So last night was the 2 hour season premier of Chuck (Season 3). Very exciting. A while back I lent my mother Chuck Season 1 and then, this last week, Season 2 and got her hooked. So last night I took a little jaunt over to her place to so we could watch Chuck together!
I’ve got no cable, so normally I have to wait for downloads/streams. Anyways, I was overall pleased with how Season 3 started, but I had a few comments/thoughts and figured I’d share with the class. No major plot spoilers though.
The season starts off 6 months beyond where season 2 left off with Chuck, as usual, in trouble. The thing that I found odd immediately was that it was General Beckman in his ear. Even more odd, and this is shown more throughout the 2 hour premier, General Beckman is much softer this season. You can actually hear some compassion in her voice when she tells Chuck how much he sucks. Very odd. I’m hoping that there is some explanation forthcoming, like they bonded during training or something.
Another thing I noticed at the end of Season 2, and seems to be a continuing trend…FN Five-seveNs. The final scene of season 2 was all 5-7’s, and every enemy in the premier of season 3 was carrying a 5-7. Don’t get me wrong, I think FN makes some very nice weapons, with the Five-seveN (which I’ve shot, IRL) being one of them. But it is a little odd that everyone is carrying the same weapon. Of course, it is probably because they have 5 prop gun and reuse them for everyone.
One of the most amusing pieces of the entire night came directly after the title sequence. You can never be sure if it more show or commercial break. Initially, it was a wide shot with a car in it, I presumed it was a car commercial, muted the TV and stopped paying attention. A few seconds later, my mother poked me and said “Chuck”. I unmuted the TV to find Ellie & Awesome going on about a car trip and Morgan pops up. They have this entire little deal that goes on about a car trip, and trying to kick Morgan out… when it cuts to “The all new 2010 Honda Accord Crosstour”. It was a commercial; an “in (Chuck) universe” car commercial. Once in the second half of the premier the commercial continued the story line, but nothing else major. I’ll give Honda points for a clever commercial that I actually wanted to watch. I wouldn’t be against more of this style of advertising since it is at least of interest to me.
A few other random observations: The “eye of the tiger” slash boxing training scene was quite humorous. “The Ring” is a very lame name for the new enemies.
(Minor Spoiler)
THANK YOU GOD, Emmet gets shot in the face. Apparently, there is no more Anna? IMDB seems to contradict this. Chuck is finally, officially an agent. I like Carina being back, I doubt she’ll stay, but she is kinda awesome. There is quite a bit more “sex” with early scenes of Sarah in a bikini and later with Sarah and Carina in lingerie (to which I’m not complaining whatsoever).
In the end, I thought the premiere was good. Though only good, not great. The first hour was very slow with the complete “reset” of the relationship between Sarah and Chuck. This is because the relationship was basically “in place” and as I once read: “People don’t want to watch the characters ‘together’, that is boring. People want to watch the tension of a building relationship”. I knew this was coming, and with 6 months between seasons it had to be done at the start, but it kinda threw off the premier in my book. The last hour got better with the last 30 minutes getting back to that “awesome Chuck” level that they used to be.