The Unfiltered Ramblings of a DVR Addict

I can’t think of a better show for the 2010 TV season to start off with.  Not only did Chuck start back tonight after it’s long hiatus, but it started back with two episodes. I really missed this show, and with the cliffhanger ending of last season I’ve been craving some action on Monday nights that How I Met Your Mother and The Big Bang Theory just can’t provide.

For those of you that can’t remember back to spring of 2009, at the end of the second season of Chuck (back when we thought it would be the final season); Chuck Bartowski became the intersect 2.0.  So not only was he able to flash on all sorts of government secrets, he also got all sorts of super spy abilities.  So now the head Nerd Hearder can install your hard drive and kick your ass.  Fast forward to tonight’s premiere episode of season three and we find Chuck in Prague at a top secret spy training facility built especially for him.  The problem is that Chuck is failing.  He can’t seem to flash on command and pull up those cool abilities when he needs them.  We also find out that six weeks previously Sarah, Chuck’s handler and love interest made him an offer to run away with him and start a new life, just the two of them.  Chuck decided not to go with her, and instead focus on becoming a spy.

With Chuck not able to pull up his abilities when he needs them he flunks out of spy school and lands firmly on Ellie and Awesome’s couch with a can of cheese-balls, no job as a spy and without Sarah.  Of course it didn’t take long for Chuck to get back into the world of secret agents.

It was good that tonight NBC aired both of the first two episodes, because I think they were really meant to be watched in one sitting.  Sure this is a seriel show and one episode leads into the next but these two episodes were somehow more than that.  It’s almost like they were one long episode.  In the span of those two episodes we learned that there is a new bad guy on the block now that Fulcrum is out of commision, the Ring.  We learned exactly why Chuck didn’t go with Sarah, and strangely enough it was because he loved her.  Morgan is back from Hawaii, because Anna dumped him and he could no longer flip his shrimp at Benihana.  And since Morgan is back, he and Chuck get to move in together.  That is going to be epic.

The best part of this whole thing is that we are going to get ANOTHER episode tomorrow night.  How can you go wrong?  Three episodes of Chuck in 24 hours.  I’m happy.

Thoughts and Observations:

• I have a feeling this whole being in love mess is going to be much harder for Sarah to deal with than it will be for Chuck.  After all he’s made it real clear just how he feels, she’s the one that can’t express herself.
• I wonder if my iPhone would keep power for as long as Sarah’s did if I threw it in the pool.
• At the start of the first episode when Chuck was in the training simulation I was having a hard time buying him as a bad-ass.  Am I the only one?  It’s good that despite being able to do the things he can do he still the same old Chuck deep down.
• Casey got to use his big gun.  Good for him.
• I’m going to miss Tony Hale as Emmit.  Sure he was a jerk that needed to be taken down a peg or two, but I never expected him to get shot in the face half-way into episode one.  Maybe he needed time off to go film that Arrested Development movie.  At least Big Mike is back in his absence.
• Speaking of Big Mike, not a Subway foot-long in site for either episode.  I think that would have been a nice nod to the fans that were so vocal about this show coming back.  I hope the fans rally in the same way to help save Better Off Ted.
• So did Morgan actually do the dead with Karina or did he just wake up next to her and she let him think that.  My thought is that he did actually sleep with her since she was so attracted to him after he told her off.  That should be good for Morgan’s self-esteem.
• I loved that Chuck flashed and was able to play guitar.  This is going to lead to some fun things this season.