Chuck at Comic-Con: Morgan Versus the Intersect

"I've got an old-fashioned Rocky montage..."

NBC already has its Chuck Comic-Con exclusive ("Morgan Versus the Intersect") online for those of you not at San Diego Comic-Con (such as yours truly) or those still standing in the line outside Ballroom 20...

And, yes, the rumors are true: it does feature Jeffster performing "Eye of the Tiger."



(And if the above video stops working--as it appears to have just done--you can see the video here.)

Season Five of Chuck begins this fall on NBC.

Dispatches from San Diego: Comic-Con 2011 TV Guide Panel

I'm not in San Diego for this year's Comic-Con (marking the first year in about six that I haven't traveled south for the annual pop culture confab) for a number of reasons. However, Televisionary correspondent Lissette Lira was on the scene to offer her report on Thursday's TV Guide panel as well as some photos from the fan-favorites sessions.

* * *

All in all the TV Guide panel was a bit of a mixed bag. While it was great fun seeing such an eclectic group of stars share the stage together, there were so many participants that everyone wound up getting a bit short-changed in the process.

Nonetheless, there were still a few memorable highlights, including Zach Levi passionately voicing his agreement with a fan about the need for the TV ratings system to be changed. Levi vowed to write more about the subject on the website Nerd HQ which he was promoting with his baseball cap. Levi also spoke about his hope that CHUCK fans will be happy with the show's finale.

At this point LOST's Jorge Garcia (soon to be seen on Fox's upcoming ALCATRAZ series) jumped into the conversation and advised him to avoid an ending in which the characters all turned out to be dead because, "the fans will never stop telling you how much they loved the series, but HATED the ending!"

In addition, DOCTOR WHO's Matt Smith offered a few details about the show's eventual return, noting that the Doctor will be wearing a new coat when we next see him in "Let's Kill Hitler" which he described as "a fantastic episode."

Smith also fielded a number of questions from audience members including one as to whether we might be seeing Captain Jack Harkness (played by John Barrowman) return to DOCTOR WHO at some point. Smith answered "John is always welcome back." Smith went on to say that with the 50th anniversary of DOCTOR WHO coming up in 2013 there has even been talk of other Doctors possibly coming back.

[Photos from the session follow after the jump...]

Family Business: Trust Issues on Chuck

If there's one thing that Chuck has dealt with on an ongoing basis, it's matters of trust and fidelity in the spy world, where such things are seen as potential weaknesses to be exploited rather than strengths.

Over the course of the last four seasons, Chuck Bartowski has been transformed from a naive asset into a full-blown spy of his own and I don't mean thanks to the Intersect (which still manages to flash and give him information or enable him to engage in some kick-ass Kung Fu), but rather his demeanor and way of handling himself in the field has changed significantly. Whereas he and Sarah were once on separate trajectories (he wants to be extraordinary! she wants to be normal!), they've now settled somewhere in the middle together, a spy couple whose missions are backdrops for their romantic endeavors.

This week's episode of Chuck ("Chuck Versus the First Bank of Evil") found the one-time spy wannabe engaging with his own asset, Vivian MacArthur Volkoff (Lauren Cohan), the daughter of notorious international criminal Alexei Volkoff, who has been spirited off to a top-flight CIA holding facility. But, unlike some of the other agents who work in government espionage, Chuck hasn't lost sight of his own moral compass. It's clear that he cares for Vivian and that the two, whose childhoods are remarkably similar in some ways, are two simpatico souls desperate to reconnect with the parents who seemingly turned their backs on them years before.

But the balance of power has shifted. Whereas once before, Chuck would have been the one duped into assisting, say, the CIA, he now is the CIA and he's the one making promises here, offering Vivian the chance to see her father in exchange for her help on a mission to Macau. The only problem is that Beckman has no intentions of letting Vivian see Alexei and Chuck's broken promise to Vivian unwittingly sends the conflicted woman over to the dark side...

Personally, I'm of two minds about Vivian. On the one hand, I'm glad to see that we're witnessing the birth of a highly conflicted villain, one who is being pulled into the family business, not because of greed or a need to take over the world, but because she doesn't know where her heart is leading her. Volkhoff's unpredictable dangerous quality isn't due entirely to his ruthlessness, it's also due to his world-class gift for emotional manipulation, as we saw earlier this season.

His presents to Vivian--an account card to a bank, which leads her to a safety deposit box containing photographs and mementos of Vivian as a child, Volkoff's most prized possessions--are clearly intended to tip her hand, to make her see that Alexei didn't turn his back on her but kept a close eye on her, grooming her as his future replacement. Which is exactly the agenda that Riley (the always fantastic Ray Wise) pushes when he encounters Vivian on two separate occasions: they need her to step into her father's shoes and what better way than by turning her against Chuck and her handlers? Despite the obvious connection between Vivian and Chuck, Riley is able to effortlessly drive a wedge between the two of them. After all, isn't Chuck responsible for the arrest and detainment of her father?

On the other hand, there's been a lot of focus on Vivian the last two weeks. While I applaud the show's writers for offering us a different type of villain--and a female villain, no less--than we've seen to date, Vivian's development comes at the expense of other characters' screentime, something I hope balances out now more that we've seen Vivian seemingly make her choice (i.e., the final shot of her in the car with Riley at the end).

I can't shake the feeling that the Buy More and its staffers (sorry, Jeffster fans) are more or less superfluous these days (RenFair humor?), as are Ellie and Devon largely. I'm glad to see that Sarah and Ellie are (finally!) bonding between last week's scene and this week's wedding preparation, and their interactions in "Chuck Versus the First Bank of Evil" injected some Bridezilla comedy into the mix, to boot. (I didn't, however, need the extended montage of Sarah trying on wedding dresses--would Castle really have a huge assortment of bridal gowns?--but it did at least pay off with the bullet hole-ridden gown that Sarah set her sights on.)

And the positioning of Vivian front and center meant that Casey was once more relegated to the background, something that troubles me when I think of how much fun the missions were when it was Chuck, Sarah, and Casey together. Far too often these days, Casey is paired with Morgan, which is fine but it seems to be happening all the time now... and, hell, Morgan is now his roommate. (Which will, hopefully, mean that the relationship between Casey and Alex might finally get some much-needed development.) Here, Morgan catches Casey involved in something clandestine in a secret sector of Castle. We're not privy as to just what Casey's mission really is, but Morgan overhears that it will involve a TR-476 and there's the matter of that odd corridor in Castle. Just what is he up to? And how does it tie into the Volkoff story arc? Hmmm...

Some other thoughts:

• Loved the fact that the writers used the famous Lost numbers sequence (4-8-15-16-23-42) on Vivian's Bank of Macau card. A nice touch that was further served by the presence of Lost's Francois Chau (Pierre Chang!) as the bank manager.
• I was concerned that black-clad Chuck and Sarah's robbery of the bank would tip too much towards being The Matrix but the walked a very fine line and came out on the right side, puncturing the tension by having Chuck and Sarah discuss wedding plans.
• I'm still not convinced that Castle ("J. Crew for spies") would have an actual selection of wedding dresses to choose from in its costume department, but it was a good way to payoff the earlier scene with Chuck finding Vivian appropriate attire for their mission
• I'm glad we haven't seen the last of Ray Wise's Riley, here whispering poison into Vivian's ear.
• I love that Sarah, who was so conflicted about wedding planning, becomes obsessed with it, throwing herself into the arrangements as though it were a tactical mission, dreaming up elaborate plans for a ceremony on a private island and flying the cake in from Paris. It's a believable transformation, and I'm hoping that her need to pull off the "perfect" wedding leads to a return of Gary Cole as her con man father.

All in all, "Chuck Versus the First Bank of Evil" is a fun episode that won't necessarily rank as the very best Chuck has had to offer, but I thought it represented a significant improvement over some of the clunkers we've been given of late.

What did you think of last night's episode? A winner or a miss? What is your take on Vivian Volkoff? Head to the comments section to discuss.

In two weeks on Chuck ("Chuck Versus the A-TEAM"), Chuck and Sarah begin to investigate when they suspect that Casey is carrying out private missions; Chuck fears that the CIA's seemingly-perfect new operatives will render him obsolete; Morgan settles in with a new roommate, and Awesome panics when Ellie embarks on a potentially dangerous line of research.

Fighting the Hydra: Thoughts on the Semi-Season Finale of Chuck

I've been candid over the years about my love for Chuck, supporting it and nurturing it and standing up for it whenever renewal seemed like a distant proposition rather than a sure thing. But I've also been upfront about my thoughts about this creatively uneven season, which seemed to veer from strong episodes to really weak ones on a weekly basis.

Last night's episode ("Chuck Versus the Push Mix"), written by Rafe Judkins and Lauren LeFranc and directed by Peter Lauer, was originally intended to be the season finale for Season Four of Chuck, back when the season had only gotten a thirteen-episode commitment, but as with last season, an eleventh hour order of additional episodes meant that the semi-season finale wrapped up several storylines but wouldn't be the end to the season.

Which brings us to the here and now, as I have to take an unpopular stand and say that I didn't enjoy this episode as much as others seemed to. In fact, I'll admit that I'm puzzled by the rave reviews that this episode received, both in advance and post-air. There were some fantastic moments in the mix (I did love the final minutes with Chuck's silent proposal), but it felt stitched together from some sub-par parts and the final act, with its host of happy endings, didn't feel entirely earned to me, but rather tacked on cheaply, an emotional ploy to satisfy in case this was a season (or series) ender.

So what did I really think of "Chuck Versus the Push Mix"? Let's discuss.

First, I have to say that I'm extremely glad that this marks the end of the Volkoff storyline, which intrigued at first and then just grated on my nerves. No disrespect to Timothy Dalton, who was in fine form here, but the character never gelled into something three-dimensional. He was yet another maniacal super-villain with delusions of grandeur and an inability to pick up on the fact, after twenty years, that Mary Bartowski was just not into him.

I'm still not clear as to what Alexei Volkoff wanted, what his MO was, or what his grand scheme was for world domination or whatever. Or why he was so dangerous that it took Mary Bartowski twenty years to catch him, or why she had to walk out on her family in order to do so. There must have been countless times when Mary should have been able to enact her endgame and grab Volkoff, so I'm still confused why it took this long and why it involved Sarah Walker going undercover in his organization to finally pull off the capture of the century.

Which brings us to Point #2: I understand that Sarah Walker is a superspy and is as dangerous as sin, but how was she able to accomplish in what seemed like under a week what Frost was unable to do in two decades? (Yes, two decades.) Here is where things started to fall apart for me, because I couldn't accept last week that Alexei would willingly allow her into his organization, even with the "rogue agent" status she had created for herself, knowing that she was Chuck's girlfriend and wouldn't flip that easily on her country, especially for the reasons she gave. (And, yes, Alexei has proven that he's far from rational, but this stretched credulity a bit.)

In the past, I've been willing to suspend my disbelief when it came to Chuck because the show was firing on all cylinders and it's easy to overlook some niggling things when they're couched in awesomeness. But I've been finding it increasingly hard to do so here, especially in the last two weeks as the Volkoff final act ramped up. There are some things that are easily swept under the rug and there are others that, once introduced, can't be erased from my mind as easily.

That Volkoff's entire network--his most important, powerful, and prized possession--should be concealed behind a door whose security can so easily be breached caused me to sit up. Compounding this are the lasers that even a schlemiel like Morgan can outmaneuver. Without use of the Intersect. The Chuck gang already utilized the laser gag to full effect back in Season 3 ("Chuck Versus the Three Words"), as Chuck had to evade some lasers with cat-like precision, thanks to the Intersect-derived abilities. But to have Morgan do so, so easily, thanks to some yoga (!?!) poses? Suspension of disbelief out the window.

(Likewise, the fact that Chuck did a general internet search for "The Contessa" early on, that he and Morgan were able to climb onto the Contessa with such ease, and that they were able to saunter around the ship without a single guard noticing, all got on my nerves.)

Yes, it was fitting that Alexei should be undone by his jealousy and by Chuck's smarts, utilizing the "ghost" of Orion to get Alexei out in the open and use the authorization code words that Chuck needed to transfer his Hydra network, and it showed some moxie on Chuck's part, but at this point I just wanted the Volkoff storyline to be over. Now that Mary had flip-flopped so many times between good and evil, between Volkhoff confidante and CIA agent, I just wanted this arc to be over already, something I've rarely ever felt with Chuck before.

In watching this week's episode, I found that I was willing myself to like it but that I was failing. And I've never had to "will" myself to like Chuck in the past, as the show has abounded with clever writing, fine acting, and genre-busting fun. Elements that in the past have worked with such precision (Jeffster) seemed thrown in here for no real purpose. While some have raved about the "Push It" sequence with Jeffster at the hospital, I found it a complete turn-off, an over the top scenario that further tested my patience, even as the patients themselves (not to mention the nurses) seemed not bothered in the least.

I'm glad that Ellie and Awesome had their baby (following the world's most easy labor and delivery) and it will be interesting to see just how the writers deal with having a baby in the mix on the show. For the most part, Ellie and Devon have been largely tangential to the plot this season, and I'm still hoping that Chris Fedak and Co. can find a way to bring these disparate elements together.

Which brings us to the very end of the episode, which I thought was actually the best handled sequence in the entire installment, as we wrapped up all of the storylines (Casey is okay! Alex isn't going anywhere! Volkoff is defeated! Ellie has her baby!) and put the focus back onto the Chuck/Sarah courtship. Throughout the season, Chuck has sought to engineer the perfect situation for his marriage proposal but has been foiled by nerves, the CIA, and Sarah herself. Which is why it was perhaps so perfect that the ideal moment was the one right at hand: in the hospital corridor, sitting on a bench together, as a custodian waxed the floor.

Sometimes the best moments are the smallest ones, and the silence of Chuck's proposal played out magically, allowing us to infuse the scene with our own emotions and sense of fulfillment rather than let the dialogue do the talking. After a season of talking about proposals and false starts, it was a canny way to make Chuck's actual offer seem dramatic, engaging, and romantic, and Sarah's acceptance all the more heartfelt and genuine.

But that small moment wasn't enough for me following what was largely a lazy episode that was full of narrative holes and forced emotion. And, yes, I even surprised myself with how little I enjoyed it. I'm hoping the writers, given the next batch of episodes, can find a way to win me back, because I don't want to wax nostalgic about Chuck: I want to enjoy it again.

What did you think of this week's episode? And of the last thirteen episodes as a whole? Head to the comments section to discuss and debate.

Next week on Chuck ("Chuck Versus the Seduction Impossible"), John Casey, Chuck Bartowski, and Sarah Walker are sent to Morocco to rescue Roan Montgomery (guest star John Larroquette); Morgan Grimes plans to meet Alex's mother; Mary spends some time with her family.

Two-Buck Chuck: The Days of Wine and Roses on Chuck

Proposals are funny things.

Pull off an entirely romantic marriage offer and you have a story that you'll be telling your grandchildren in years to come. Fail and it could be, for Sarah's parents, emblematic of everything that went wrong with their relationship.

But whether it's an Italian restaurant, or the balcony of a posh French chateau, what really matters is the moment itself, something that Chuck finally grasps at the end of this week's sweet and funny episode ("Chuck Versus the Balcony"), written by Max Denby and directed by Jay Chandrasekhar. It's more about seizing the moment with the one you love than it is about balloons, string quartets, or carriages.

Unfortunately, Chuck realizes this lesson too late. In true Chuck fashion, the course of true love never did run smooth and Chuck and his lady love, Sarah Walker, find themselves on opposite trajectories. As Chuck prepares to spend his life with Sarah, she's engaged on a dangerous mission, posing as a double agent in order to free Chuck's mom from the dastardly Alexei Volkoff.

For all of Chuck's planning, his "sub-mission" fails to take off due to external circumstances beyond his control... and some internal ones as well. Unable to propose until he encounters the ideal situation, Chuck misses his chance to ask Sarah to marry him, as he's twice interrupted in pursuit of his marital goal.

I'm glad that the writers opted to paint Chuck as extremely nervous about proposing to Sarah. Despite the fact that the two have saved the world (and each other) on numerous occasions, there's still something life-altering and tremendous about making a marriage proposal. Chuck's Intersect-like abilities don't seem to include getting down on one knee among its mind-arsenal of fighting styles. For all of his superheroics, Chuck is still an Everyman and there are few things more terrifying than proposing. (Even I found myself flustered when it came time for it, after being with my future wife for years and years.)

Chuck's nervousness and his belief that the moment needed to be absolutely perfect point towards his good heart and his love for Sarah. Hoping to avoid the awfulness of her parents' proposal (aside: do we know anything about her mother?), Chuck wants to avoid the cliche, over-the-top excess that marred Sarah's father's proposal. (Along with a restaurant carpet fire.) But it true Chuck style, our everyman spy has drafted Morgan into a sub-mission to pull off a most romantic moment with his girlfriend... who herself quickly finds out just what is going on.

The tension of the mission--involving a missing nanochip secreted at a chateau in the Loire Valley--is nicely paralleled by the tension of Chuck's side mission... and it was fantastic to see Sarah not go into a tailspin about the imminent proposal (and the long-term relationship implicit with it) but rather express her excitement, and help out to ensure that the proposal went smoothly. (Nice save with the ring box, S.)

But Sarah is also a covert agent in the employ of the United States government. Her desire for a happy, well-adjusted life are secondary to their orders... and I truly believe that she thinks she is helping Chuck by going undercover at Volkoff Industries in order to free Frost. But Sarah's desire to reunite Chuck with his mom have put their future happiness on hold altogether. Unable to even finish proposing to Sarah in her cell at Castle, Chuck is shocked to learn that she's posing as a double agent in order to do her job and to get Mary back to safety.

History, as they say, has a way of repeating itself. Mary's clandestine mission destroyed her marriage to Stephen, and Sarah's decision to follow in her footsteps don't bode well for her prospects with Chuck. She's chosen professional duty over personal desire, once again. Chuck's bended-knee proposal may go horribly awry, but it's the horror of learning what Sarah has accepted to do that's truly shocking for him.

I don't doubt that these two will eventually make it down the aisle together (season finale, anyone?), but I have to commend the writers for puncturing our expectations here. While it seemed as though the episode was finally building up to an engagement (or at the very least, the proposal), the rug is yanked out from under our feet just as much as it is Chuck's.

All in all, "Chuck Versus the Balcony" managed to pull off a delightly combination of heart and humor, something that the best installments of Chuck have in abundance, and created a nicely parallel storyline for Lester at the Buy More, as he prepared to meet his Saskatchewan bride. Issues of marriage, morality, and mothers all coming together to create a winning episode here that wore its heart on its sleeve.

But I'm curious to know what you thought of the episode: did you think Chuck would pull off a perfect proposal in the end? Think Sarah would accept in the cell? Wondering just why she's putting her life in danger to save Chuck's mom? Head to the comments section to discuss.

Next week on Chuck ("Chuck vs. the Gobbler"), in a bid to free Chuck's mom, Sarah goes undercover on a suicide mission for Volkoff industries; Awesome and Ellie struggle to choose a baby name.

Knife's Edge: The Spotless Mind on Chuck

Knock-knock.

It's been a while since we've had an episode of Chuck that focused on Chuck Bartowski's better half, Agent Sarah Walker.

We've been given slivers of Sarah's backstory--it was only last season that we learned her true name (that would be "Sam" for those keeping score)--but the enigmatic spy who has stolen Chuck's heart has remained largely an international woman of mystery, her heart encased in stone until Chuck came around. But does Sarah love Chuck for the man he is or the man that she thinks he could be? And with the Intersect out of commission for the foreseeable future, what does that mean for their own?

This week's episode of Chuck ("Chuck Versus Phase Three"), written by Kristin Newman and directed by Anton Cropper, did not disappoint on that front, giving Yvonne Strahovski the perfect showcase for her skills, both in terms of silently emoting and kicking butt. While the action led Sarah (and Casey and Morgan) to far-flung countries before learning of The Belgian's Thailand hideout (where this "giant blonde she-male" took on an army), the episode itself was more about the lengths we'll go to in order to save the ones we love, whether that might be a literal rescue (in the case of Chuck/Sarah) or a figurative one (Ellie/Awesome).

Love, it seems, is all about making sacrifices... and refusing to back down.

I can't go any further without first praising Strahovski for her gutsy performance in this week's episode, from her high-flying fight scenes (the way she took out that Thai fighter was wickedly awesome) to the more tender scenes. Zachary Levi's Chuck might be the heart of the series, but Strahovski's Sarah is its ethereal soul.

From the way Strahovski silently conveyed her innate sadness and regret upon learning of Chuck's elaborate proposal scenario (complete with multiple sports cars and a white stallion), stabbing herself inwardly for not telling him out loud what she thought was obvious, to the way in which she finally came clean, bringing Chuck back from the edge of emptiness during the Phase Three procedure all summed up her quiet strength and charisma as an actress. (Plus, that shot of her emerging from the water with a knife clenched between her teeth? Epic.)

With Sarah, it's been just as much about what's not been said as what has been, her whole life being a struggle to compartmentalize, to rationalize, to think logically and keep her emotion in check. But when she saw clearly that her chance at real happiness was in peril, she didn't hesitate from crossing several lines in order to save her boyfriend. International incident be damned, really. From kidnapping an official on Thai soil (plucking him right out of the Thai embassy in an automated carpet) to threatening him with an ammonia injection (!!!), Sarah was willing to do whatever she had to in order to get Chuck back safe and sound. If that's not true love, I don't know what is.

Sarah has long seen Chuck as more than just an asset, as more a three-dimensional man than just someone carrying the Intersect. It's bloody obvious that she would love him regardless of whether he could be in the field with her, or whether he had access to the Intersect or not. But from Chuck's perspective, one can see why he might wonder whether his abilities enable his relationship with Sarah. (After all, it's not like she would have been willing to jump into bed with Chuck when he was just a Nerd Herder. We can all admit that she was initially way out of his league.)

Those fears and insecurities were given form by the procedure that The Belgian and his scary scientist helper (whom you might recognize as Adam Sandler's doctor in Funny People), a nod to both Charlie Kaufman/Michel Gondry's The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and perhaps to Christopher Nolan's Inception as well. I kept waiting for a spinning top to turn up in one of Chuck's dreams, each designed to force him to flash.

I especially loved the final dream sequence at the apartment complex, as Ellie and Awesome drifted back into their darkened apartment and Chuck walked through shards of glass in the living room. Beautifully directed and exquisitely imagined, the sequences allowed us to take a look into Chuck's mind without superfluous exposition, bringing his subconscious thoughts to life in a visual format. Interestingly, however, it's his knowledge of those around him that act as a trigger (such as Ellie's lack of anger about him spying again), reminding his subconscious that he's dreaming in the first place.

But it's Sarah's confession--that she loves him, Intersect or not, and wants to be with him--that pulls him back from the very edge, mere seconds before his entire consciousness would have been wiped out, rendering Chuck an emotionless robot with a computer in his head. Love does conquer all, it seems. Even doomsday psycho-surgical procedures.

Meanwhile, Devon attempted to help Ellie out by drafting the entire Buy More staff to fix the mysterious laptop that Stephen left Ellie in his old car, clearly intending his daughter to find the device. Sacrificing the next 36 hours (and his dignity somewhat), Devon trades medical consults with the Buy More staffers in exchange for spare parts and technological know-how.

He does get the laptop up and running again, just in time for Ellie to return home to solve the riddle. (Fortunately, the response to "Knock-Knock" wasn't "who's there?") It's fitting that the solution should be something deeply personal, something that only Ellie would know ("I'm here"), making me believe that whatever it is that the computer contains--and we're only given Ellie and Awesome's facial response (and a "whoa" for good measure) this week--it's something vital and something that Stephen intended for Ellie, rather than Chuck to have. So it's not an Intersect mainframe. But what is it?

That's the question and one I wish I had an answer for, but we'll have to wait a week to find out just what is lurking on that laptop. Is it something that could restore the Intersect? Or something altogether different?

Regardless, I'm intrigued and I thought that this week's fantastic Sarah-centric episode of Chuck removed some of the sting of last week's sub-par installment, which left me cold. Definitely a step in the right direction and it used the series' sprawling cast to good effect here, while also injecting some humor into a some very tense situations. Well done, all around.

This season of Chuck has been a mixed bag, with some very strong episodes ("Chuck Versus the First Fight") sitting alongside some lackluster ones. I'm definitely missing some of the writers who left after last season--from Ali Adler and Phil Klemmer to Matt Miller and a host of others--who seemed to nail the show's voice and tone better than many of these newcomers. Which isn't to say that they won't in time adapt to the rhythms of the series, but it's been a bit of a teething process, I think, this season. Fingers crossed that the upcoming episodes are more in line with "First Fight" and "Phase Three" and less like "Fear of Death" or "Cubic Z."

But an ass-kicking Sarah Walker taking on anyone and anything getting between her and Chuck? Thank you very much indeed.

What did you think of this week's episode? And of this season of Chuck so far as a whole? Head to the comments section to discuss.

Next week on Chuck ("Chuck Versus the Leftovers"), Chuck's mom comes over for Thanksgiving leftovers dinner the day after the holiday; Morgan and the rest of the Buy More crew deal with the busiest shopping day of the year.

Chuck's Fear of Death Left Me Cold

I always find it disappointing when an episode of Chuck fails to live up to my expectations and this week's episode ("Chuck Versus the Fear of Death"), written by Nicholas Wootton and directed by Robert Duncan McNeill, definitely did not live up to the momentum created in the wake of "Chuck Versus the First Fight."

I'm sure it wasn't helped by the fact that the series took a week off between installments but this week's episode also seemed all the more weak in comparison to the previous episode, which set up some new subplots and a potential new direction to the overarching mythology. This week's episode... felt more than a little like filler.

Way too much weight given to a flimsy Buy More plot involving this week's Greta, Summer Glau, who had little to do other than prance around angrily, flick open a knife concealed in a thigh holster, and eat some product placement. If I'm being brutally honest: it wasn't a good use of Glau at all and revealed just how irritating the revolving door that is Greta has become this season.

Had Glau stuck around for more than an episode (even for two episodes), her arc could have been paid off with Lester and Jeff's snooping and potential unmasking of her CIA affiliation. But here it was just an aside as Casey swooped in to rescue Greta and she walked off, tossing her Buy More badge on the table as she went. Cue the next Greta.

I can see why the Greta trope would initially make for some fun, allowing a slew of guest casting and stunt casting, but it hasn't really added up to anything tangible. The Gretas to date have gotten a handful of lines but haven't really added anything to the Buy More or to the momentum of the plot (in fact, I'd go so far as to say that they often drag it down). Glau's Greta had more to do than most but her storyline last night was of the flimsiest gossamer. Given that Chuck was lucky enough to get Glau to drop by, I would have hoped they would have more for her to do. (Or at least get to use her in a fight sequence.)

Much of the episode felt cobbled together from plot retreads and I felt myself losing interest with the diamond auction, Chuck's training, and a way too long opening sequence in which we learned that a month had passed since Chuck last flashed. Yes, it was all leading up to a grand reveal at the end of the episode in which Chuck was kidnapped by The Belgian (guest star Richard Chamberlain), who was aware of his identity as the Intersect and plucked him off of a Gstaad gondola before vanishing altogether.

It was the final moments of the episode, in fact, that made the rest of the episode tolerable. I'm curious to see the strike force team of Sarah, Casey, and Morgan attempt to track down Chuck and rescue him. And I'm also keen to see Sarah break down her boundaries and go all Wolverine-style berserk to save her boyfriend.

But I sadly could have done without the rest of the episode, which just felt entirely "off" to me. Certainly not as strong as "Chuck Versus the First Fight," but also not as strong as some of the weaker episodes in the series' run.

Am I alone in feeling this? Did the episode live up to your expectations and am I being too harsh? Head to the comments section to discuss.

Next week on Chuck ("Chuck Versus Phase Three"), Sarah, Chuck, Morgan and Casey head to the jungles of Southeast Asia when The Belgian (guest star Richard Chamberlain) tries to learn more about the Intersect; Ellie and Awesome try to decipher a secret her father left behind.

Childhood's End: First Blood, First Fights on Chuck

Hmmm, did you see that coming?

While I teased some details about this week's fantastically serpentine episode of Chuck ("Chuck Versus the First Fight") in my advance review last week (which you can read over here), I was especially careful not to spoil that particular bait and switch, lest it ruin what was a rather masterful plot twist this week.

Morgan, here thrust into largely the same role that Chuck was way back in Season One, claims that first fights set the tone for the entire relationship and his rubric can be applied to relationships in general. In fact, the way that the final conflict in this episode plays out might hold the key to unlocking--or at least gaining some understanding--about the ways in which Mary Elizabeth Bartowski operates. Her frosty exterior belies a true emotional core, one that's not tied up in whatever elaborate ruse she's involved in at the moment.

So now that the episode has aired and I can get more specific with my thoughts without spoiling you, what did I think of "Chuck Versus the First Fight"? Read on. Just be sure to put down the tiny weapons first.

As I did in my original review, I again want to praise Timothy Dalton for some fantastic work in this week's installment. From the befuddled professor facade he created (I loved his glee in diving out of the airplane and his joke about there only being one parachute) to the final reveal that the man we've come to know as MI6 handler Gregory Tuttle is nothing more than an illusion, a cover story concealing this man's dangerous true nature: Volkoff himself.

I suspected as much when "Tuttle" began to ask Chuck about his relationship with Frost (during their sheep-laden trip back to Los Angeles) and when he got shot at the bank, it clinched it for me. It was far too easy to have Tuttle get shot and bleed out on the floor of a bank, but the mechanics of the plan were ingenious, a long con designed to get Chuck to take Mary inside Orion's headquarters, bypassing all security measures and allowing her to walk in freely.

Which is what it appears to have all been about: access to Orion's technology and the secrets that were hidden away underneath the Bartowskis' Encino house. Triangle-shaped discs, MI6 black ops, kindly handlers, they were all props in the end, a convincing slight-of-hand that distracted Chuck from what was actually going on behind the scenes.

For all of his training and his Intersect-derived skills, Chuck fell prey to exactly what Sarah had tried to steer him away from: he was felled by his own emotion, clouded by his unresolved feelings about his mother, and he was an easy mark for a spy as gifted and accomplished as Frost. Why? Because despite the evidence, he wanted to believe that his mother was as good as he wanted her to be. That underneath the posturing and the brutal iciness, she was the same woman that read him stories and tucked him in at night.

Did that woman ever exist? Was her whole life as Mary Bartowski just a convenient cover? Was her relationship with Chuck and Ellie's dad Stephen an assignment? Or is there something more to her? After all, she doesn't let Chuck and Sarah go boom when the explosives--rigged to destroy Orion's HQ--go off. And she does slip Sarah the means of escape. Plus, her scene with Ellie, in which they talk about little Ellie curling up between her parents in the blue leather seats of that classic car, did point towards some true emotion buried underneath that icy surface.

Better still, just what did Mary do to Chuck in the basement there? What was that that she showed him on that monitor. What was it that Orion never wanted Chuck to see? Given that we don't see Chuck flash on anything for the remainder of the episode, nor use any of his Intersect 2.0-derived abilities, it seems as though Mary has either deleted the Intersect from Chuck's head or somehow removed his access to the data.

Chuck has largely dealt with Chuck Bartowski's relationship to the Intersect program, so I can't see why the writers would decide to remove it altogether at this point in the game, but I also can't quite figure out just what Mary did to Chuck in this week's episode. It would be a huge game-changer if he lost the Intersect altogether, though it could also be a sign that the MacGuffin of those powers are replaced by real spy training and martial arts. And that Chuck becomes more proficient a spy on his own, rather than backed by any performance-enhancing technology.

But if Mary's actions aren't Intersect deletion- or alteration-related, could it be that she showed him something specific, a particular piece of intel, that could be hugely damning? Something that his brain hasn't yet processed but which is waiting to be analyzed by the Intersect? Something related to Mary's disappearance in the first place?

And, finally, was this action part of Volkoff's plan? Or a rogue personal mission for Mary herself? Hmmm...

And then there's the matter of Stephen's old classic car, the one with the custom-made blue leather seats... and whatever is going on underneath there. I'm not sure what to make of the glowing box underneath the driver's seat, nor why he specifically left this boon to Ellie rather than Chuck. Could it be that Ellie herself might be more important to the overarching plot than we realized? Did Stephen have a plan for his daughter that was separate to Chuck? Curious.

It's fitting that the Encino home where Chuck and Ellie grew up was destroyed by the end of the episode, an explosion that incinerates Orion's life's work as well as the closest symbol Chuck as of the family life that detonated when Mary disappeared all of those years ago. Everything that those years represented, those small moments that define a family, detonate with those explosives. What's taken down to the ground isn't just Orion's work, but the decades of secrets that the Bartowski clan kept.

And it's perhaps also a signal that there are no sacred cows in this show, that Orion's underground lair, with its vast caverns of knowledge, tech, and nifty gizmos, is able to be destroyed so casually. Volkoff is clearly playing for keeps... but what might undo him in the end is a mother's love for her son. At no point is it made explicit that Volkoff is aware of just what Mary and Chuck's true relationship is; in fact, it seems clear at the end of the episode that Volkoff orders Chuck and Sarah's execution without knowing who Chuck actually is.

Which is very interesting to me. While Mary went to great lengths to conceal Chuck's identity from Volkoff, it's that very relationship that could end up saving her. If she isn't completely evil, that is. But that moment between her and Sarah ("keep him safe") points towards some goodness in her heart, at least where her son is concerned.

Here's to hoping that the dastardly Volkoff and his kick-ass cohorts (including guest star Ana Gasteyer's hilariously scarred and scary indestructible woman Dasha) has more than a few tricks still up his sleeves. And that this season turns out to be just as twisty and complex as this week's episode. (Dare I say it: one of the all-time best Chuck episodes?)

What did you make of "Chuck Versus the First Fight"? Did you love Morgan's slapstick moment with the earpiece and him redeeming himself by suiting up and going into battle at the bank with John Casey? Is Mary Bartowski good or evil? What did she do to Chuck? And what's the deal with Ellie's new car? Head to the comments section to discuss.

In two weeks on Chuck ("Chuck Versus the Fear of Death"), Chuck tries to prove himself by going on a hazardous mission; Casey and Morgan try to cover when the Buy More staffers attempt to investigate the identity of the newest Greta (guest star Summer Glau).

Choosing Sides: An Advance Review of Chuck's "Chuck Versus the First Fight"

Sometimes the hardest advance reviews to write are the ones where the episode in question hinges ever so much on the plot.

The innate twists and turns of next week's episode of Chuck ("Chuck Versus the First Fight") make the episode delicious fun, but also make it super-difficult to write about as I don't want to spoil any of the plot mechanics, as there are quite a few surprises and unexpected treats in this installment.

It's no spoiler to say that the episode deals head-on with resolving some of the issues left dangling from the cliffhanger at the end of "Chuck Versus the Aisle of Terror." The title should be a good indication of just where Sarah and Casey's actions have left her relationship with Chuck and their romance has definitely hit a rough patch for all of the reasons that I outlined in my post-air review of "Aisle of Terror."

Trust is a funny thing and once broken--regardless of the reasons behind it--it's often difficult to get back to how things were beforehand. But this is Chuck, of course, so don't expect that this episode is all doom and gloom. Instead, it's a winning mix of action, suspense, romance, and humor. In other words, all the things that Chuck does so well when it's firing on all cylinders.

What else did I think of next week's episode? Read on, but--as always--please do not post my comments in full on any websites, message boards, or the like.

"Chuck Versus the First Fight" approaches that breakdown on two fronts, not surprisingly: from the fallout for the relationship between Chuck and Sarah (the romantic angle) and the implications that the motives of Chuck's mom, Mary Elizabeth Bartowski, may not be as pure as she claims (the spy word). Fittingly, these two tracks come together in perfect fashion in this episode, providing the impetus for the a whole slew of new story possibilities down the line.

I'm also happy to say that rather than fit into the overarching storyline in a tangential fashion, Ellie and Awesome do play a role here (huzzah!), though I can't say much more than that. The realization that their mother was a spy, learned by Ellie from Chuck at the end of the episode, fuels a thirst for knowledge that puts her on a very interesting journey that will have consequences for more than one member of the Bartowski clan. A certain reveal, arriving after an explosive twist, sets up an intriguing direction that had me nearly working myself into a leather. Sorry, I mean lather.

There's definitely still an aura of Alias' Irina Derevko lingering about Mary Bartowski and that doesn't dissipate with this episode. However, there is an extremely tender scene between Mary and one of her children as well as one moment that has me thinking about its importance a day later. Hmmm...

As for Chuck and Sarah, there are definitely some things that need to be worked out between these two. In looking to protect Chuck, Sarah may have shot herself in the foot but, as always, I have faith that these two can work through just about anything. That is, if they put their mind to it. First fights, as Morgan claims, set the tone for the rest of the relationship. So does the breach of trust signal other potential landmines for Chuck and Sarah down the line? Or is first fight just a fight like any other? In the meantime, sides are chosen, alliances made, and friction makes its way into their relationship, both personal and professional.

There are a series of great scenes with our newbie spy, Morgan (a.k.a. "The Magnet"), who is somewhat drafted into the role that Chuck played back in the first season of the series. However, look for him to step it up--or at least for Morgan, anyway--in a scene with John Casey... and for a particularly slapstick scene involving an earpiece and a glass of water whose hilarity comes from the fact that the sequence keeps going and going. And let's just say that the title doesn't just refer to Chuck and Sarah...

The episode also features a classic car, a flock of sheep (yes, seriously), the incomparable Timothy Dalton, and Ana Gasteyer as the indestructible Dasha, a Volkoff operative with a penchant for tiny weapons and a lack of personal grooming habits. Gasteyer is a hoot here and it's great to see her as a villain, particularly one as horribly scarred and freakish as this one.

As for Dalton, I can't heap on enough superlatives. The former James Bond shines in this episode as he plays completely against type as Mary's handler Gregory Tuttle. There are some truly fantastic--and hilarious--scenes with him and Chuck and Dalton's gleeful performance, alternately professorial and bewildered, is something to be experienced. He's all cardigans and crocodile grins. A fantastic addition to the Chuck world that doesn't smack of stunt casting at all.

I don't want to say more about this fantastic episode lest I spoil the surprises therein, but I will tease just a little more and say that "Chuck Versus the First Fight" is an episode that marks a potential turning point for the season and, quite possibly, for the series, subtly altering some of the foundations of the series in some compelling and tantalizing ways.

Suffice it to say, you'll definitely want to see what happens next. I know that I'm on the edge of my custom-designed seat.

Chuck airs Monday evenings at 8 pm ET/PT on NBC.

The Daily Beast: "NBC's Disastrous Season"

Poor Peacock.

NBC continues to flail in last place, with new shows like Outlaw and Undercovers bombing and veterans like The Office eroding.

Over at The Daily Beast, I take a look at the current state of NBC in my latest feature, "NBC's Disastrous Season," in which I offer six possible ways to save the Peacock.

What do you think of NBC's current crop of programming, from highs like Chuck, Community, and Parks and Recreation to lows like Chase, Undercovers, and The Event? Do you agree with my assessment and my suggestions? Head to the comments section to discuss.

Blind Spot: Mommy Issues and Protection Rackets on Chuck

Yes, Mama Bartowski is as slippery as an eel.

Mary Elizabeth Bartowski has proven so adept at her spy training--possibly with some extra courses on emotional manipulation thrown in--that it's impossible to get a bead on just what her true allegiances are.

Double-crosses, triple-crosses, and some quick excuses all add up to a vastly complicated picture of who Mary really is and this week's episode of Chuck ("Chuck Versus the Aisle of Terror") gave us some very different snapshots of Chuck's estranged mother.

Is she a villain? A hero, as she maintains? Just how convenient is her cover story? And why would she go to such lengths to convince her son of her innocence... only to have everything blow up in her face?

You read my advance review of this week's episode, but now that it's aired, here are my slightly more spoilery thoughts about "Chuck Versus the Aisle of Terror."

As I mentioned in my initial review, his week's episode was all about trust and the way in which we protect the ones we love. If we believe Mary's story, she left Chuck and Ellie behind because she had to "close the door" on her real life after her undercover assignment infiltrating Volkoff Industries got her in too deep. She claims to have sacrificed her life and her relationship with her children in pursuit of the greater good, in the name of national security.

It's a story that's perhaps reassuring to Chuck: she didn't willingly walk out on him and Ellie but had to protect them. Her absence from their lives ensured that very continued existence. But there are some problems with her claims. For one, there's no record of her with the CIA, a circumstance she explains away by saying that her records were expunged from the agency. But what undercover assignment lasts twenty years, really? And then there's the truth of the situation that Casey discovers and keeps from Morgan and Chuck: Mary's a liar.

I'm glad that Casey didn't tell Morgan the truth. The scene in which he looked in Mary's file and told him flat-out that her story checked out didn't ring true to me at all. It was too easy and too pat. Which is why I'm glad that it wasn't the truth at all. In keeping the information from Morgan, Casey made the decision to handle this on his own. Or at least with Sarah by his side.

Which is where a monumental breach of trust comes into the story. Chuck finally confided in Ellie that her had made contact with their mother and arranged a rare meeting, one that came on the heels of Mary stalking Ellie around a children's store while she shopped with Devon and Honey. Was she feeling a wee bit guilty about running out on her kids? Did she want to see what Ellie had made of herself? Was it a case of curiosity? Or of contrition?

Chuck has been lying to Ellie about being involved in the spy world again, for the sake of protecting her. But each of these characters is an adult. It's not for someone else to "protect" them from the harsh truth of life. Chuck has deceived his sister time and time again for the sake of easing her mind. It's not right and it's not honest.

But it's just what Sarah and Casey do. Rather than tell Chuck the truth about Mary, they stage a kidnapping and grab Mary right in front of Chuck, believing that his blind spot when it comes to his mother has clouded his judgment about her true motives, whatever they might be. It's a brash move, considering that Sarah and Chuck are romantically involved and he's a vital member of their team. It's their actions that are a true sideswipe to Chuck's heart, more than the shot he receives from his mother.

If he can't trust Sarah, who can he trust?

By removing the opportunity for Chuck to decide how to proceed, they shift him back into the position of asset rather than spy. Of someone who needs protecting rather than one who is equipped to decide their own course of action. They've reduced Intersect 2.0-active Chuck to someone reactive, someone whose blind spot extends to more than just his missing mother.

For a split second, I thought that the black van-staged kidnapping was Volkoff's men or someone else entirely, but I was surprised to see Chuck pull off the balaclava and reveal Sarah herself. Is it for the best? Possibly. Not since Irina Derevko returned to menace Sydney Bristow on Alias has a mother-child relationship been so deliciously overwrought.

But the telling thing is actually how Chuck handles it. Shocked, he returns to the restaurant to tell Ellie that their mother isn't joining them but drops a bombshell on her: it's because Mary is a spy. I'm wondering just how much Ellie will be able to parse this message and realize that the reason Chuck was able to track her down is because he's a spy again too.

Secrets and lies always have a way of blowing up in people's faces. You don't need nightmare toxins or plastic explosives for that. The human heart might be resilient but it too has pressure points.

I'm still struggling to figure out just what Mary wants and why she chose now to return to Los Angeles. Her explanations seem valid--she knew Chuck was wearing Kevlar, she held him at gunpoint to "keep up appearances," and she turned over the toxin and criminally insane/evil scientist Wheelright (guest star Robert Englund) to the CIA as promised--but her methods don't cry out for universal adoration. In fact, the way in which the toxin handover was handled put Chuck in severe danger and actually led to him being exposed to the toxin.

(Which, if I'm honest, I was hoping would turn into a homage of the "Over the Edge" episode of Batman: The Animated Series, in which we'd see Chuck's greatest nightmares play out. We got a quick shot of that but not the full effect.)

The question likely to be resolved in weeks to come: has the incident in which Sarah betrayed Chuck's trust destroyed their shot at happiness? This being Chuck, I'm sure that it hasn't in the long run, but Sarah hasn't exactly done their relationship any favors, either. In fact, I dare say that the coming confrontation between the two of them will lead to a major breakdown in their relationship. This isn't something that can be recovered from with a sexting spree or a training montage.

Which is a good thing: I prefer it when the tension between Chuck and Sarah comes from internal sources, rather than external ones. The course of true love never did run smoothly and one can't expect that there wouldn't be a rocky road ahead for these two spies. I'm hoping that the breakdown--notice I didn't say breakup--leads to some further exploration of Sarah's past and her emotional baggage.

In the meantime, we got an episode that was filled with narrative tension, between the return of Mary Bartowski and that storyline's significant twists and turns, and some humor as well, courtesy of Morgan (a.k.a. "The Magnet") and Casey. I loved Morgan's Ross and Rachel line, the antics of Jeff and Lester and the titular Aisle of Terror this week, complete with its pictures of such horrific things as old people, inter-species relationships, and babies in costumes. (Is it a baby or a snail?)

But sometimes the most terrifying thing isn't a horrible nightmare at all but just the cold, hard truth: you can be blindsided even by those you love.

But I'm curious to know what you thought of this week's episode. Was it as strong as I made it out to be ahead of time? What lies ahead for Chuck and Sarah? What is the deal with Mary Bartowski? Head to the comments section to discuss.

Next week on Chuck ("Chuck Versus the First Fight"), Chuck goes on a rogue mission to avoid confronting Sarah after their first real fight; Ellie looks into the Bartowski family's past.

The Mother of All Fears: An Advance Review of Next Week's Episode of Chuck

Halloween is nearly upon us and that means a slew of scary-themed programming heading to the airwaves over the next week and a half or so, along with several zombie-related storylines and series.

There aren't any zombies turning up on next week's episode of Chuck ("Chuck Versus the Aisle of Terror"), but the Halloween-centric installment does play up a number of fears swirling around several of the characters and deals perhaps with the most frightening thing of all: family.

The concept of family has been at the heart of the series since Chuck began, examining the way that groups bond together in the name of collective goals, whether that's a workplace environment or centered around hearth and home. Throughout the four seasons thus far, Chuck has explored the way that Team Bartowski has formed a makeshift family of its own, spilling out from siblings and lovers to include even curmudgeonly John Casey in the mix.

Picking up where the previous episode left off, the happiness and community experienced by the group is shattered when Chuck receives an unexpected call from Mary Bartowski (Linda Hamilton), the mother he's been searching for and who walked out on him and Ellie when they were kids. What he's learned since his investigation began makes him question just why their mom walked out in the first place and her sudden reappearance in his life brings with it a whole host of new queries and dilemmas.

While I don't want to give away too much about this fun and fantastic installment, I will say that Mary's reappearance isn't without consequences for several of the characters and that it coincides with the arrival in Los Angeles of a fear toxin that's rather like that used by DC Comics' Scarecrow, Dr. Jonathan Crane. This compound has the potential to be a deadly weapon if it falls into the wrong hands, which is where our Intersect comes into the plot.

What else did I think about next week's episode? Read on, but--as always--please do not reproduce this review in full on any websites, message boards, or the like.

While we've only known about the whereabouts of Mary Elizabeth Bartowski for a bit, it was only matter of time before she would have to cross paths with Chuck in the present day. But is Mary a prisoner of Alexi Volkoff? Or is she working with this international terrorist and arms dealer? The truth, when it comes to the spy game, is a mercurial and slippery thing and it certainly seemed as though Chuck had finally learned that his missing mama was very bad indeed.

But this is Chuck, after all, so there are more than a few twists ahead for this complicated mother-son relationship. Mary's true agenda becomes clear over the course of the episode and I won't be spoiling that bit of information here. You'll have to wait to see exactly how things play out between Chuck and Mary, but I'll hint and say that Mary might be very good at a whole number of things, but the ability to give warm hugs doesn't seem to be one of them anymore.

What you will see is Chuck questioning the role his mother played in his early childhood and why she's turned up now to make contact with him after disappearing into the ether twenty years ago. And this internal debate will manifest itself externally as well, driving a wedge between Chuck and those around him.

Family is a funny thing, after all. As filmmaker Hal Hartley once wrote in his film Trust, "A family is like a gun: you point it in the wrong direction, you're gonna kill someone."

Team Bartowski is, after all, a tight-knit family based on bonds of friendship and love rather than blood. But family is family and we look out for our kin and do everything we can to protect them, even if it means protecting them from themselves. But sometimes the lengths we go to in order to ensure the safety of our loved ones splinters the very relationships we're so desperate to safeguard in the first place.

So what does that mean exactly? You'll have to wait until Monday to find out, though I can tease some other details from the episode: the most unscary "scary" Halloween display, courtesy of Lester and the seriously psychotic Jeff (think a baby in a snail costume); some hysterical moments between Casey and Morgan; the worst lunch meeting ever; deserted playgrounds are creepy; and the "magnet."

All this, plus a host of secrets and lies in the mix and the always terrifying Robert Englund. Two guesses on who he's playing...

All in all, "Chuck Versus the Aisle of Terror" is a sensational episode of Chuck that balances heart and humor, and proves that the only thing we need fear when it comes to this winning action-comedy series is fear itself.

Chuck airs Monday evening at 8 pm ET/PT on NBC.

NBC Picks Up Chuck for 24-Episode Full Season (And, yes, Picks Up Chase Too)

No couch-lock here: NBC has picked up action-comedy Chuck for a full season.

Yes, it's official: the Peacock has indicated that Chuck's current fourth season will get its back nine episodes plus an additional two, bringing this season's total to 24 installments. The series had initially been renewed this season for just 13 episodes.

The news comes significantly earlier than last season, when the show's writers had completed a 13-episode arc (it launched in January rather than September) before receiving word of a back-nine pickup, leading to a mini-season in which Chuck and Sarah became a full-blown couple.

“Chase has introduced an appealing new star to television audiences in Kelli Giddish and we think it has potential to grow,” said Angela Bromstad, President, Primetime Entertainment, NBC and Universal Media Studios, in a statement. “We also are glad that Chuck will be with us for a full season delivering its loyal, passionate audience.” [Editor: Bromstad seems to have forgotten about Past Life, clearly.]

In other news, NBC also picked up a full season of Jerry Bruckheimer's procedural drama Chase and ordered four additional scripts for J.J. Abrams and Josh Reims' espionage dramedy Undercovers.

So, Chuck fans: are you excited about the full season? And that the writers will be able to plan accordingly this time? Head to the comments section to discuss.

The full press release from NBC can be found below.

NBC ORDERS FULL-SEASON PICKUPS FOR NEW DRAMA ‘CHASE’ AND FOR RETURNING ‘CHUCK’
UNIVERSAL CITY, Calif. – October 19, 2010 – NBC has given full-season pickups to the new high-octane drama “Chase” and the returning action-comedy “Chuck” for 2010-11. The announcement was made by Angela Bromstad, President, Primetime Entertainment, NBC and Universal Media Studios.

“‘Chase’ has introduced an appealing new star to television audiences in Kelli Giddish and we think it has potential to grow,” said Bromstad. “We also are glad that ‘Chuck’ will be with us for a full season delivering its loyal, passionate audience.”

“Chase” is averaging a 2.0 rating, 5 share in adults 18-49 and 6.5 million viewers overall in “most current” averages through its first five telecasts this fall. "Chase" has captured an 18 percent improvement in the time period versus year-ago "most current" results for NBC in 18-49 rating (with a 2.0 rating vs. a 1.7) and a 23 percent gain in total viewers (6.5 million vs. 5.3 million). "Chase" is heavily time-shifted, adding 21 percent to its "live plus same day" 18-49 rating when Nielsen issued "live plus seven day" results for the opening two weeks of the season (to a 2.66 rating from a 2.19).

Through October 18, “Chuck” has averaged a 2.2 rating, 6 share in adults 18-49 and 5.9 million viewers overall in "most current" averages from Nielsen Media Research. “Chuck” is heavily time-shifted, adding 29 percent to its "live plus same day" 18-49 rating when Nielsen issued "live plus seven day" results for the opening two weeks of the season (to a 2.56 rating from a 1.99).”

“Chase” (Mondays, 10-11 p.m. ET) -- from Emmy Award-winning executive producer Jerry Bruckheimer (“CSI” franchise, “The Amazing Race,” “Pirates of the Caribbean”) and executive producer Jennifer Johnson ("Cold Case," "Reunion," "Lost") -- is a lightning-fast drama that showcases an elite team of U.S. Marshals that hunts down America's most dangerous fugitives. Kelli Giddish (“Past Life”) stars as U.S. Marshal Annie Frost, a deputy whose sharp mind and unique Texas upbringing help her track down violent criminals on the run. Also starring are Cole Hauser (“K-Ville”), Amaury Nolasco (“Prison Break”) and Rose Rollins (“The L Word”). Jesse Metcalfe (“Desperate Housewives”) also stars.

“Chase” is produced by Bonanza Productions Inc. in association with Jerry Bruckheimer Television and Warner Bros. Television. Bruckheimer, Jonathan Littman (“CSI” franchise, “The Amazing Race,” "Cold Case”) and Johnson are as executive producers, while KristieAnne Reed is the co-executive producer.

“Chuck” (Mondays, 8-9 p.m. ET) stars Zachary Levi ("Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel") as Chuck Bartowksi, a regular guy who also happens to be the government’s most vital secret agent. The cast also includes Adam Baldwin ("My Bodyguard") as Colonel John Casey and Yvonne Strahovski (the upcoming "The Killer Elite") as partner Sarah Walker. Also starring are: Joshua Gomez ("Without a Trace"), Sarah Lancaster ("What About Brian?"), Ryan McPartlin ("Living with Fran"), Mark Christopher Lawrence ("The Pursuit of Happyness"), Vik Sahay ("Time Bomb"), Scott Krinsky ("The O.C.") and Bonita Friedericy ("The West Wing").

"Chuck" is co-created by Josh Schwartz ("The O.C.," "Gossip Girl") and Chris Fedak, and is executive-produced by Schwartz, McG ("Charlie's Angels," "Terminator Salvation"), Fedak, Robert Duncan McNeill, and Nicholas Wootton. "Chuck" is produced by Fake Empire, Wonderland Sound and Vision, in association with Warner Bros. Television.

Channel Surfing: Ron Moore Gets Wild, Criminal Minds Shakeup, Punk'd Returns with Justin Bieber, Big Love, Dirk Gently, and More

Welcome to your Wednesday morning television briefing.

Hold on to your (ten-gallon) hats: Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello is reporting that Battlestar Galactica's Ronald D. Moore is said to be developing a remake of The Wild, Wild West, which ran for four seasons in the mid-1960s and starred Robert Conrad and Ross Martin. Project is still in the very early stages, which means not only is there no network attached but Moore has yet to take the project out to networks. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Chris Mundy has left CBS' midseason Criminal Minds spinoff, Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior and will be replaced by Ed Bernero, who will now oversee both the flagship and spinoff series as showrunner, though he'll lean a little more heavily on Simon Mirren and Erica Messer, who will gain some oversight on Criminal Minds. Mundy's departure from the series was said to be due to the studio deciding that "the spin-off needed more direction from Bernero, who helped turn Criminal Minds into a solid hit for CBS," according to Variety's Michael Schneider. (Variety)

Vulture's Josef Adalian is reporting that MTV is resurrected hidden camera prank show Punk'd, but is close to signing a deal to replace Ashton Kutcher with baby-faced pop idol Justin Bieber as the host. (Kutcher will remain the series' executive producer.) "If Kutcher's past history with Punk'd is any indication, Bieber will likely appear in a few early episodes as a participant in the pranks, then gradually revert to mostly introducing segments," writes Adalian. (Vulture)

Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello is reporting that Robert Patrick (Terminator) has been cast in a multiple-episode story arc on HBO's Big Love, which returns for its fifth season early next year. Patrick is set to play Bud Mayberry, described as "the leader of polygamist fringe group." The casting of Robert Patrick comes after producers have also secured the services of ex-24 co-star Gregory Itzin, who will play the Republican Leader of the Utah State Senate. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Stephen Mangan (Green Wing) has been cast as the title character in BBC Four's adaptation of Douglas Adams' "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency," where he will star opposite Darren Boyd, Helen Baxendale, and Howard Overman. Here's how Auntie is positioning the series: "Anti-hero Dirk Gently operates his eponymous detective agency based on the fundamental interconnectedness of all things. Perpetually broke, hopelessly chaotic and utterly infuriating, most people suspect Dirk is nothing more than a cheap conman. And they might be right – but nevertheless his methods, though unusual, do often produce surprising results. When Dirk sets out to solve an apparently simple and harmless disappearance of a cat from an old lady's house, he unwittingly uncovers a double murder which, in turn, leads to a host of even more extraordinary events." Project is expected to air either at the end of the year or in early 2011. (BBC)

Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello is reporting that Drea de Matteo has been cast in a potentially recurring role on FOX's Running Wilde, where she will play Didi, the step-mother of Will Arnett's Steve Wilde. "Didi comes to the Wilde estate on behalf of Steve’s never-before-seen dad to rein in his monetary expenditures—on the same day Steve decides to fund Emmy’s (Keri Russell) nonprofit organization," writes Ausiello, who notes that de Matteo's episode is slated to air next month. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Was anyone still clamoring for a television version of Hitch? Well, you're getting one. FOX has given a script commitment plus penalty to an one-hour version of Will Smith's date doctor that will be written by Pete Chiarelli and executive producers Smith and James Lassiter. (Deadline)

Morgan Fairchild is set to make a return to NBC's Chuck, where she will reprise her role as Honey Woodcomb, the mother of Ryan McPartlin's Devon, as Ellie's pregnancy develops. "Mom does come back," McPartlin said on a press call. "It's funny, because Mom and Ellie have to learn how to deal with their new roles that each one is going to play as a mother and a grandmother. So that creates a bit of fun drama." Fairchild will make an appearance in the October 25th episode of Chuck, which also features Robert Englund and Linda Hamilton. (Zap2It)

Deadline's Nellie Andreeva is reporting that Scott Cohen (Gilmore Girls) has been cast opposite Callie Thorne in USA's drama pilot Necessary Roughness, where he will play "a 'fixer' for a football franchise who works closely with Danielle" (Thorne). Elswhere, Sara Rue (Less Than Perfect) has joined the cast of CBS' Rules of Engagement as surrogate Brenda, while Joan Collins (yes, THAT Joan Collins) will appear in a November sweeps episode as the mother of David Spade's character. (Deadline)

Aquaman (Alan Ritchson) will make his return to the CW's Smallville later this season, and he's bringing a wife in the form of Mera, played by Elena Satine (Melrose Place), according to Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello. The duo are set to turn up in the final season's ninth episode, which is directed by series lead Tom Welling. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

No Tough Trade for Epix, after all. The pay cabler has pulled the plug on its Nashville-set drama project, Tough Trade, the high-profile Lionsgate TV pilot that starred Sam Shepard, Trace Adkins, Cary Elwes, Lucas Black, and Joey Lauren Adams. "It was a combination of running out of time and dealing with distractions, and at some point we had to make a decision whether it works or it doesn't," said Epix CEO Mark Greenberg. "At the end of day, it just didn’t work." Project, from executive producers Jenji Kohan, Sean and Bryan Furst, and director Gavin Hood, may be retooled as a mini-series, while Epix maintains that it is not getting out of the original series game. (Deadline)

Krista Allen (What About Brian) is seto to guest star on an upcoming episode of the CW's Life Unexpected, where she will play "a sizzling-hot multimillionaire named—wait for it—Candy who is being courted by Emma as a client," according to Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello, and who will fall for Baze. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

In other Life Unexpected news, Kris Polaha has taken to E! Online's Watch with Kristin to interview with the series' Austin Basis (Math). (E! Online's Watch with Kristin)

Deadline's Nellie Andreeva is reporting that HBO is developing a single-camera comedy pilot based on Clint McCown's novel "The Member-Guest," that will be written by Steve Pink and executive produced by Kevin Bacon, who could also star in the project. Project revolves around "a burned-out golf pro of a 9-hole course who just wants one more shot at the tour" but whose "comeback is constantly sidelined as he deals with the needs of the members of the Middle-American country club who are grappling with dashed dreams of their own." (Deadline)

ABC has given a script order (plus penalty) to Awkward Family Photos, a comedy from Moses Port and David Guarascio based on the website of the same name. Elsewhere, NBC ordered family comedy script Man of the House from writer Adam Sztykiel and FOX ordered a script for cop drama Chameleon from Tom Fontana. (Variety, Deadline)

Hmmm, is FOX playing favorites with its freshman comedies? FOX is airing two back-to-back episodes of comedy Raising Hope on October 26th, that will air immediately following Glee's massively hyped Rocky Horror Picture Show homage episode. (Futon Critic)

E! has ordered ten episodes of Kourtney and Kim Take New York, which is slated to launch in January on the cabler. (Variety)

Stay tuned.

Awkward Engagements: The Danger of Air Vents on Chuck

I hate to say anything negative about NBC's Chuck, but I was really let down by this week's installment, which seemed more than a little bit muddled and bursting at the seams with guest stars.

But it was the awkwardness of the ending of this week's episode ("Chuck Versus the Cubic Z"), written by Nicholas Wootton and directed by Norman Buckley, that rubbed me the wrong way as it was so clearly manufactured, rather than organic.

On this week's episode of Chuck, the gang had to contend with the return of both Hugo Panzer (Steve Austen) and Heather Chandler (Nicole Richie) and internal issues of the romantic kind as Sarah was still feeling ill at ease about the speed with which her relationship with Chuck was developing. (Hell, she just finally unpacked that suitcase before questions of marriage and child-rearing came up.)

I'll say upfront that I've been enjoying Chuck and Sarah as a couple this year and it's only natural that they would be confronted with these issues as they are two consenting adults in a romantic relationship. It's only a matter of time before the M-word manifested itself, but I do wish that the proposal--whether accidental or not--had developed from something emotional, rather than a cubic zirconium engagement ring plummeting through the vents.

Did it push the relationship? Absolutely. The look of terror on Sarah's face (or was it just surprise) said more about her fears and her identity as a spy than any amount of tete-a-tetes could have produced, but it also forced these issues to a head in a real tight timeframe, given that the two haven't been living together for all that long and have only really had a few weeks to themselves since Sarah returned to Burbank.

Sure, Chuck didn't intend to propose; he just happened to end up in that awkward kneeling position after stumbling to pick up whatever fell out of the vent. But his intentions towards Sarah are clear, after all. Even if he didn't mean to propose, I do believe he may have gone through with it, if only to test the waters. Sarah's reaction might have lasting implications about the future of their relationship. Or they might have more to do with her own conflicting feelings about marriage and putting down roots. She is, after all, the daughter of a con man whose sense of home and hearth is extremely skewed. Could settling down be what she wants, after all?

But I do wish that these issues had been explored in a more convincing setting, rather than the result of Morgan losing Big Mike's engagement ring, which he intends to give to Morgan's mother. (Whose name, I believe, is Bologna?)

Which was the trouble with the episode as a whole. I was excited about the return of Hugo and Heather and was hoping that they would be vicious adversaries for Team Bartowski but because the writers brought them back together, neither of them carried much weight and the episode was largely Chuck, Sarah, and Heather crawling around the ventilation system, one of my least favorite espionage tropes ever.

I'm also not sure that I bought the juxtaposition of the game release with the prisoner transfer fiasco and the fact that coincidentally both prisoners happened to have past encounters with Chuck and Sarah, yet didn't realize they'd be ending up at Castle. While there's always a certain amount of willing suspension of disbelief going on with series like Chuck, it was such a perfect storm of coincidences that it took me out of the story. (The Buy More story in particular seemed to fall especially flat.)

"Chuck Versus the Cubic Z" certainly wasn't my least favorite episode to date but it also wasn't my favorite, perhaps because I expected so much from it and it didn't quite deliver the full Chuck experience that I was craving. But I'm curious to hear what you thought of the episode? Did you love? Like? Loathe? Head to the comments section to discuss.

Next week on Chuck ("Chuck Versus the Coup d'Etat"), Chuck and Sarah try to become better communicators as they join Ellie and Awesome on a trip to Costa Gravas; a forbidden romance may put Morgan at odds with John Casey.

Channel Surfing: Summer Glau to Chuck, Zucker's Replacement Named at NBCU, Starz Considers Spartacus Options, Community, and More

Welcome to your Monday morning television briefing.

Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello is reporting that Summer Glau (Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles) is set to guest star on NBC's Chuck this season, where she will turn up in the eighth episode as the latest Greta, the rotating CIA/NSA joint intelligence task force agent assigned to the Buy More. Glau, who stars in NBC's midseason action drama The Cape, follows in the footsteps of Olivia Munn, Stacy Keibler, and Isaiah Mustafa. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Jeff Zucker is out and Steve Burke is in. Comcast CEO Brian Roberts' right-hand man Burke, will succeed Jeff Zucker as CEO of NBC Universal once the merger deal--valued at $30 billion--is completed. Zucker announced that he would be stepping down from the position on Friday once the merger transaction is closed. "Steve Burke is an experienced, talented and visionary leader with over 25 years in the media and entertainment industry," Roberts said in a statement. "Steve is one of the most well-respectedexecutives in the industry, and I am confident that he will lead NBC U forward to a new era of growth." Burke will also continue to serve as Comcast's COO. (Variety)

[Meanwhile, Michael Schneider and Cynthia Littleton take a look at Zucker's legacy over at Variety, while AOL Television's Maureen Ryan has her own take on Zucker's departure with "Jeff Zucker's Reign of Terribleness Finally Over at NBC."]

Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello talks to Spartacus showrunner Steven S. DeKnight about the two options available to the production and pay cabler Starz in light of series lead Andy Whitfield's cancer relapse. “The two main options are to close up shop or recast,” DeKnight told Ausiello. “I want to talk to Andy and find out how he feels about the options. That’s obviously very important to us... We’re still absorbing what’s happened. I think it’s going to be a little while before we reach any conclusions.” (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

[The Hollywood Reporter's James Hibberd, meanwhile, is also reporting that Starz is considering recasting the role of Spartacus so that the planned second season can move along as planned.]

Hilary Duff is headed to Greendale. Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello is reporting that Duff will guest star on an upcoming episode of NBC's Community, where she will play "a member of a mean girl clique that goes head-to-head with the Scoobies." [Editor: news matches what I learned on the set of Community two weeks ago: the writers are planning a Mean Girls homage.] (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Deadline's Nellie Andreeva is reporting that Ed Decter and John Strauss have officially signed on as showrunners on USA's In Plain Sight. The duo replaces John McNamara, who departed the series due to medical issues. (Deadline)

E! Online's Kristin Dos Santos is reporting that Darren Everett Criss (Eastwick) has been cast on FOX's Glee, where he will play Blaine, described as "a gay student from a rival school glee club named the Dalton Academy Warblers." While some might leap to the judgment that Criss' character will be the love interest for Chris Colfer's Kurt, Dos Santos cites an unnamed source who says that isn't the case: "Although people might speculate that this might be the possible boyfriend for Kurt that Ryan has talked about, he is fairly sure that this particular character won't be. This friendship will be platonic." (E! Online's Watch with Kristin)

Former Heroes star Zachary Quinto is bummed that there won't be a two-movie to wrap up the superhero drama's dangling storylines after NBC axed the potential wrap-up. “It’s disappointing that there was such a lack of resolution,” Quinto told Entertainment Weekly. “But unfortunately that’s just the nature of network television….Nothing really surprises me in terms of network and studio bureaucracy. It’s the way it goes... If it was in their best interest I’m sure they would have done it. And for whatever reason, they didn’t think it was. So that’s a bummer. But we have to just accept it and move on.” (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Meanwhile, Aimee Garcia (Trauma) has been cast in ABC midseason medical drama Off the Map, where she will play a local who falls for Zach Gilford's plastic surgeon, according to Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

More deals coming together at Showtime, according to Deadline's Nellie Andreeva, who reports that Showtime has signed development deals with Mark Ruffalo and Anthony Edwards and with Jeff Daniels and Timothy Busfield. (Deadline)

Stay tuned.

Moscow Mules and Mama Bears: Killer Frost on the Season Premiere of Chuck

And that's how you kick off a brand new season.

Last night brought the fourth season premiere of NBC's action-comedy Chuck ("Chuck Versus the Anniversary") and I hope that the episode delivered all of the espionage-tinged goodness that I promised in my advance review of the season opener last week.

I had also teased readers via Twitter about the premiere ("Chuck premiere: sexting, skydiving, Seinfeld references, (Harry Dean) Stanton? Sensational. Very fun opener.") and the episode held up extremely well under a second viewing in the time between now and then.

For me, anyway, "Chuck Versus the Anniversary" was perhaps the perfect way to begin a new chapter in the life of Chuck Bartowski, a character who has slowly evolved over the course of three seasons from reluctant hero to tragic hero to, well, just plain hero. His decision to take hold of his own destiny, to set out with Morgan on a personal quest to track down his mother may have not lead him to the answers he sought but it did bring him back together with his old team and put him in position to rescue Sarah and Casey for a change.

As we all know that secrets between lovers is never, ever a good thing, the writers were wise to have Sarah find out about Chuck's globe-spanning secret mission before the episode was out... and to have her offer her help and support to tracking down Mama Bartowski.

But, this is Chuck, after all, so it's only fitting that Mary Elizabeth Bartowski--a.k.a. The Frost Queen--isn't some abducted housewife but rather a bad-ass spy herself, a dangerous woman with the ability to take down a man about four times her size without breaking a nail. While Chuck might think he's doing a good thing to find his mother--who now he knows didn't just walk out on them when they were children--he might be opening the door to even more danger in his life. After all, these are some powerful men who have Mary in their custody and, should she be able to make her escape after all this time, they're likely to be only too willing to track her down and take her in again. But Mary's made it clear that her motivations have less to do with escape and more to do with keeping her family safe. Especially Chuck.

So just who is Volkoff? That remains an intriguing mystery to be solved down the line, but suffice it to say that he's likely to be the big bad for the season. Does his involvement in international espionage and terrorism predate The Ring and Fulcrum? Certainly seems that way, which means that Volkoff must be quite dangerous indeed to have stayed off of the CIA and NSA's radar all this time.

But while the Mama Bartowski storyline cast a nicely dangerous shadow over the proceedings, the majority of the episode was pretty light and, well, light-hearted, a nice change of pace from the doom and gloom of Season Three. I absolutely loved the map of Chuck and Morgan traveling around the world in a random fashion, the sexting between Chuck and Sarah (and its very nice payoff at the end), Harry Dean Stanton's turn as a repo man after Morgan's car, the shout-out to Vandalay Industries from Seinfeld, Chuck's doom-ridden job interviews, General Beckman's new job at the Buy More, and the focus on the bromance between Chuck and Morgan.

And kudos too for not splitting up Chuck and Sarah but instead deepening their bond and having them come out the other side of a long-distance relationship all the more strong. I loved that Chuck defended his elision as not a lie but rather the fact that he was keeping a secret, leading the two to promise not to do either anymore. Some shows have serious difficulties keeping things interesting once the romantic leads give into temptation but so far Chuck has done a superb job keeping their relationship compelling and interesting.

The same holds true for the workplace element of the series. The Buy More has long been a source for comic relief amid the high-flying spy action and the romance and Chris Fedak and Josh Schwartz have upped the ante further by pushing the CIA/NSA deeper into the Buy More infrastructure, revealing a new twist to the workplace setting that combines the disparate aspects of the series into a single location. The Buy More becomes both Chuck's cover story and his true identity, a real sense of danger and intrigue amid the X-Boxes and flat-screen televisions.

I love that Beckman is now in charge of the Buy More and that it's staffed with crack agents from the joint intelligence divisions. But I'm curious just how Big Mike, Jeff, and Lester--all three absent from the season opener but still series regulars--will fit into the new world order at the store. Is there a place for Nerd Herders amid a store that can transform into a fully functional war room with the flick of a switch? Especially when two of them happen to be under investigation for arson? Hmmm...

All in all, a fantastic installment that offered the very best of Chuck's winning combination of genre-busting elements and which offered a very exciting direction for the season to come.

What did you think of the season opener? Did it live up to your expectations? Head to the comments section to discuss, debate, and analyze.

Next week on Chuck ("Chuck Versus the Suitcase"), Chuck and Sarah infiltrate the catwalks of the Milan fashion world in order to uncover a deadly weapons plot; Morgan discovers a fatal flaw that compromises the new Buy More.

The Daily Beast: "Fall TV Preview: Grey's Anatomy, Dexter, 30 Rock and More"

With so many new fall series premiering over the next two weeks, it's possible to forget that some of our favorites are heading back to the airwaves as well.

Can’t remember how Grey’s Anatomy or 30 Rock ended? Head over to the Daily Beast to read my latest feature, "Here Comes the TV Season!", in which I round-up 13 cliffhangers for returning shows—and offer previews of what’s to come. (It goes without saying: minor SPOILERS aheads.)

The series in question? Oh, the usual suspects, including Dexter, The Good Wife, Fringe, Grey's Anatomy, Desperate Housewives, Chuck, Private Practice, Brothers and Sisters, Friday Night Lights, Bones, Community, Castle, and 30 Rock, presented in order of premiere dates. (Which means Chuck is up first.) Plus, you can watch video previews for all 22 new network series, to boot.

Which returning series are you most excited about watching this fall? Head to the comments section to discuss.

Channel Surfing: J.J. Abrams Shops Emerson/O'Quinn Show, Linda Hamilton Talks Chuck, Spartacus, Community, True Lies, and More

Welcome to your Monday morning television briefing.

Could Lost's Terry O'Quinn and Michael Emerson be headed back your televisions? If J.J. Abrams gets his way, they'll be reuniting for a drama project--tentatively entitled Odd Jobs--that Abrams, along with Josh Appelbaum and Andre Nemec, are pitching to the networks. Vulture's Josef Adalain is reporting that the drama, which will also contain a large amount of humor, revolves around "former black-ops agents." It's unknown whether the project is based on any part on the idea that Emerson and O'Quinn had floated a while back in which they'd play suburban hit men. But the fact that Abrams' Bad Robot--and possibly by association Warner Bros. Television--is behind Odd Jobs (or whatever it might eventually be called), is a good sign that the project will at least be picked up to pilot. (Vulture)

AOL Television's Maureen Ryan talks to Linda Hamilton about her role as Mary Elizabeth Bartowski on NBC's Chuck, where the former Terminator and Beauty and the Beast star says she wants to stick around as long as they'll have her. "Well, Mary Bartowski is the absentee mother of Chuck and Ellie and the most that I can really say about her is that ... she is not your ordinary homemaker," said Hamilton. "She comes back into Chuck's life with an agenda and you know, she is definitely a strong, forceful [woman] -- definitely a force to be reckoned with. It ain't all apologies and sentiment, that's for sure. She has her own agenda and it just kind of goes crazy from there. But we like crazy." (TV Squad)

Series lead Andy Whitfield has had to withdraw from Season Two of Starz's Spartacus due to a recurrence of cancer. "It's with a deep sense of disappointment that I must step aside from such an exceptional project as Spartacus‚ and all the wonderful people involved," said Whitfield in a statement. "It seems that it is time for myself and my family to embark on another extraordinary journey. Thank you sincerely for the support so far," said Whitfield. No immediate decision has been made about the fate of the series, which delayed production on the second season and instead shot a prequel series (Spartacus: Gods of the Arena)--set to air in January--in order to allow Whitfield the opportunity to undergo treatment. "Right now, we just want to extend our concern and support to Andy and his family," said Carmi Zlotnik, Managing Director, Starz Media, in the same press release. "We will address our programming plans at some later date." (Variety, Hollywood Reporter's The Live Feed)

NBC's Community is planning a stop-motion animated Christmas episode in the spirit of those classic Rankin/Bass specials like Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. [Editor: I actually talked to Community creator Dan Harmon and the cast when I was on set last week.] The episode, written by Harmon and Dino Stamatopoulos (who also plays Starburns), will feature the Greendale crew getting animated after Harmon floated the idea for such an episode in an interview over the summer. "It’s something that I’ve always wanted to do but, I never anticipated having the ability to do it,” said Harmon. But “Jeff Gaspin at NBC woke up one morning and thought Community should do an animated episode. I was like, ‘Well, that’s weird, because that’s the kind of stuff I’m usually suggesting and guys like him veto.’” (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

ABC is developing a drama series based on James Cameron's 1994 feature film True Lies, which the Avatar director will executive produce. The project, from 20th Century Fox Television and writer/showrunner Rene Echevarria, has a sizable penalty attached to it. (Variety)

Showtime is said to be close to giving a pilot order to Homeland from Fox21 that's based on Israeli drama format Prisoners of War from executive producers Howard Gordon and Alex Gansa of FOX's 24. In this iteration, the project will revolve around "a U.S. soldier who was presumed killed in Iraq 10 years ago" who "returns home, but questions arise as to whether he truly was a wartime POW or a member of a sleeper cell sent to cause the next terrorist attack," according to The Hollywood Reporter's James Hibberd, who has an interview with Gordon about the project, likely the first to be ordered by newly minted Showtime entertainment president David Nevins. And Ben Affleck is said to be in conversations to direct the pilot itself. (Hollywood Reporter's The Live Feed, Variety)

Peter Coyote (FlashForward) has joined the cast of NBC's Law & Order: Los Angeles, where he will recur as the district attorney. (Deadline)

TVGuide.com's Denise Martin talks to Lone Star's leading man, James Wolk, about the new FOX ddrama, which launches tonight. "He's a con man who wants to go straight," said Wolk about his character. "He wants to do the right thing. This isn't a guy who leaves one of his wives and then calls his buddy and says, 'Hey man, you're never gonna believe it. I got two chicks.' That's not this guy. This guy really loves these girls. He fully believes that he is madly in love with them. So, he thinks he's fighting for love. I think that is what can make him sympathetic. Yes, he's a sociopath, clearly screws loose. But, nonetheless, someone who thinks he's doing the right thing." (TVGuide.com)

ABC has given a pilot order to Pan Am, a period drama pilot based on the now-defunct Pam Am that will be set in the 1960s and focus on the flight attendants and pilots of the airline. Project, from Sony Pictures Television, will be written by Jack Orman and will be directed by Thomas Schlamme. (Variety)

Callie Thorne (Rescue Me) will play the lead in USA drama pilot Necessary Roughness, about a female psychologist who is hired by a pro football team as their therapist. "After succeeding beyond expectations, she is sought after by other athletes, musicians, politicians and those living in the spotlight who all want her unique brand of tough love therapy," writes Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello. Thorne's casting lifts the contingency on the project, which was written by Elizabeth Kruger and Craig Shapiro. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Elsewhere, Rachael Carpani (Cane) has booked the lead in Lifetime drama pilot Against the Wall, where she will play cop Abby Kowalski, who "causes a rift with her three cop brothers when she decides to join the department’s Internal Affairs division." Project, from Universal Cable Prods., is written by Annie Brunner and will be directed by Dean Parisot. (Deadline)

The Hollywood Reporter's Stacey Wilson has an interview with Outsourced executive producer Ken Kwapis in which he responds to allegations of racial stereotypes in the new NBC workplace comedy. "A third of the writing staff is of Indian descent," said Kwapis. "But any story about a culture clash is going to deal with stereotypes on some level. The real question is: Are we trying to perpetuate stereotypes? Absolutely not, we're trying to explore them. We're trying to humanize these characters. This is all about putting a human face on the voice at the other end of the phone line. What frustrates me most is when I hear people who are angry about outsourcing and they hang the problem on the call-center workers themselves. As if the Indian call-center worker has the power to decide to bring jobs there! My hope is that for an audience, the show will allow you to basically go around the world and meet someone who, lo and behold, is fundamentally no different from yourself." (Hollywood Reporter)

Entrepreneur Mark Cuban will appear in three episodes of ABC's Shark Tank as a guest shark. (Hollywood Reporter's The Live Feed)

TNT has renewed Memphis Beat for a second season, with ten episodes on tap for 2011. (via press release)

Hayden Panettiere (Heroes) will play Amanda Knox in an upcoming Lifetime telepic based on the real-life murder case. (Variety)

More Doctor Who Adventure games are on the way. The Beeb has commissioned a second series of Doctor Who: The Adventure Games, the online series of Who-centric games that feature the voices of series stars Matt Smith and Karen Gillan. (Broadcast)

Stay tuned.

First Frost: An Advance Review of the Chuck Season Four Premiere

When we last left Zachary Levi's Chuck Bartowski, he had received a revelation--or two--that shocked his world to its core. Having buried his father, slain in the line of duty, Chuck learned that his father had maintained a secret underground headquarters beneath the family's Encino home and that his mother, Mary Elizabeth Bartowski, had her own secrets as well... and that his father had devoted his life to finding Chuck and Ellie's errant mother.

I can tell you that we see the elusive Mary (played by Terminator's Linda Hamilton) within the very first seconds of Season Four of NBC's Chuck, which begins on Monday with a fantastic and funny installment ("Chuck Versus the Anniversary") that sets up the overarching plotline for the fourth season while creating a new status quo for our favorite spy.

I had the chance last night to watch "Chuck Versus the Anniversary," written by Chris Fedak and directed by Robert Duncan McNeill, and was struck by how much humor and whimsy--and action--they managed to shoehorn into those forty-odd minutes. As I tweeted last night about the episode, "Chuck premiere: sexting, skydiving, Seinfeld references, (Harry Dean) Stanton? Sensational. Very fun opener."

Which it is. Without giving too much away, I can say that Chuck and Sarah (Yvonne Strahovski) are still very much a couple, though with some new obstacles to overcome, Chuck's promise to Ellie to leave the spy life behind stands (or, well, sort of, anyway), and divergent plotlines end up beautifully intersecting before the end of the hour, when Chuck is forced to make a choice that could have some consequences for his current covert mission: tracking down his mother.

What else did I think of the season opener? Read on...

[As always: please do not reproduce this review in full on any message boards, websites, or blogs.]

It's the above task that shadows the action unfolding within "Chuck Versus the Anniversary," but the episode is not all doom and gloom. In fact, it's one of the most lighthearted and funny episodes of the series in quite some time, as executive producer Chris Fedak constructs an episode that equal parts Get Smart homage, gadget-influenced romantic comedy, and a high-flying, globe-hopping espionage drama that's set against such diverse cities as Hong Kong, Moscow, and, well, Burbank. (The gang's jet-setting lifestyle is visualized through a hilarious map gag that makes use of the credit sequence's little stick figure man.)

While I don't want to give too much away about this fun and fantastic installment, I will say that several of the series regulars don't make appearances here, so don't hold your breath waiting to find out what Lester, Jeff, Big Mike, or Captain Awesome have been up to since we last saw them. However, what you will find is an episode that puts the spotlight on the core group--that would be Chuck, Sarah, Casey (Adam Baldwin), and Morgan (Josh Gomez), naturally--while reconfiguring them a bit and pushing them into a new and exciting direction within the confines of the series.

As for the Buy More gang, I'll be interested to see just how they fit into this new world order within Chuck and just how they'll interact with the newly promoted Bonita Fredericy's General Beckman, who takes on a most unusual role within the infrastructure of the series. I'll say no more on that front for the time being.

Chuck and Sarah's relationship--a romantic one for those worried--is the bedrock of the season. While the two are challenged by circumstances, there are no ex-lovers, would-be love interests, or other external pressures on their relationship, but rather a realistic situation that tests their bond even as it proves their loyalty and depth of feelings for one another. And, yes, involves the ubiquitous trend of the moment: sexting. But said trend is used for both comedic and dramatic effect and Fedak creatively uses it both as gag and plot point here.

Ultimately,"Chuck Versus the Anniversary" is a hell of a start for what promises another fantastic season of Chuck, one filled with intrigue, excitement, romance, and comedy. Not to mention Mary Elizabeth Bartowski. In the hands of Hamilton, she becomes an impressive and powerful figure in Chuck's life, albeit one who might either be friend or foe. Suffice it to say that a scene in which Mary figures prominently will not soon be forgotten...

Meanwhile, the episode also features Harry Dean Stanton, Dolph Lundgren, and Olivia Munn. I have to say that I'm extremely impressed that Fedak and Josh Schwartz were able to get Stanton, who turns up here in a most unexpected role, one that sets in motion a series of events involving getaways, menus, and public transportation. As for Lundgren, his appearance signals the arrival of a new criminal organization for Chuck and Co. to take down over the course of the season, perhaps taking advantage of the power vacuum created by the destruction of The Ring.

Just who is Lundgren's character working for and what is their ultimate aim? And how does Mary fit into all of this? What's her agenda exactly? Hmmm...

Season Four of Chuck launches Monday at 8 pm ET/PT on NBC.