Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		3.0
Audio		2.5
Extras		1.5
Overall		3.0

Chuck: The Complete Third Season Blu-ray Movie Review

The series' latest video transfer is less problematic, but the whole of the release is still a letdown...

Reviewed by Kenneth Brown September 4, 2010

For the last two years we had to protect Chuck from the world, but now we need to protect the world from Chuck.

That's right, Chuck is back and badder than ever. Hardwired with the Intersect 2.0, our beloved, bumbling CIA upstart gets his River Tam on with new skills, new abilities and new missions. But Fulcrum is no longer his deadliest adversary. That honor goes to Third Season Malaise, the dastardly supervillain responsible for poisoning many a popular series; a vicious baddie Chuck's showrunners battle with some deal of certainty, but whose devious plans they fail to thwart entirely. Long standing storylines start to grow stale, creators Josh Schwartz and Chris Fedak's infectious formula begins to wear a bit thin and their characters meander about for the first half of the season, only coming into their own when Season Four appears on the horizon. Even so, cancellation would be a travesty as Chuck remains, warts and all, one of television's more enjoyable action comedies. Its humor comes from the heart and shatters the funny bone, and its writing is sharp enough to make every Nerd Herd crisis as thrilling as the various national security threats that emerge. The series as a whole may tread water here and there, but rest assured, unflinching fans will be treated to more of everything they love.

Not exactly 'Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2,' is it Chuck?

You're slightly unmotivated, a bit of an underachiever even. But loser? Not your turf.

NBC's oft-shaken, oft-stirred Monday night mainstay gets off to a rocky third-season start. Chuck (Zachary Levi), having been transformed into a head-cracking superspy in last season's promising cliffhanger, has trouble adjusting to all the information that's been crammed into his head. In no short order, he fails to pass the CIA's tests, has trouble getting his gun off, breaks up with Sarah (Yvonne Strahovski) yet again, becomes distracted by the ensuing emotional turmoil, gives Casey (Adam Baldwin) several good reasons to trust him even less than before, and finds hiding his secrets from Morgan (Joshua Gomez), Captain Awesome (Ryan McPartlin) and Ellie (Sarah Lancaster) to be an increasingly difficult challenge. If it all sounds a bit familiar, it's because it is. Meanwhile, back at the Buy More, change abounds. Morgan, the store's newly promoted assistant manager, has to deal with rebellion in his ranks, the ever-hilarious Jeff (Scott Krinsky) and Lester (Vik Sahay) rage against the corporate machine, a new Nerd Herder named Hannah (Smallville's Kristin Kreuk) joins the team, and Casey slowly develops a soft-spot for his cover's co-workers. Chuck's father (Scott Bakula) makes a welcome return as well -- even if his too-little-too-late involvement is somewhat disappointing -- and a few key characters finally, finally discover Chuck isn't the mild-mannered superstore employee he appears to be.

You live in a bubble. Take a look at your self. Go ahead. It's a freakish bubble of handsomeness. Now look at me... no bubble. I have to be completely verbal.

The thing that continues to separate Chuck from the genre pack? It isn't as much a 'splosion-laced spy caper (a la flashpan fan-favorites Burn Notice and Human Target) as it is a cleverly cast ensemble comedy. Levi, Strahovski and Baldwin keep the series' action and intrigue in check, allowing each other ample room to steal entire scenes, and folding in enough wit and wile to make their hijinks sizzle. Spy-vs-spy subplots dominate this go around, but the duplicitous agents and trained gunmen that come out of the woodwork give the trio room to work their wise-cracking magic. Gomez, Krinsky and Sahay are just as integral, and sometimes rack up as much screentime as the CIA's finest. Mishap or miscommunication, fireable offense or dangerous Buy More stunt, the store's laziest employees are the show's most valuable assets. (Even if I were ready to write Chuck off, I'd still TiVo each new season and fast forward through all the CIA/NSA/Fulcrum/Ring tit-for-tat just to follow Morgan and his cornball cohorts from week to week.) McPartlin's character becomes more crucial than I ever dreamed he would be -- and rightfully so, as his well-intentioned, dim-witted Captain has become one of Schwartz and Fedak's most endearing heroes -- and Lancaster, the series' lone straight-lacer, graciously paves the way for her castmates to collect big laughs. Levi may be the requisite leading man, but his co-stars are indispensable. In fact, if it weren't for pesky little nuisances (from-the-hip pacing, been-there-done-that plotting, and the like), Chuck would probably be one of my go-to shows.

Letting your personal life interfere with your professional one can be dangerous. But off the record, it's about damn time.

The good news is that the third season gets better as it barrels along. I'd even go so far as to say the second half of Chuck's nineteen-episode outing outclasses everything that's come before, and hints at an exciting new direction for a show that might have otherwise become another untimely casualty of NBC's Red Pen. As the line between Chuck's international exploits and personal life is erased, the series comes alive, and Schwartz and Fedak churn out some of their best material yet. Comedy and drama are no longer sent to separate corners, and instead go mano-a-mano in the ring. Old routines are jettisoned, and more organic storylines flourish. Yes, rampant sentimentality and heart-stained sleeves remain the series' Achilles heel -- the aftermath of every gunfight and near-death experience leaves an emotionally tattered Nerd Herd extraordinaire sitting by the edge of the same sappy crossroads he always does -- but the actors' heartfelt performances and the writers' penchant for penning sweet, sobering exchanges go a long way. I do wish I could simply pop some popcorn, sit back and enjoy a full season of Chuck without having to settle. To laugh and cheer without working so hard to overlook the series' shortcomings; to get that nagging itch in the back of my brain when I run out of episodes in my DVR queue. But I have to overlook too many missed opportunities every season, minor as they may be, to declare Chuck anything more than a tasty Fall snack.

Chuck: The Complete Third Season Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Blu-ray editions of Chuck's first and second seasons haven't exactly earned accolades among high definition aficionados. Severe compression issues, debilitating digital anomalies, bizarre inconsistencies and numerous other instabilities have left consumers grumbling, videophiles shrugging their shoulders and devoted fans debating whether each issue is linked to the series' source or a pair of mediocre transfers. Well, I still can't settle that debate, but I can tell you The Complete Third Season's 1080p/VC-1 encode looks better than its predecessors, even if only by a slim margin.

Let's be clear though: Chuck, improved transfer or no, is never going to look as sharp and savvy as its genre brethren. Skintones skip from flushed to lifelike to pasty (and then back to flushed again); colors are sometimes vibrant and youthful, sometimes washed out and milky; contrast is often either overblown or undercooked; and some scenes are swarming with enough noise to make the Buy More resemble a mosquito-infested Louisiana bayou. Worse, softness and smearing take a toll, and every crisp, gorgeously resolved shot is followed by two or three unsightly eyesores. The good news? The vast majority of these so-called mishaps are a product of Schwartz and Fedak's chosen aesthetic, and Warner's faithfulness to their vision (downright ugly as it might sometimes be). The bad news? Other problems infiltrate the transfer, and it's next to impossible to tell which are a product of Schwartz and Fedak's low-rent, sunshine-n-shadows grit, and which may or may not be the result of a less-than-stellar encode. Artifacting, banding, aliasing, brief bursts of noise, blink-and-you'll-miss-em print blemishes, bleeding, ringing and crush all make an appearance, albeit to a far lesser degree than they did in Warner's first and second-season Blu-ray releases.

Visually, The Complete Third Season is more impressive than Chuck's previous BD excursions. Alas, the debate will continue to rage, series apologists will continue to shrug their shoulders and defend their favorite show at all costs, newcomers will continue to cry foul, and casual consumers will align themselves here, there and everywhere in between. But no one (short of Schwartz, Fedak and the discs' engineers) will ever really know how truly faithful or truly maligned Chuck's third punch-drunk transfer is. Buyer beware, and enjoy accordingly.

Chuck: The Complete Third Season Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

It's far easier to pass judgment on The Complete Third Season's 640kbps Dolby Digital 5.1 surround track. Flat, front-heavy and, at times, painfully indifferent, Warner's lossy offering is as average as they come. Dialogue is clean and clear, but voices are subject to too many oddities. Muffled answers sometimes follow perfectly pitched questions, bright music is often capped when the soundscape turns its attentions elsewhere, and effects are earthy and convincing one minute, thin and hollow the next. LFE output follows suit, dutifully pounding the floor on cue, but rarely working up a sweat. Gunfire and explosions are decidedly hit-or-miss, punches and kicks occasionally don't pack either, and the sheer presence a top-tier lossless track might afford the series is nowhere to be heard. More distressing? The rear speakers are apparently worried about waking your kids. Ambience is whisper quiet, acoustics are all over the place, directionality is terribly fickle, and action scenes and the series' score are the only elements that even pretend to care about the third season's underwhelming soundfield. Alas, it all falls short. Immersive? Hardly. Dynamic? Not really. Adequate? I'll give you that one, if by "adequate" you mean "a slight step up from its DVD counterpart." I'm not sure when, or even if, Warner will finally begin pairing their television releases with lossless audio tracks. But I am sure of one thing: when it comes to sonic power and prowess, the studio's TV titles, Chuck chief among them, are sorely lacking.

Chuck: The Complete Third Season Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Another season of Chuck, another Blu-ray release, another anemic supplemental package. A generous helping of entertaining third-season "Declassified Scenes" (HD, 21 minutes) proves to be a fun, little diversion, but only offers a few scenes of substance; "Chuck-Fu and Dim Sum" (HD, 22 minutes) is the set's requisite EPK, and a decent one at that; "The Jeffster Revolution" (HD, 11 minutes) is an amusing mockumentary that tracks Jeff and Lester's rise to Rock 'n' Roll fame; and a hit-or-miss "Gag Reel" (SD, 6 minutes) rounds out the proceedings.

Chuck: The Complete Third Season Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

If you're primed to tackle Chuck this Tuesday, be sure to push through the first half of its slow-brew third season. It isn't bad, it just meanders for a bit before hitting its stride. Once it gets rolling though, prepare yourself for a good time as it gets better as it inches along. Unfortunately, the Blu-ray edition of The Complete Third Season doesn't make the wait very easy. With a slightly improved but still-bewildering video transfer, a dull and diluted Dolby Digital audio mix, and a paltry sixty minutes of special features, Chuck has little to offer beyond its nineteen-episode arc. Ah well. If the first two seasons of the series are already sitting on your shelf, a purchase will be an easy decision.