CHUCK: SEASON THREE (Blu-Ray and DVD)

The little show that could. If I hadn't had Leon haranguing me about watching "Chuck", I almost certainly would have NEVER given it the time of day. The silly and episodic nature of its comedy/spy shenanigans, the 'executive produced by McG' label, the garish pop sensibilities of the show in general, all would have kept me far away from it. If not for Leon. That wonderful man. Sure enough, "Chuck" over time became one of my favorite shows. I went on to harangue at least a dozen of my friends directly, and all of Spill indirectly (through my glowing reviews of seasons one and two). Paid forward in full.

The story follows the titular Chuck, played by the lovably geeky Zachary Levi, who is forced into the world of intrigue when a top secret CIA program called "the intersect" gets lodged into his brain, turning him into a total recall resource for every single bit of data they have. Two agents, the gruff Colonel John Casey (Adam Baldwin) and Agent Sarah Walker (Yvonne Strahovski) are assigned to use Chuck's abilities to help them track down the enemy agents of FULCRUM, and keep him from falling into their hands as well. For the first two seasons, Chuck is a complete stumble-bum, keeping himself from the jaws of death time and time again through his own intelligence, the skills of his watchers, but mostly dumb luck. However, as Chuck's long-lost Dad (Scott Bakula) delivers a new and improved version of the Intersect program, Chuck goes from a whiny wise-ass to an 'I know Kung-Fu' bad-ass. Big problem though: when he's distressed emotionally, he can't seem to call up the skills. Which probably wouldn't be so bad if Sarah, who Chuck has been off again/on again-ing for the previous two seasons, wasn't seeing their new boss Daniel Shaw (Brandon Routh).

Season three performs just as admirably as the first two, delivering good laughs along with cool spy capers, a gradual lessening of the episodic form into more of a continuing story, and lots of OH SHIT cliffhangers, not the least of which is in the final episode of the season. Chuck Season Three's ending ties up practically every thread left hanging up to this point and then WHAM ...introduces a whole new series of secrets and threats. I seriously thought I was watching the end of the show until the last two minutes. Oh yeah, and SPOILER:


...they blow up the goddamn Buy-More. Finally. Seriously, this guy has been a top level operative for the CIA for three years and they STILL had him working the help desk at a local chain electronics store? The only two things that still kind of bugged me about this show was the never-ending will they/won't they between the two leads and the goddamn Buy-More subplots... and they're both gone. Hell, I can't WAIT for Season Four (which airs September 20th on NBC, natch).

The bonus features with this season are only slightly slimmer than in previous sets, but only just and as usual, they're pretty good. A 22 minute 'behind the scenes' feature covers just about everything you'd want it to and for those folks out there who still dig on the Buy-More (Leon, I'm looking at you...I'm not sure why I'm looking at you, but I'm looking at you) there's an 11 minute 'Mockumentary' about store employee Jeff's band. The gag reel is as funny as you'd expect with these folks, and there's an assortment of deleted scenes with each disc. Above and beyond these fun extras, "Chuck" is a show that keeps getting better and better and Season 3 is the best yet. It's too late to start watching now and be hailed as an 'early adopter' (or whatever the complimentary term for that is) but I give you bonus points anyway. Go marathon Seasons 1 and 2, which will be awesome in and of itself, and then prepare for the sheer badassery that is Season 3. You're not prepared, I can tell. Go now. Do it. Then come back to me, grasshopper, for then, you will be a man. Or woman. Whatever.

CLICK HERE TO BUY Chuck: The Complete Third Season [Blu-ray]