The gimmick-y nature of the 3D made this episode harder to be swept along by, which was a shame. Chuck foils a terrorist plot to kill British rocker Tyler Martin (Dominic Monaghan), so Sarah (Yvonne Strahovski) and Casey (Adam Baldwin) are forced to kidnap the superstar so they can work out who wants him dead, and why. Unfortunately, Chuck is left alone with Tyler and easily convinced to accompany him for a night out on the town, getting to live the rockstar lifestyle with a celebrity as his "wingman".
At the Buy More, Morgan (Joshua Gomez) finds a golden ticket that gives him backstage access to Tyler's upcoming Burbank gig, so he holds an impromptu competition to determine which of his friends can be his "plus one". This leads to the usual tomfoolery, with Lester (Vic Sahay) humiliated when it's revealed he wears women's knickers, Jeff (Scott Krinsky) eating a urinal cake, and a competitive eating challenge with Jimmy Butterman (Jerome Bettis). Again, I'm impervious when it comes to finding the Buy More the hilarious hotbed of quirky, geeky humour everyone seems to lap up, but I did appreciate its huge array of injokes this week (from Sixteen Candles to The Shawshank Redemption.) It may be a somewhat easy way to earn a giggle, but the targets were fairly obscure -- like the aria that played while Jimmy was at the vending machine being the same one Tim Robbins' character played to his fellow inmates.It's also worth mentioning that this episode was the first to air in the US after a winter hiatus, so American fans had a few months to chew on the climax to "Chuck Versus Santa Claus" where Chuck saw Sarah kill a Fulcrum agent in cold blood to maintain his cover. Sadly, because the creators knew more people would be watching this episode than usual (because of a Super Bowl tie-in and 3D promotional push), the plot was made more accessible to newbies, to the detriment of the show in some ways. Chuck's knowledge that lovely Sarah can be so heartless is something that could have lurked in the subtext of their scenes for many weeks, slowly poisoning their relationship, but it was instead tackled head-on and forgiven here. A missed opportunity.
Second of Strahotness: morning glory? courtesy Strahotski.com
Guest star Dominic Monaghan was good fun as the intentionally clichéd, young rocker -- even if all British accents, even ones embellished for comic value by English actors, seem awfully strange to my own British ears. I'm not sure why. I can't blame the fact it was an American was playing the role and channeling Dick Van Dyke, so maybe it's just an accent you don't expect to hear on the show, so it stuck out? Or Monaghan was told to lay it on thicker than he would do otherwise, and the script didn't always sit right (British men don't call other British men "slappers", for e.g.) Still, I loved Monaghan's chemistry with Levi in their scenes together, and Monaghan's reactions were very funny everytime he was hit by one of Casey's tranq darts.
There's not much else to add about this blithe episode, really. It was light, it was silly, a bit boring in places, and I definitely felt the 3D subverted my ability to just enjoy the story. I was too busy trying to be drawn into the 3D, which occasionally worked nicely (mainly when scenes were composed with greater depth of field, or there was an obvious moment where something popped out at youl.) It wasn't too bad, and would probably be even better with the sharpness of HD (sadly not available to Virgin1 viewers), but it was a reminder why 3D in this cheap form never took off in the '50s and '80s.Overall, "Chuck Versus The Third Dimension" was lukewarm filler, but the 3D kept me entertained (if a little frustrated and underwhelmed at times), there were some nice touches, and Monaghan was a decent guest-star. It just wasn't particularly funny or dramatic compared to earlier episodes this season, and the Buy More story failed to merge with the Tyler storyline as neatly as it could have done. But yes, a bonus point for writer Chris Fedak's decision to give us a three-dimensional Yvonne Strahvoski crawling on a bed in black lingerie. That's how you promote 3D to the masses, forget James Cameron and Pixar movies.
25 August 2009
Virgin1, 9pm
written by: Chris Fedak directed by: Robert Duncan McNeill starring: Zachary Levi (Chuck), Yvonne Strahovski (Sarah), Adam Baldwin (Casey), Joshua Gomez (Morgan), Scott Krinsky (Jeff), Vik Sahay (Lester), Bonita Friedericy (General Beckman), Ryan McPartlin (Captain Awesome), Sarah Lancaster (Ellie), Tony Hale (Emmett Milbarge), Mark Christopher Lawrence (Big Mike), Dominic Monaghan (Tyler Martin), Jerome Bettis (Jimmy Butterman), Nicholas Guilak (Achmed Gambir), Luisa Moraes (Vixen #1), Treisa Grey (Elevator Woman), Nina Fehren (Vixen #2), James Kiriyama-Lem (Ambassador Mei Sheng) & Arune Kiral (Wing Girl)
