Coming off two of the weaker episodes in the whole run of the show, I was a bit skeptical coming into this week’s episode of Chuck. Was it a fluky run of mediocrity or did this mark the beginning of a trend from the show I have deemed to be the most entertaining show on television?
Find out after the jump as I review “Chuck Versus the Couch Lock.”
Synopsis: The episode begins as Casey’s old special forces unit turns on him for the gold they just uncovered at a terrorist base. The unit, featuring Eric Roberts, Joel David Moore (Avatar) and Dave Batista (the wrestler), quickly was dispatched by Casey. When Chuck finds out this team guards the key to finding his mother, the team fakes Casey’s death to draw them in.
Elsewhere, Morgan struggles to tell Casey he is dating his daughter Alex. Shenanigans ensue.
What Was Good: If I was in a room full of people watching this episode, I likely would have started a slow clap after it wrapped up. This is what I’ve been missing people! All season I’ve been lamenting what they had done to Casey and to a certain degree Morgan, and now? The deadly duo is back! They replaced all of the forced relationship drama with hilarious Casey and Morgan antics WHILE also getting the search for Chuck’s mom back in full stride.
Basically, every problem I had with the season to date (supporting cast being underrepresented, plot getting off task) was resolved in this one episode.
Adam Baldwin and Joshua Gomez were perfect together in this episode, as they both were hilarious and added gravitas to their situations whenever necessary. The added boost to their roles led to the show feeling like a delightful ensemble again instead of something so heavily focused on the Chuck/Sarah relationship.
This also allowed Yvonne Strahovski and Zachary Levi to breathe more life back into their on-screen relationship, giving their coupling a more natural feel and only bringing out the mushy stuff when it called for it (such as when Chuck might die because of a particularly deadly trip laser).
We were also given the ability to watch Jeffster turn into surprising heroes, as their scary awareness of Burbank’s dumpster scene (thanks to their twice-weekly Nerd Herd installs under the influence of god only knows what) ends up saving Casey from a jam and making everyone’s day at least temporarily easier (save perhaps Morgan, who nearly was killed by a Storm Trooper mask wearing Casey and, perhaps worse, was momentarily dumped by Casey’s daughter Alex).
Chuck has always been a show that could easily be described with a Venn Diagram. This Venn Diagram would have three circles: relationship stuff (Chuck/Sarah, Ellie/Awesome), spy business (obvious) and jokey tomfoolery (Jeffster, Buy More, most of Morgan’s antics). The show is at its weakest when only the first two elements overlap and at its strongest by far when all three meet in the middle. The last two episodes were just the first two elements. This episode? All three baby. Welcome back Chuck.
What Was Bad: Nada. Zip. Sure, it was a bit more airy than some of the biggest episodes, but after the previous two, we needed a bit more fun. This brought it in a big way.
Overall: I’m going to keep the overall review down, as I’ve went into it a bit already. I’ll keep it to this: rumors of Chuck‘s demise were greatly exaggerated. With next week’s preview looking like all kinds of (Captain) awesome, we’re back on the upswing with television’s greatest spy dramedy.
