Chuck Season 3! A Primer!

Well you may have noticed (nor not!) the dearth of Heroes posts around here lately. I can give you a myriad of reasons for my neglectfulness (busyness, I was sick, it was my birthday, every time I try to get someone to watch Heroes with me they are like "um, yeah sure, I guess we can do that, if we have time or whatever.") but to be honest, I just don't feel the need to make time to watch Heroes the way I used to. What show do I feel the need to watch, even during the busiest of weeks? That's right people! CHUCK!!! So in the interest of making sure that everyone is right there with me on the whole "Watching Chuck on NBC every Monday at 8" thing, I decided that a primer on the show would be in order! If you keep this handy while you are watching Chuck, it will be just like watching it with me, which as anyone who knows me will tell you, is a sacred and life-changing experience! So let's get started! Once you read this you can definitely jump into Season 3, already in progress! Watch it tonight!!


Let's meet our characters!

Chuck Bartowski- The titular character of the show, played by Zachary Levi. (Remember him from Less than Perfect?! Me neither! He's adorable in this though. And OMG that show was on for 4 years?!! Wow, I had no idea.) Former student at Stanford, Chuck was kicked out when his roommate and best friend, Bryce Larkin, accused him of cheating. Chuck used his computer skills to get a job as part of the "Nerd Herd" at the Burbank, CA Buy More, where he toiled away until receiving an email from Bryce, which contained the CIA's supercomputer, the Intersect. Now that he has the Intersect in his brain, Chuck can access any information that CIA has. It's a goofy premise, but it works people, just trust me on this. Important bits of backstory that you might miss diving into this season are:

-Bryce accused Chuck of cheating to try and save Chuck from joining to the CIA. He only sent Chuck the Intersect as a last resort.
-Bryce is currently (presumed) dead.
-Chuck's long missing father created the Intersect, which is why it works so well in his son's brain.
-Chuck's college girlfriend, Jill, was part of an evil organization of double agents that Bryce was fighting.
-Chuck's mother died when he was a teenager, and his sister took care of him after that.
-Before the Intersect, Chuck felt like a total failure because he gotten kicked out of Stanford and worked at the Buy More.
-The Buy More is now Chuck's cover job.

Sarah Walker (fake name!)-Sarah is Chuck's CIA handler/sometime fake girlfriend. Oh but she is so much more than that, because she and Chuck are totally in love. I'm not gonna lie, there is A LOT of talk about Chuck and her being in love, but not really being able to make it work because they are spies. Some people (my dad!) think that the show focuses a bit too much on all of that, but I am cool with it because a) they are cute and b) Yvonne Strahovski is so damn good at playing the love story stuff that I can't look away whenever she does. It is her specialty. Well, that, and kicking ass and looking hot. At the beginning of Season 3 it was revealed that she wanted Chuck to leave the CIA and run away with her, but he couldn't bear the thought of leaving his family forever and not taking his chance to do something great with his life and work for the CIA. She was pretty pissed. I mean look at her. I would think most any man would run away with her! Chuck is seriously that sweet and good-hearted though, so it kinda makes her love him more.
- Not much of her backstory is known, other than that she had a con-artist father who taught her many skills that helped her become a spy.
-She used to work with and be in love with Bryce Larkin, so she has a history of falling in love on the job!
-Her cover job is working at a yogurt shop near The Buy More. Beneath this yogurt shop is "The Castle", a sweet CIA lair.
Colonel John Casey- played by Adam Baldwin, the king of "gruff with a heart of gold" characters, Colonel John Casey is Chuck's NSA handler. Things Casey loves: guns, Ronald Reagan, patriots. Things Casey hates: feelings, communism, traitors. Even though sometimes Sarah and Casey drive him insane, he is loyal and deep down inside he knows he luurves them! (He does!) This is a dude you want to have on your side if you ever get pinned down by gunfire anywhere.


Eleanor Bartowski-Woodcomb-Chuck's sister, played by Sarah Lancaster. Chuck and Ellie have a really sweet brother/sister relationship! I hope that the writers start using Ellie a little better than they have so far this season, because she has just had to act sort of silly and/or annoyed. Lancaster does a great job when the character really has to open up and be vulnerable, as she did last season when she asked Chuck to find their dad for her wedding. She has no idea about Chuck's secret CIA life and feels that he is just wasting his potential! She is a doctor and is also married to a doctor, a guy who does everything right, and a guy who Chuck has always wanted to live up to:


Captain Awesome! A.K.A. Devon Woodcomb- Captain Awesome really does live up to his name, as he is good looking, a great friend, husband and doctor, while also being pretty tough. Awesome has some idea of Chuck's secret identity as a CIA operative (no idea about the whole Intersect thing) and now sees Chuck through different eyes. The last few episodes involved Awesome in some of Chuck's missions, and it was pretty great to see him so impressed with Chuck and confident in his skills. (Even when Chuck wasn't so confident in himself!) I really love the role reversal that has come about with Awesome finding out about Chuck being in the CIA.


Agent Shaw- Played by Brandon Routh, we don't know much about this character so far, (except for that, according to my boyfriend he was "genetically engineered to impersonate Tom Cruise.") but he is taking charge of the team as they try to take out "The Ring" a CIA shadow operation trying to work within the CIA to take it down. (So much taking down!) He seems a little harsh on Chuck so far, but he was super lonely after he gave a speech about how friends and families suck and then no one invited him to the nice friend and family dinner they all had at the end of last night's episode. Bummer for you Agent Shaw.



Chuck has a few cohorts at the Buy More that are important to know, and we'll go through them too! I have been a little iffy on The Buy More stuff since day one, and this season things have the same kind of hit or miss quality so far. I see the Buy More as completely necessary to the premise of the show, and sometimes the goofy characters can be really hilarious (Jeffster, anyone?!! YES.) But other times you feel like you just want to get back to the A story and out of the Buy More. I actually think the budget cuts for this season, meaning every cast member will not be in every episode, might actually help that this season, because the Buy More stories are going to be cut down a bit. There was already one ep this season with no Buy More, and I think it worked great. HOWEVER, sometimes The Buy More guys are just sublime, absurdist comedy, so let's meet them!

Morgan Grimes-Chuck's bff since grade school, Morgan is our most down to earth Buy More employee. Chuck has been taking care of him and trying to save him from getting beat up since they were kids. Having just gotten a promotion to Assistant Manager, he turns to Chuck more than ever for advice on life! He used to be in love with Ellie, but since her marriage seems to be just as happy with their platonic friendship. Morgan's dream to become a Benihana chef died quickly, when he realized he just didn't have the knife skills.





Jeff and Lester. Apart they are creepy man-children who will never get girlfriends and who think Chuck is some kind of god. Together, they are Jeffster, whose covers of Styx will make your soul soar. Just don't join their Fight Club. You will regret it.












Big Mike-Tough yet fair manager of The Buy More. Doesn't seem to notice or care that Chuck constantly has to leave work to preform spy missions. Is banging Morgan's mom, which is simultaneously good and bad for Morgan. He's getting a good job but bad images out of it. Big Mike can be very graphic.




So now, when someone asks you if you watch Chuck, you can't be all "Well, I've never seen it, I'm not sure I can just jump right in blah blah blah..." You CAN! Stop talking crazy man, and saying blah blah at the end of a sentence! That's weird! Just watch it! Jump right it in! You won't regret it! Mondays! 8pm. Right before....Heroes. (I'm working on the Heroes thing, I swear.)