-- Von Hayes (Steve Valentine)
The will-they/won't-they undercurrent to every Chuck adventure has always been a precarious element of the series; prone to overuse, repetition and audience apathy because we know the cardinal TV rule -- never allow your characters to get together (see: The X-Files), or you'll risk a creative dead-end (see: Lois & Clark) and face probable cancellation (see: Moonlighting).
"Chuck Versus The Break-Up" once again forces Chuck (Zachary Levi) into a romantic quandary, thanks to the return of super-spy university friend Bryce (Matthew Bomer), who immediately starts schmoozing his faux-girlfriend Sarah (Yvonne Strahovski). Bryce is everything Chuck isn't: sophisticated, worldly, sexy, ambitious, and a confident ladies man. Most damningly, he has a sexual history with Sarah and more in common with her, given the fact they're both government agents. How can geeky Chuck possibly compete against him?
Well, this series has already played with "the ex" as a complication for the Chuck/Sarah romance, so it ultimately felt pointless to rake over old ground so soon. The mission backdrop is also very familiar, with Chuck once again going undercover as a waiter -- this time at a party thrown by English software magnate Von Hayes (Steve Valentine), with Casey (Adam Baldwin) providing backup from a van parked outside, while Sarah and Bryce pose as a married couple. You see, Von Hayes has been tapped by Fulcrum agents to decrypt the stolen Intersect 2.0 chip, so it's up to Team Chuck to steal it back...In the obligatory Buy More subplot, Morgan (Joshua Gomez) has to try and empty the A/V demo-room of the Mighty Jocks football team, who are rowdily enjoying a video-game and causing a disturbance. It all started quite well, actually -- with Morgan amusingly ill-equipped to deal with these antisocial, hulking brutes -- but the comedy didn't sustain itself without lurching into silliness later, capped with another backroom cage-match pitting Morgan against the Jock's gap-toothed leader Mitt (Michael Strahan).
As usual, there's a lot of fooling around and hostage-taking for Chuck to contend with in the last act, which is rapidly becoming a formula the series relies on too often. Indeed, "Chuck Versus The Break-Up" is almost a collection of deleted scenes from season 1, strung together to make a half-coherent new adventure. Still, Levi is excellent throughout, particularly in his slack-jawed reactions to Sarah and Bryce's sexy lambada to their appreciative audience. Likewise, Strahovski may not be the most accomplished person at delivering a gag, but she's incredibly sympathetic, a good physical performer, and effortlessly sexy. Bomer has less to do compared to his appearances last year, but acquits himself well, as does Adam Baldwin as Casey.
It was great to see Chuck less adrift during a mission, too. He even saved the day in a competent, effective manner that didn't rely on blind luck or covert guidance this week. As Bryce admits in the denouement, Chuck is becoming an effective, if unconventional, agent in his own right. More of that, please.Overall, I wasn't mightily impressed with this third episode. It played out like a selection of Chuck's Greatest Hits, although I enjoyed half the Buy More subplot (which is more than I usually do), and it was interesting to see a part of the story set at the hospital where Ellie (Sarah Lancaster) and her boyfriend (Ryan McPartlin) work as doctors. But, really, beyond the resulting "break-up" of Chuck and Sarah (a tactic to make the audience reaffirm their desire to see those characters get together) and an intriguing denouement involving a pair of high-tech glasses, this episode was bland and avoidable.
23 June 2009
Virgin1, 9pm
written by: Scott Rosenbaum directed by: Robert Duncan McNeill starring: Zachary Levi (Chuck), Yvonne Strahovski (Sarah), Adam Baldwin (Casey), Sarah Lancaster (Ellie), Joshua Gomez (Morgan), Vik Sahay (Lester), Ryan McPartlin (Captain Awesome), Julia Ling (Anna Wu), Scott Krinsky (Jeff Barnes), Matthew Bomer (Bryce), Bonita Friedericy (General Beckman), Steve Valentine (Von Hayes), Bianca Chiminello (Fulcrum Agent) & Michael Strahan (Mitt)
