Chuck-Season So Far

The Happy Couple!

Another show I will be covering is NBC's Chuck. This show is one of the most consistently good shows out there. It returns from winter hiatus tonight. My lengthy thoughts on this amazing season are after the jump.

If I could use one word to sum up this season of Chuck: Awesome! (I swear I didn't plan to use this opening in all 3 reviews!)

That is easily the best word to describe one of the most consistently amazing shows on television. Every week is always good and it exceeds my very high expectations very often. When this show is firing on all cylinders it is easily my favorite show on television. Even when it's only OK on relative terms, it's still good compared to other shows.

The first element I'll address: the mytharc for the season. Chuck finding his mother and finding out who she is and what she does has been brilliant! Linda Hamilton (of Terminator fame) has given a great performance as Mary Elizabeth Bartowski. She really has added so much to each of the four episodes she's been in this season.

Another person this arc introduced is Timothy Dalton as Alexi Volkoff. What can I say about him that's not brilliant? He truly has brought something else to the role. He plays the psychopath so well. He can go from innocent MI6 agent "Tuttle" who's first sexual experience was while watching Lawrence of Arabia, to crazy psychopathic killer to "familyman" who can play charades (*) He really is one of the best guest stars the show has had (if not the best), and that's saying something.

*I will continue to say that "Kids Love Me" is one of the best lines of the series, one of the best lines of 2010 in general.

I'd also like to commend the brilliant main cast on how well they've been doing this season. Zachary Levi really has been hitting it out of the park this season. He has been doing a great job with everything he's been given. This includes the search for Mom and the Intersect no more arc. (**) He can play comedy and drama very well and the show knows that and uses this to its advantage.

**Honestly, I wish this arc had been better executed. It was great that he got the Intersect back but I wish that the execution was better.

Yvonne Strahovski has been kick ass and beautiful as always. She has been doing great work with Chuck vs Phase Three being the best performance she has ever had. She played comedy, fight sequences, and drama so well in that episode.

Both Levi and Strahovski have done a great job with the Chuck/Sarah relationship. Last year the writers put them together and the world hasn't ended! In fact the show is just as good with them together. The relationship has lead to some great episodes this season (Is it too much of a stretch to attribute the greatness of Phase Three to this?). I can't wait to hopefully see a proposal in the future and maybe even a wedding.

Adam Baldwin has been up to his buisness as usual, doing great work. It can all be summed up in *Happy Grunt* (which variation of this, I'm not sure. Joshua Gomez has been amazing as Morgan. He is doing great showing how much Morgan has grown this season. From his new girlfriend, to being a part time spy, to becoming the manager at the Buy More, Morgan has grown a lot. Plus Gomez has great chemistry with the rest of the cast.

Sarah Lancaster and Ryan McPartlin have been doing great work (even if they haven't been on the screen as much as usual (***)). Lancaster has been given some very meaty plotlines and has performed well with all of them.

***This season it's easier to tell that budget cuts have been made. You can see it with each cast member that aren't in each episode. It hasn't affected my enjoyment of the show as of yet.

And last but not least there's the Buy More. Even if the plots aren't as strong as they used to be in earlier seasons some of them are quite funny. Even if some say it has become unnecessary, I don't think this is true. I think that it's necessary for one reason: it keeps Mark Christopher Lawrence, Vik Sahay, and Scott Krinsky employed.

That's enough for now. I could go on for much longer but the post is already long.

Look for my review of Chuck vs the Balcony later tonight.

What has everybody else thought of the season? Everyone loved it as much as I have?