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[Vanillalite]

Honestly I was pretty bored throughout this one. Last week was WAAAYYYY better IMO.

 

[PhoncipleBone]

Damn @ Sarah next week.

 

[Solo]

Decent episode, but a big letdown after last week’s incredible one.. Easily the weakest of the three this season so far, but not bad by any stretch (if this were an episode from this time last year, not only would it be only okay, but it would also have had a helping of relationship angst). It just didn’t deliver fully in any area. It wasn’t overly funny, the action was ho-hum, there weren’t a ton of great character moments, and so on. You could tell (unlike last week’s episode which was also from a new writer, yet felt like a classic slice of Chuck and was one of the best episodes in the series) that a new writer was on this one. Surprisingly for me, my favourite thing in this one was Nicole Ritchie – I don’t recall loving her anywheres near as much in her S2 episode, but I thought she was great in this.

- weird to see this show promoting a fake game after all the shilling it has done over the years for real merchandise :lol
- Big Mike’s ½ karat cubic zirconium ring :lol :lol
- art imitating life: Stone Cold punching out women :lol
- glad they showed some restraint and didn’t go with a predictable Jeffster performance during the game launch; once their performances get predictable, the gig is up

 

[PhoncipleBone]

I am excited for next week though.

Spoiler

the return of Armand Assante.

Better be fucking good.

 

[Solo]

It annoys me that with all the returnees they are getting, they never get the people I want back

 

[PhoncipleBone]

It annoys me that with all the returnees they are getting, they never get the people I want back

Who do you want back? The one person I want to see return is Arnold Vosloo. We never actually saw him die! Not like that stopped him before either.

 

[Screaming_Gremlin]

I think I fall in line with most other people. It was an alright episode, but sort of a disappointment after the last two weeks. Unlike Solo, I thought the action was fine, but I agree the humor wasn't anything special (except for Big Mike), nor were there any great character moments that we haven't seen several times before.

- Big Mike was fantastic and I welcome his return to the show. Anytime he starts talking about Morgan's mom I just bust up laughing.

- The Castle computer voice was pretty stupid. And just how many floors of air ducts do they have exactly?

- I guess it was nice Greta got to have a 3 second fight, but I sort of wish they would do a bit more with the character.

- I enjoyed the cage match between Chuck and Stone Cold, including the scene in the air duct leading up to it. "You back up!" Also nice to see Chuck lose a fight again even after flashing.

- Big Mike's speech leading into using a taser/cattle prod on Stone Cold was great.

- The ending scene was so stupid that it was eye-rolling. I can live with relationship drama if it makes sense, but do we really have to go back to manufacturing retarded TV drama? [edit] I need to go back and watch this scene again, since I am wondering if I misinterpreted it some on first viewing. [/edit]

- Wow at the preview and that a couple second scene with Sarah.

 

[Solo]

Who do you want back? The one person I want to see return is Arnold Vosloo. We never actually saw him die! Not like that stopped him before either.

Jordana Brewster aka Jill
Rachel Bilson aka Lou
John Larroquette aka Roan
CS Lee aka Tang
Bruce Boxleitner and Morgan Fairchild aka the Awesomes
Gary Cole aka Sarah's dad
Matthew Bomer aka Bryce

Jill is my numbero uno. And I dont care if Bryce died, bring him back!

 

[Screaming_Gremlin]

I would be up for any of your suggestions for returning stars Solo. Especially Brewster, Lee, or Cole. And zombie Bryce is always welcome. But I am looking forward to next week. If they have to bring someone back from S3, at least it is from the one early S3 episode that I really liked.


Here is Sepinwall's thoughts on the episode.

(*) I do not want to get hopes up, by the way, but it should be noted that other than "The Event" (which was itself down quite a bit from Week 1 to Week 2) and "Law & Order: LA" (of which we only have a one-week sample), all of NBC's new hourlongs are already doing worse demo numbers than "Chuck" does with virtually no promotion. As we've known for a while, the "Chuck" audience is the "Chuck" audience, and given how much the budget has been slashed in recent years, it would not shock me if NBC decided a cheap, known quantity was useful to keep around, even if it took away real estate from shows with more upside. We still have a long way to get to that point - right now, the writers are breaking the final episodes of this 13-episode order without even knowing if they'll get a back 9 for this season - and there's definitely something to be said for going out while we're still going to miss you, but the way most of the new product on all the networks are doing, a "Chuck" season five seems like slightly less of a longshot than it did two weeks ago.

I thought this section was interesting, although I am not getting my hopes up. Until I have reason to believe otherwise I am going with the assumption this is the final season. Hell, I would be happy to just get a back nine.

 

[PhoncipleBone]

Jordana Brewster aka Jill
Rachel Bilson aka Lou
John Larroquette aka Roan
CS Lee aka Tang
Bruce Boxleitner and Morgan Fairchild aka the Awesomes
Gary Cole aka Sarah's dad
Matthew Bomer aka Bryce

Jill is my numbero uno. And I dont care if Bryce died, bring him back!

Rachel Bilson: unnecessary to the story now that Chuck and Sarah are together
John Larroquette: HELL YES!
CS Lee: I will forever miss the Tang
Bruce Boxleitner and Morgan Fairchild: could be funny. Perhaps for the baby shower.
Gary Cole: Makes everything better by just breathing
Matthew Bomer: nah. Played out on the show. He would just be baggage for the Sarah/Chuck relationship.

 

[Solo]

Rachel Bilson: unnecessary to the story now that Chuck and Sarah are together
John Larroquette: HELL YES!
CS Lee: I will forever miss the Tang
Bruce Boxleitner and Morgan Fairchild: could be funny. Perhaps for the baby shower.
Gary Cole: Makes everything better by just breathing
Matthew Bomer: nah. Played out on the show. He would just be baggage for the Sarah/Chuck relationship.

I don't mean Jill or Lou to form love triangles. There is plenty they could do with both that doesn't involve going down that path. Shit, in the case of Jill and Chuck, there is legitimate bad blood between the two now which would be great to explore.

And Bryce played out? UNPOSSIBLE!

 

[RevoDS]

Solo, last week's wasn't from a new writer. It was written by Lauren LeFranc and Rafe Judkins, the masterminds behind Living Dead, Tic Tac and Honeymooners.

As for this episode, I have to agree with you guys. It was good, but not spectacular. The new writer seemed to nail the dramatic/suspense aspect of the show, but it also felt sorely lacking in terms of comedy in comparison to the rest of the series. I'll blame it on Nicholas Wootton not being totally familiar with the show yet, but there was just something off with it.

Because I have a lot to say tonight:
-Big Mike was at his best; he usually is among my least favorite characters, but he really shined through tonight's episode.
-The ending was insanely dumb and felt forced, just to have some kind of relationship drama in the episode. As much as I was happy to see Chuck and Sarah get together, I truly hoped they'd put the angst on the backburner (except for last week which successfully used it for comedic effect)...and, well, commitment issues and "when should we marry and have kids?" are getting old already.
-The transfer plotline was disappointing; it could have been so much more than it was. Heather was hardly recognizable from her S2 stunt, she felt more like a plot device than an actual character. Her intel seemed shitty, too.
-The vent chase was good, and fights within it were quite inventive. However, the vents breaking down in the Buy More during a video game launch felt like déjà vu, considering the Jeffster webisodes featured the same thing just 3 weeks ago.

I still liked it, it's still better than most of the first half of last season. But it doesn't hold a candle to what we've had since S3.5. Hopefully it's just a misstep due to the writer's lack of familiarity which will be remedied soon.

I don't mean Jill or Lou to form love triangles. There is plenty they could do with both that doesn't involve going down that path. Shit, in the case of Jill and Chuck, there is legitimate bad blood between the two now which would be great to explore.

Bad blood? Last time we saw Jill, Chuck was willingly letting her escape.

And screw Tang, I want Emmett back instead. Agreed on the rest, besides Jill and Lou.

 

[Solo]

Solo, last week's wasn't from a new writer. It was written by Lauren LeFranc and Rafe Judkins, the masterminds behind Living Dead, Tic Tac and Honeymooners.

My bad. Im so used to seeing Schwartz, Fedak, Klemmer, Miller, Adler and Rosenbaum that I tend to see any other name and assume they are new.

Tic Tac and Honeymooners were the two best episodes of last season, so suddenly it makes sense why last week's was the best episode of this season so far. Perhaps they are the team I should be looking forward to.

 

[Solo]

Bad blood? Last time we saw Jill, Chuck was willingly letting her escape.

Maybe, but they both screwed eachother over bigtime in the past.

 

[Screaming_Gremlin]

And the music for the week.

"Beat the Devil's Tattoo" by Black Rebel Motorcycle Club (prisoner music throughout the episode)
"Don't Shoot (I'm a Man)" by Devo (Chuck, Sarah and Heather are trapped in the cell)
"Land of the Freak" by King Khan & the Shrines (the Buy More riot)
"In the Valley" by Chef (Morgan gives Big Mike his blessing, and the ring falls down into Castle)

Also, since I remember last year "Got Nuffin" from Spoon was really popular in this thread, it is currently free right now on Amazon and the album it is on is currently $5.

 

[PhoncipleBone]

I don't mean Jill or Lou to form love triangles. There is plenty they could do with both that doesn't involve going down that path. Shit, in the case of Jill and Chuck, there is legitimate bad blood between the two now which would be great to explore.

And Bryce played out? UNPOSSIBLE!

Bryce was boring.

Yes, I went there.

Jill coming back and having the bad blood on the surface could be good. Lou though would just be unnecessary unless she starts importing hard salami from Volkoff himself.

 

[Cornballer]

Solid episode, but certainly not on par with the last two weeks from where I'm sitting. I thought the spy plot line went pretty well (Chandler's a serious pain in the ass and Stone Cold had a certain amount of menace to him that worked), but the humor and drama felt a little off kilter. Makes sense given who wrote it, I suppose. Cliffhanger was kinda silly - not sure why they went for that. Great to see Big Mike back! Music was good. Oh, and GRETA only had a couple lines, so that didn't really add much to the equation tonight. Seems like I'm in line with most people's impressions this week.

 

[Cornballer]

Here is Sepinwall's thoughts on the episode.

More reviews:
- Onion A|V Club pouring the Haterade and giving it a D+ this week :lol
- UGO.com
- Zap2It

 

[Tashi]

Good episode, pretty damn funny.

Also the ending was NUTS hahaha

 

[Cornballer]

- Promo for next week on youtube

Please use spoiler tags if you're going to discuss it.

 

[Cornballer]

- Nice article from blogcritics: Chuck Is One Not to Miss, So Stop Missing It

Mostly a summary of what's happened so far and a plea for more people to watch the show.

"In the Valley" by Chef (Morgan gives Big Mike his blessing, and the ring falls down into Castle)

Whoever can track this song down gets a gold star. I spent a few minutes with google and couldn't even find the band.

EDIT: Turns out it's "Chief" not "Chef." Link on Amazon .mp3

 

[woodchuck]

And the music for the week.

"Beat the Devil's Tattoo" by Black Rebel Motorcycle Club (prisoner music throughout the episode)

such an awesome song


and I saw this in the comments section on sepinwall's blog:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nmgice3ieZ4

holy shit

 

[Jay Shadow]

and I saw this in the comments section on sepinwall's blog:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nmgice3ieZ4

holy shit

Always liked that commercial. Now I like it even more.

 

[WascallyWabbit]

loved tonight's episode and just now re-watched one of my all time fav episodes in chuck vs. the delorean

Sarah's dad (i can't remember the actor's name but he's perfect) is on the top of my wish list to make an appearance on the show. I think there's alot of story potential with him since he's a con man and also doesn't know what Sarah really does

also, i'd love to see jordana brewster come back on just so i can see if she's redeemed herself after chuck let her go

 

[Tashi]

Mind blown @ Snickers commercial

 

[Screaming_Gremlin]

EDIT: Turns out it's "Chief" not "Chef." Link on Amazon .mp3

Ah, thank you. I was looking around on Amazon and Google last night and was pretty much clueless. Sepinwall must not have proofread his music section, because I found another issue or two in the other song titles I had to correct.

 

[close to the edge]

This was actually my favorite episode so far, this season. I liked the first two but this one was really good. Great action scenes too. The scene at the end better be resolved very quickly or I'm going to be mad.

edit: Okay, I didn't like Richie's acting a lot.

 

[Screaming_Gremlin]

Short synopsis for 4.06, "Chuck vs. The Aisle of Terror" is up.

Spoiler

Chuck, Sarah, Casey and Morgan must stop Dr.Stanley (Robert Englund) from releasing a toxin that induces nightmares... Chuck's mother's allegiances are questioned; Lester and Jeff celebrate Halloween at the Buy More.

I for am really looking forward to the episode. I tend to always like them when they are inspired by holidays.

Also, a couple of promo pictures from next week's episode.

 

[user_nat]

Just watched.

Better than week 1, but not as good as last week.

 

[megashock5]

John Larroquette: HELL YES!

This. Roan was immensely entertaining, we need to see him again. And "Diane" needs to get noticeably flustered in his presence again. :lol

 

[Dr.Horrible]

Solid episode, but certainly not on par with the last two weeks from where I'm sitting. I thought the spy plot line went pretty well (Chandler's a serious pain in the ass and Stone Cold had a certain amount of menace to him that worked), but the humor and drama felt a little off kilter. Makes sense given who wrote it, I suppose. Cliffhanger was kinda silly - not sure why they went for that. Great to see Big Mike back! Music was good. Oh, and GRETA only had a couple lines, so that didn't really add much to the equation tonight. Seems like I'm in line with most people's impressions this week.

Wow, sums up my thoughts almost exactly.

 

[Captain Blood]

Bryce was boring.

Yes, I went there.

Jill coming back and having the bad blood on the surface could be good. Lou though would just be unnecessary unless she starts importing hard salami from Volkoff himself.

I always thought Bryce was pretty badass. I would love to see him brought back for an episode or two.

And the music for the week.

"Beat the Devil's Tattoo" by Black Rebel Motorcycle Club (prisoner music throughout the episode)

I was really digging this song throughout the episode. I might have to pick it up.

 

[Screaming_Gremlin]

I actually liked Bryce well enough, although that was mainly since I thought Matthew Bomer did a good job with him. It is actually probably why I hated Shaw so much last season. He came off as a Bryce clone, but lacked all of the charisma and likability.

 

[Cornballer]

Ah, thank you. I was looking around on Amazon and Google last night and was pretty much clueless. Sepinwall must not have proofread his music section, because I found another issue or two in the other song titles I had to correct.

No problem. It was annoying me that I couldn't find it last night, so I ended up using Shazam to figure out what it was.

I appreciate Sepinwall doing the music weekly, but there are typically a few typos in the descriptions.

 

[Cornballer]

Streaming is up for Chuck versus the Cubic Z:
- NBC.com
- Hulu.com

Get those streams flowing - every bit helps.


In other news, looks like ratings were down last night. The 18-49's aren't up yet, but the household ratings were lower. The Event and Chase continued to drop, too. The full set should be up soon.

 

[RevoDS]

Streaming is up for Chuck versus the Cubic Z:
In other news, looks like ratings were down last night. The 18-49's aren't up yet, but the household ratings were lower. The Event and Chase continued to drop, too. The full set should be up soon.

Where'd you see that? I looked around and only found a rumored 3.5, which would be on par with the premiere and higher than last week.

 

[Cornballer]

Where'd you see that? I looked around and only found a rumored 3.5, which would be on par with the premiere and higher than last week.

3.5/5 according to Mediaweek. I thought it did a 3.7 last week?

 

[RevoDS]

3.5/5 according to Mediaweek. I thought it did a 3.7 last week?

Thanks for the link. And nope, last week was a 3.2. So we seem to be up!

Chuck
- 5.373 million viewers
- 3.2/5 HH
- 2.0/5 A18-49

 

[Cornballer]

Ah, cool. Hope the 18-49 is steady, too.

Quick bit of news:
- Chuck Available On iTunes in the UK

More reviews:
- LA Times
- TV Squad
- TV Overmind
- TV Fanatic

 

[Cornballer]

Early ratings from TVBTN:

Will get the rest of the data up shortly, but wanted to alert Chuck fans that as predicted, Chase got between Chuck and the cancellation bear. Last night Chuck’s 1.9 rating with adults 18-49 was flat with last week’s overnight rating (though last week it bumped up to a 2.0 in the final numbers). Chase dropped from a 2.1 preliminary adults 18-49 rating last week to a 1.7 last night. Chase wasn’t helped out by The Event dropping from a 2.9 last week all the way down to a 2.4 this week.

 

[cory64]

It's probably easier to interpret how Chuck's doing by looking at other shows' numbers.
Chase went down to a 1.7, so that makes 3 scripted NBC shows doing worse than Chuck.

 

[Spitz]

Nice Episode no big development on the search for mum part but its good to have Big Mike back an he is back with full force it seems. And i am ashamed to admit it again but Nicole Ritchie was hot.

The music was so so this week the Black Rebel Motorcycle Track is clearly my favorite in this episode of Chuck.

 

[Hasphat'sAnts]

If only this show were running on a competent network.

 

[Screaming_Gremlin]

If only this show were running on a competent network.

Well, that is one way to look at it. The other is if it was on any other network it would have been canceled after season 2. Honestly that is why I am wary of even predicting what NBC will do with the show after this season. On one hand all of their hour dramas except for The Event and L&O are doing poorly, but on the other hand Comcast will probably have a pretty big say in what is going on until the merger is complete and who knows what they will want to do.

 

[Hixx]

Ah, cool. Hope the 18-49 is steady, too.

Quick bit of news:
- Chuck Available On iTunes in the UK

Yaaaaay!

 

[ConfusingJazz]

If only this show were running on a competent network.

Yeah, this show would have been canceled a while ago. Every other network has had shows that were much farther in the green then Chuck. Hell, the only reason we are getting this current season is because of the Leno Apocalypse on NBC.

Personally, whenever someone says Chuck should have been canceled, I always like to point out that NBC has nothing to put in its place.

 

[Cornballer]

Well, that is one way to look at it. The other is if it was on any other network it would have been canceled after season 2. Honestly that is why I am wary of even predicting what NBC will do with the show after this season. On one hand all of their hour dramas except for The Event and L&O are doing poorly, but on the other hand Comcast will probably have a pretty big say in what is going on until the merger is complete and who knows what they will want to do.

I don't have any idea what they're going to do. The management situation is in flux, and one can make an argument for renewing Chuck or canceling Chuck or giving Chuck a bad 9 and then canceling it, etc... Tough to say what's going to happen. As you've pointed out before, we should hear something about a back 6 or 9 pretty soon as they're getting close to wrapping on the first 13 sometime soon.

 

[Hasphat'sAnts]

Well, that is one way to look at it. The other is if it was on any other network it would have been canceled after season 2. Honestly that is why I am wary of even predicting what NBC will do with the show after this season. On one hand all of their hour dramas except for The Event and L&O are doing poorly, but on the other hand Comcast will probably have a pretty big say in what is going on until the merger is complete and who knows what they will want to do.

I don't think NBC did a very good job promoting it to begin with. Who knows, maybe Chuck would've been a hit out of the gate.

 

[Cornballer]

I don't think NBC did a very good job promoting it to begin with. Who knows, maybe Chuck would've been a hit out of the gate.

This season or way back in S1? They promoted it heavily before it premiered back in 2007, but it's always had a tough time slot against DwtS, House, and the CBS comedies. Burning off the last few episodes of S1 in Spring 2008 didn't do it any favors, though.

 

[Hasphat'sAnts]

This season or way back in S1? They promoted it heavily before it premiered back in 2007, but it's always had a tough time slot against DwtS, House, and the CBS comedies. Burning off the last few episodes of S1 in Spring 2008 didn't do it any favors, though.

Mostly for Season 2. I think I distinctly remember Chuck losings huge chunks of viewers after breaks in the schedule. And yeah, the line up Chuck has to compete with is pretty brutal. Imagine if Chuck were going head to head against Outsourced.