Ok, no puppies will be saved, but your life will be fuller and you'll be happier if you watch this fantastic spy comedy show!
Here's a great review written for NJ.com
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Yvonne Strahovski and Zachary Levi in "Chuck."
Last spring, when it looked like one of my favorite shows, NBC's spy comedy "Chuck," might not come back for a third season, I wrote an open letter to the executives at NBC listing all the reasons they should renew it in spite of the low ratings. NBC did eventually order another season owing much less to my letter than to the passion of its fans (who bought Subway sandwiches the night of the finale to send a message to one of the show's sponsors) and an economically-favorable deal with the studio and the new season finally begins on Sunday with a two-hour premiere, followed the next night with a third episode in the show's familiar Monday at 8 timeslot.
For all the fans who bought Five Dollar Footlongs, or tweeted or blogged about their love of the show in the weeks leading up to the renewal, know that the new season brings with it the same wonderful mix of comedy, action and romance that it had last season. And know that the plot twist from the end of last season that gave nerd-turned-spy Chuck (Zachary Levi) the ability to do kung fu has not fundamentally changed what made the show sing before.
But this column isn't for you. You watch "Chuck." You bought a Sweet Onion Chicken Teriyaki sub last April 27. You possibly own a t-shirt for Jeffster! (a fake, awful band created by two of the show's characters) and a bootleg of their performance of "Fat-Bottomed Girls" at the San Diego Comic-Con. You're going to be tuning in on Sunday, no matter what, and you're going to be happy with what you see.
No, this particular open letter is for the many of you who don't watch "Chuck" either because you didn't realize it existed, or it was on in a brutal timeslot, or even if you watched the show in its earlier days (when the show was still finding itself) and decided it wasn't for you. I gave NBC six reasons to renew the show, and here are six reasons you should watch, in large enough numbers that we might get a fourth season:
1. It's funny. When I wrote last spring that "Chuck" was the best comedy on NBC at the time, I wasn't exaggerating. Now, most of NBC's Thursday sitcoms were slumping back then, but even with that quartet in much stronger shape this season, "Chuck" remains a goldmine of laughter.
As Chuck, an underacehiving nerd who does tech support at an electronics store, Levi is a gifted, expressive physical comedian, and creators Josh Schwartz and Chris Fedak have surrounded him with a cast of exceedingly funny sidekicks, whether disturbing store employees Jeff and Lester (Scott Krinsky and Vik Sahay, aka Jeffster!), Chuck's homicidal government bodyguard John Casey (Adam Baldwin, able to wring laughs with just a grimace or grunt) or Chuck's brother-in-law Devon (Ryan McPartlin), so perfect in every way (even his awareness of his perfection seems admirable) that he's nicknamed Captain Awesome.
The series' comic tastes range from abundant pop culture references (early in Sunday's premiere, Chuck morphs into a character from "The Big Lebowski") to slapstick (Chuck falls down a lot) to explosive dialogue (when Jeffster! crashed Captain Awesome's wedding last season, his father-in-law complained, "Why are you letting Sam Kinison and an Indian lesbian ruin your wedding?"), and all of it lands, hilariously.
2. It's exciting. No, it's not a Bond movie, or maybe even "24," but "Chuck" doesn't skimp on the cool stunts and fights. Sometimes, they've been done relatively straight, like Chuck's CIA handler Sarah (Yvonne Strahovski) having a fight inside a tiny sports-car (using the CD player, bucket seats and airbags as weapons). Other times, they get a comic twist, like Chuck being chased through the Gravitron ride at an amusement park.
The new season offers plenty of both stripes, with a highlight being a sword fight between Chuck and wrestler Stone Cold Steve Austin in the cargo hold of a passenger jet. In seasons past, the show leaned on Strahovski (a trained dancer who's become very good at martial arts choreography) and Baldwin (who's been beating people up on-screen since 1980's "My Bodyguard") for the fight scenes. The kung fu twist, in which the computer in Chuck's head can briefly turn him into a great martial artist (among other skills), doesn't put them on the sidelines, but it does let Levi in on the action, and Levi (and/or his stunt double) proves adept at the punching, kicking and gymnastics that go with the new role. While Chuck's new abilities aren't reliable enough to solve every problem, they do let him at times appear more the confident hero than the trembling coward he often turned into in years past.
3. It's dramatic when it needs to be. It would be easy for the show to just ride the '80s movie references and fight scenes, but "Chuck" takes itself just seriously enough to feel like something more than a diversion. Strahovski in particular does a strong job reacting to this world like it's real, and in the process making even the most ridiculous plot seem believable. And she has chemistry to burn with Levi, making Chuck and Sarah's mutual, unconsummated crushes on each other something more than an excuse for the show to leer at Strahovski in a bikini or lingerie (opportunities for both are provided in the first two episodes), or to make a joke out of the nerd falling for the sexy spy.
(If the show has an obvious flaw, it's that the writers have dragged things out a bit too long with keeping the two apart. It's not so much that the show needs them to be together to work, but that the number and duration of the obstacles in their path has become distracting. Take a cue from "The Office," guys: resolving sexual tension can actually make a show better if you do it right.)
4. It has great guest stars. This was one of the biggest improvements of the second season, and one that carries over to the third. Where most TV shows that employ a lot of recognizable guests lean on them like a crutch, "Chuck" does something smarter: it takes your familiarity with the guest and uses that as shorthand to establish a new character, so they can then spend less time on exposition and more time wringing laughs and/or menace out of them. So when you see soccer-thug-turned-actor Vinnie Jones as a lovestruck arms dealer, or Armand Assante as a smarmy Central American dictator, or Brandon "Superman" Routh as a square-jawed spy, you get what they're about in 10 seconds and then the show can quickly get to the good stuff.
5. It has great music. As he did on "The O.C.," Schwartz enjoys filling the soundtrack with songs from his favorite indie bands, which the show uses to pump up the action or heighten the drama. (I've been listening to In-Flight Safety's soaring "Model Homes" pretty much non-stop since I heard it in a key scene in Sunday's second episode.)
But Schwartz and company also take great pleasure in slathering on cheeseball classics of yesteryear, sometimes for giggles, sometimes to make you appreciate a song you long ago dismissed. Last year featured the likes of Huey Lewis & the News, Toto and Rush (Chuck used "Tom Sawyer" to save the world), while in the new episodes we discover that store manager Emmett Millbarge (Tony Hale) has a fondness for embarrassing power ballads, and the second episode makes liberal use of David Lee Roth's "Just Like Living in Paradise."
6. It is, simply, fun. Because the comedy is so strong, the cast is so likable, and everyone involved so obviously has a passion for making the show as entertaining as it can be, there's a sense of joy around "Chuck" that's infectious. Rare is the episode that doesn't make me smile for the hour.
For all that it likes to mock the '80s culture its writers grew up on, "Chuck" also feels like exactly the kind of mass-appeal adventure series that would have been an enormous hit in that decade. It deserves to be a success in this one.
So watch already. Okay?
"Chuck" (Sunday at 9 p.m. and Monday at 8 p.m. on Channel 4) The spy comedy returns with Chuck (Zachary Levi) trying to adjust to his new abilities.
