As I didn't get round to finishing my 'Chuck' post last week, let me first say how great it is to have one of my favourite shows back on the air.
I thought 'Chuck Versus The Suitcase' was an improvement over last week's episode. I enjoyed it last week, it was great fun, with an entertaining story about our newly reformed four-piece Team Bartowski. It set up the Linda Hamilton as Mama- Bartowski storyline very well, and put all the pieces into play right away (compare to last season, where we didn't even meet Shaw until episode 4). What 'Suitcase' did better though, was it brought everything back down a notch, and felt more like a standard episode of 'Chuck' that stood on it's own. While I like the 'Chuck' mythology very much, it sometimes gets in the way of the human conflicts - such as Sarah getting jealous with Chuck's attraction to the enemy spy, and Sarah not feeling like she can unpack her stuff at Chuck's place.
It's an interesting conflict - it was relatable in a real world 'Sarah the Girl' sense, the idea of not knowing if you feel comfortable enough with someone to leave your stuff at their house, but at the same time it worked for Sarah the Spy, who knew that she may have to fly off at a moments notice, and having to pack your stuff isn't exactly ideal. So all of that worked for me, and paid off very nicely at the end when we learn that in Sarah's eyes, anywhere Chuck is, that's her home. It was real, and it was a great moment as played by both Zachary Levi and Yvonne Strahovski who have allowed Chuck and Sarah as a couple to become a new, interesting dynamic instead of simply robbing the show of it's sexual tension and leaving nothing in it's place. In fact, it was an excellent showcase for Strahovski in general - when the moment calls for it she can be very funny, and I loved her sarcastic eyebrow raising as General Beckman admitted that Stepanova had good looks. She also got a GREAT fight scene, with lots of backflips and kicks and semi-nakedness and.. okay. I'm a guy, I like girl fights. And I loved Sarah's look of horror as we realised what Chuck and Sarah's Achilles Heel is - that Chuck does eventually want to quit being a spy and have a lovely family in the 'burbs (possibly after seeing how great suburban life could be in 'Chuck Versus The Suburbs', though with less brainwashing), while Sarah doesn't want to give up this lifestyle. But again, it's something I feel confident they'll address in time and it'll allow for more couples arguments in unusual situatations such as the 'I still love you' argument.
Elsewhere, I got a kick out of seeing Isaiah Mustafa as this week's 'Greta', in particular when he lifts the giant TV with great east, much to Morgan's amazement, and the hilarious target practice he carried out. If they're keeping this theme of having a different random CIA agent interacting with Morgan each week, I'm happy. And while we're on the subject of the little furry guy, I'm very interested to see how Morgan develops as the new manager of the Buy More, and how that will affect his standing with his co-workers. It's a well the show has been to a couple of times before, but it's always yielded great results, so I don't mind them visiting it a couple more times.
It was good to see Jeff and Lester again, after they had been on the run since the Buy More burnt down at the end of Season 3. If you haven't seen the webisodes, you need to. Now. One thing I really love about 'Chuck' is that the spies can be off doing their spy missions while a relatively mundane B-story takes place in the Buy More (but usually mirrors the A-story events in some way). That only really works though, if you have the idiots in the Buy More to run with that. CIA agents doing silly Buy More B-stories would feel wrong, so I'm glad we got the old gang back together (minus Big Mike, but MCL is still in the opening credits, so I doubt he's far off a return). Not only that, but they returned with a turbo-fan slow-mo moment that the show is so fond of, even meta-referencing it by having Morgan holding the fan. And if nothing else, Jeff's unnatural tolerance against Casey's tranquiliser darts was fantastic.
Also working well was Devon freaking out about his child and wife and going overboard with the purchases. As played by Ryan McPartlin, Captain Awesome is at his funniest when he's unable to keep the cool and calm composure he usually has. And there was another sweet payoff at the end, with Devon explaining that he does all this for Ellie because her mum isn't around to help her. It was a good moment for both McPartlin and Sarah Lancaster, who got a great scene to play right at the end where we realise how Ellie really feels about losing her mother.
The only thing that didn't work completely for me was Casey and his issues about being a father. I can't quite put my finger on it, but there's just something that's not clicking for me. I don't think it's Adam Baldwin, who we've seen on several occasions is able to show the softer side of the grunty characters he plays. But credit to the writers for trying to humanise John Casey - even if I'm not quite with them just yet.
'Chuck' is great. Simple.
What did everyone else think?
