuck is a relatively cheap show to produce and its ratings, even at their lower level, still made the show a viable choice for NBC.
Season 4 was not a certainty, and despite the uptick in quality at the end of Season 3 the show still has some fundamental issues. Structural issues that the writers have clearly struggled to overcome. In reality these are pretty obvious. The Intersect 2.0 helped Chuck become a better spy, but also caused Chuck to muscle into territory earlier owned by Casey and Sarah (and due to relationship issues, Sarah was almost sidelined). Also, as Chuck became a spy, his family and workplace became less and less important. And as they became less important, the writers typically overcompensated so when those other characters were onscreen they were so over-the-top that their charm almost completely disappeared.
The fundamental problem is that as a spy show Chuck is only average. Chuck really shines in its relationships, and as the show became more spy-centric that focus shifted. Now this isn’t necessarily a problem. But at the same time the writers are also clearly unable or unwilling to move on. This is why as a spy show Chuck fails…the writers still try to ground the show in what Chuck was originally…a lovable nice person who falls into trouble. He is a character who started with potential that was being completely squandered in a loveless-existence as a faceless computer-tech at a faceless retail outlet until the Intersect gave him a purpose and a meaning. As a character Chuck had to evolve from that state. And he did. Yet, for the most part the rest of the show has not. And that’s the problem.
Season 4, though, seems to be taking a stab at resolving those issues. Chuck and Sarah are now a couple, and they work surprisingly well as one as a spy-team. If anything, that romance has always been the emotional center of the show; and as a couple that’s even more obvious. Morgan has now been brought him…which somewhat saves his character for uselessness (though I think they have made Morgan too bumbling). Casey has a daughter (which will hopefully factor into Season 4). And everyone of importance now knows Chuck’s secret. The Buy More is No More, having been destroyed. And Chuck now has a new ‘mission’ to find his mother, though has promised Elly to leave the spy game.
So, much like the Season 3 premier, this episode is a bit of a step backwards. Though it’s not as jarring as Season 3, and has more of a ‘yeah, but’ twist to things that makes it more palatable. Chuck and Morgan have spent the summer (and a huge amount of money) spanning the globe trying to find Mom…only to find their first real clue back in LA. Sarah and Casey have continued on as spies, both missing out on Chuck’s presence. Chuck’s back to keeping secrets…but in some ways that makes more sense here (until he has something to tell, it’s better to keep it secret).
So Chuck has no luck finding Mom (though he gets closer than he realizes). He’s out of money, so he decides to find himself a ‘real job’…and in an amusing sequence finds each potential employer acting very strange towards him. The Buy More has been rebuilt, and is now a full-fledged CIA operation—and General Beckman wants Chuck back. The Ring has been replaced by an entirely new organization of Bad Guys (who are already more interesting than either Fulcrum or the Ring ever were…though time will tell if that is true or not). Linda Hamilton was great as Chuck’s mom (an inspired choice) and so was guest star Dolph Lungren…who would have made a great recurring villain IMO.
By the end of the episode, Sarah and Casey know the truth about Chuck’s secret activities. He’s now back on the team (along with Morgan). General Beckman is now permanently stationed in LA…which should be cool as it’s always fun when she’s directly interacting with the cast. And it’s somewhat expected, and frustrating, that Chuck still keeps the truth from Elly (although I admit I wouldn’t have told her at that moment anyway).
But the episode was not the shot out of the park that the show needed. As a pure spy show Chuck is somewhat lacking (and typically falters in spy-centric episodes like this one, although admittedly this one was better than most). Jeff, Lester, Big Mike, and Awesome were not even present in any way (and while I can do without Jeff and Lester, no Awesome is criminal). Even Elly was only in for a short scene (where she dropped the b-bomb) and that is a real shame. The episode definitely suffered from trying to jam in too much plot in too little time and the faster the show gets the more desperate it seems.
So while the premier was not a home run it still did well enough. The stuff with Chuck's mother, while brief, was compelling. And those final moments definitely showed that Chuck’s mom is going to be different than their father. I’m still quite interested in where the show is going, and I do hope that the uptick in quality continues. Tonight’s a new episode, and I can’t wait to see where they go from here.
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