Chuck

By asepinwall@starledger.com (Alan Sepinwall) • "Chuck" gets a premiere date, and Chris Fedak explains (sort of) how they'll incorporate the extra six episodes into the 13 they already wrote. (Also, I neglected in either post to link to this video that's both a teaser trailer for the new season and a message to the audience from Zachary L...

By asepinwall@starledger.com (Alan Sepinwall) Just got off the phone with "Chuck" co-creator Chris Fedak, who was very pumped about the early premiere date, and the fact that they'll get to produce six additional episodes, bringing season 3's total up to 19. I imagine that if NBC had somehow tacked an extra six episodes onto season two a...

By asepinwall@starledger.com (Alan Sepinwall) Still more awesome premiere date news: "Chuck" will be coming back ahead of schedule, debuting with back to back episodes on Sunday, January 10 from 9-11, then airing a third episode in its new/old regular timeslot, Mondays at 8, on Jan. 11.

By asepinwall@starledger.com (Alan Sepinwall) • NERDS! - Doogie Howser, Sam Weir (Freaks and Geeks), Chloe O'Brian (24), Chuck Bartowski (Chuck) • Gender benders Max Q. Klinger (MASH), Jacqueline "Jake" Pratt (Young Americans), Kip "Buffy" Wilson (Bosom Buddies), Tara "Buck" Gregson (United States of Tara)

By asepinwall@starledger.com (Alan Sepinwall) • It's still not clear whether Chuck and/or Darby perished in the Caracara fire, in part because some material about it had to be cut for time from last week's episode, according to Kurt Sutter. The matter will be explained in an upcoming episode.

By asepinwall@starledger.com (Alan Sepinwall) Quick thoughts on "V" episode two coming up just as soon as I take an iPhone self-portrait... I'll check the next two out, and if they change my opinion, I'll write about them, but otherwise, I'm waiting for the episodes written by "Chuck"/"Shield" alum Scott Rosenbaum, who just took over as s...

By asepinwall@starledger.com (Alan Sepinwall) • Outside of Don Draper (or insert name of your favorite "Mad Men" character here), does any character on television smoke as much as Jax Teller? That nicotine habit leads to that great moment right after Opie flips out on the judge, as Jax and Opie stand outside on the porch, just smoking an...

By asepinwall@starledger.com (Alan Sepinwall) My one question is how the writers are going to handle the shift from 13 to 19 episodes. "Chuck" writer Ali Adler tweeted yesterday that they had just finished filming episode 8, and writing tends to be several episodes ahead of production, so they're not far from the end. So Fedak, Schwartz a...

By asepinwall@starledger.com (Alan Sepinwall) • Between Chuck's return and Half-Sack displaying his nuticle for all to see, this was a pretty funny episode, considering how many bad things also happened in it. (Tig: "Is it gay that I want to see it?" Bobby: "Gay-curious.") • I don't know how it played out with sponsored interruptions, bu...

By asepinwall@starledger.com (Alan Sepinwall) It's not perfect. Tiffani Thiessen isn't particularly well-used as DeKay's wife, there's some odd shuffling going on with the actresses playing DeKay's junior FBI partner (Marsha Thomason in the pilot, Natalie Morales from "The Middleman" starting next week), and I liked the pilot mo...

By asepinwall@starledger.com (Alan Sepinwall) As it is, I'm looking on this third season as a gift from and for the passion of the fans. A miracle could happen, and the ratings could suddenly become big enough that a fourth season becomes a no-brainer, but right now all I want is for the show to do well enough for all of the third season episod...

By asepinwall@starledger.com (Alan Sepinwall) Make fun of NBC all you want - God knows I have - but even in the midst of this downward spiral, they've put some of the best shows on the air, and found unlikely ways to keep them on the air. "30 Rock" is going into its fourth season. "Friday Night Lights" will produce at least five season's worth of...

By asepinwall@starledger.com (Alan Sepinwall) Spoilers for the second episode of "Community" coming up just as soon as I remind you that real stories don't have spoilers... The second episode is often the hardest one for a new show with a great pilot. "Spanish 101" makes me feel very confident about this show's future.

By asepinwall@starledger.com (Alan Sepinwall) Okay, the good folks at Give Me My Remote, who were instrumental in the save "Chuck" campaign, got their hands on the season 2 highlight real and Schwartz/Fedak/Levi sketch that started off the Comic-Con panel. So if you watch that, and then watch Jeffster! on YouTube, then watch the panel...

By asepinwall@starledger.com (Alan Sepinwall) I head up to slightly less Southern California in a bit (would have left sooner if it wasn't for the Ben Silverman news) and will be largely radio silent until press tour(*) starts tomorrow morning, other than a "So, what did you think of 'Nurse Jackie' tonight?" post at 11.

By asepinwall@starledger.com (Alan Sepinwall) • Tennant's version of The Doctor will appear in an upcoming "Sarah Jane Adventures" episode called "The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith." • A fan asked whether River Song would be returning, and Gardner noted, "We are now happy viewers to season five. We don't know anything you don't know."

By asepinwall@starledger.com (Alan Sepinwall) We are doing something different in season 6," Carlton said. "The time travel season is over, the flash-forward season is over. We have something different planned. Hopefully, you will like it, but we are not going to commit to what it's going to be."

By asepinwall@starledger.com (Alan Sepinwall) Actually, no: it began with a season 2 highlight reel, followed by a very funny pre-taped video with Josh Schwartz and Fedak in their office a month ago, asking Zachary Levi what he's going to do since they're going to be canceled. Levi is floored by this idea, but Schwartz and Fedak are adama...

By asepinwall@starledger.com (Alan Sepinwall) And in the meantime, the "Chuck" guys wanted me to give you guys the first look at the special poster they had made for Comic-Con. (Click on it to see the full-sized version.) I think it looks suitably awesome, and I'm especially happy that they drew Jeff holding his keytar.

By asepinwall@starledger.com (Alan Sepinwall) I don't expect to do more than cameo at Comic-Con today, if that, but I'll be parked at the convention center for the next three days and will report what I can, when I can. As for press tour, keep in mind that all the actual press tour blog posts will be NJ.com-only, just like my newspaper columns...

By asepinwall@starledger.com (Alan Sepinwall) Given my press tour commitments over the next several weeks, and vacation time after that, I'm not sure how often I'll be able to weigh in on the rest of the season. If nothing else, if I've seen an episode, I'll make sure to put up a post so those of you who are watching can discuss it.

By asepinwall@starledger.com (Alan Sepinwall) Gonna be a lot of playing by ear around here for a while, and that includes how I wind up covering Comic-Con (which I've never attended before) and press tour. I'm not sure what my technological capabilities are going to be at Comic-Con during the daytime, so the best I may be able to do is post a...

By asepinwall@starledger.com (Alan Sepinwall) Okay, I now have some details of the "Chuck" panel I'll be moderating at Comic-Con. It's definitely Saturday (July 25), probably in the morning, with Josh Schwartz, Chris Fedak, and virtually the whole cast: Zachary Levi, Yvonne Strahovski, Adam Baldwin, Joshua Gomez, Ryan McPartlin,...

By asepinwall@starledger.com (Alan Sepinwall) Just got done watching the third (or, rather, second-produced, third-aired) episode of "Royal Pains" on Hulu. I don't have much to say about it, save three things: 1)I was glad to see Campbell Scott back briefly, 2)I was glad they finally started giving some background on Divya, and 3)It w...

By asepinwall@starledger.com (Alan Sepinwall) For those of you making the pilgrimage to Comic-Con in San Diego, I'm going to be moderating the "Chuck" panel. My first trip to SDCC; any tips on what to do when I'm not interrogating Schwartz, Fedak and company? And I have no details beyond my own presence.)

By asepinwall@starledger.com (Alan Sepinwall) Because of my job, I'm naturally exposed to TV more than other areas of pop culture, which means I often wind up finding out about those areas when they happen to cross over with TV. Music's a big one in that regard; basically, the only way I hear about new (or new-to-me) bands these days tends t...

By asepinwall@starledger.com (Alan Sepinwall) Alec Baldwin, "30 Rock" Steve Carell, "The Office" Zachary Levi, "Chuck" Ken Marino, "Party Down" Jim Parsons, "The Big Bang Theory" Toni Collette, "United States of Tara" Tina Fey, "30 Rock" Anna Friel, "Pushing Daisies" Yvonne Strahovski, "Chuck"

By asepinwall@starledger.com (Alan Sepinwall) So this summer on the blog, we're looking back at "Band of Brothers," "The Wire" season two and "Sports Night," all shows (or seasons of shows) that predate the existence of this blog. But one of my favorite current shows -- which I've blogged every episode of already -- is the subject of anot...

By asepinwall@starledger.com (Alan Sepinwall) Once upon a time, I would have used a show-canceling power on "Friday Night Lights" after the first season finale, particularly after how the second season began, but then parts of the third season were so great that I'm glad the show continued, even if we had to suffer through The Unfortun...

By asepinwall@starledger.com (Alan Sepinwall) When "Reaper" and "Chuck" debuted at the start of last season, the comparisons were as frequent as they were obvious. Many people (myself included) even preferred the "Reaper" pilot, thanks to Ray Wise, bigger laughs and what seemed to be a more assured sense of story and tone. But watching...

By asepinwall@starledger.com (Alan Sepinwall) I briefly thought my choice would be "Freaks and Geeks," if only for the chance to see Martin Starr dance like that again. But I think the 18 episodes, which I reviewed a couple of summers ago, are kind of perfect as they are, the ending works as an ending, and I always worry I'd think less of it if...

By asepinwall@starledger.com (Alan Sepinwall) Feeling great. Josh (Schwartz) and I and the entire cast and crew are so excited to be coming back. We were so excited to continue this story, keep telling Chuck Bartowski adventures. Are we going to see a character working at Subway, like Sarah, or Morgan, if the Benihana thing falls through?

By asepinwall@starledger.com (Alan Sepinwall) NBC just put out their schedule release, and "Chuck" is on it -- albeit not airing until March (post-Olympics), Mondays at 8. More details of the whole schedule over at NJ.com. I'm going on the NBC conference call in a few minutes, and I'm going to talk with Chris Fedak after that, so look for one...

By asepinwall@starledger.com (Alan Sepinwall) Well, then the other question is, if Chuck knows kung fu, and he has the Intersect, and he also has the Orion wrist cuff, which we know can do a lot of cool things on its own, at what point does he still need Casey and Sarah? Does Zachary Levi have any martial arts training, or was that all stuntwo...

By asepinwall@starledger.com (Alan Sepinwall) • Chevy Chase at his absolute smuggest, telling Chuck, "Just think: that terrible pun is the last thing you'll ever hear"; • Even outside of the "saving my life at least once a week" line, Adam Baldwin made Chuck and Casey's apparent farewell scene sing with the look of confusion and rage on...

By asepinwall@starledger.com (Alan Sepinwall) • If it had only featured Casey going all vengeful on Chuck and Sarah, and even successfully shooting the Chuck target he subconsciously missed back in the season premiere... Dayenu. • Loved Lester calling Casey a classic perv, then looking to Jeff and saying, "No offense."

By asepinwall@starledger.com (Alan Sepinwall) Two more episodes left -- and that had better only be two more episodes left in the season, and not in the series. Because if "Chuck" dies because NBC decided to hand over five hours of primetime a week to Jay flippin' Leno... Well, I haven't let my heart get broken by the premature end of a TV show in...

By asepinwall@starledger.com (Alan Sepinwall) Then episode 221 is "Chuck vs. the Colonel." For episode 221, we thought the episode is so big, has so many huge things in it, from an emotional as well as espionage in it, that we were worried people would thin it was the season finale. It's a huge episode. Our final episode, "Chuck vs. the Ring," is...

By asepinwall@starledger.com (Alan Sepinwall) • The amount of spy and Bartowski family drama meant that the Buy More gang got back-burnered for the week, but Josh Gomez did have that really nice moment where Morgan got off the phone with Jeff and Lester and reacted for real to the news that Chuck had seemingly abandoned him for the Roark j...

By asepinwall@starledger.com (Alan Sepinwall) 2. Tonight's episode features both Chase and Scott Bakula, and you don't need me to tell you how awesome they can be in the right context -- which this decidedly is. 3. Television in general and NBC in particular would be a much sorrier place if "Chuck" isn't around next season.

By asepinwall@starledger.com (Alan Sepinwall) • As if naming Tony Hale's character after the two leads in "Spies Like Us," and the show's go-to bugs after a bit of terminology from that movie isn't enough of an homage, tonight we get Chuck and the evil doctor recreating the famous "Doctor." "Doctor." "Doctor." "Doctor." scene from that mov...

By asepinwall@starledger.com (Alan Sepinwall) • If Beckman's speech at the end of the episode didn't have such important ramifications for the series as a whole, I would have been sorely tempted to lead the review with an incredulous Chuck asking Casey, "You had a gun?" and a smug Casey saying, "I always have a gun."

By asepinwall@starledger.com (Alan Sepinwall) Before tonight's "Chuck" review, the rest of today's blog entries are going to be very, very short, as I'm slammed at work but want to give people a chance to discuss notable programming from the weekend. First up, brief spoilers for Friday night's "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicle...

By asepinwall@starledger.com (Alan Sepinwall) While "Lethal Weapon" didn't tie the spy story to the Buy More story from a plot standpoint, there were at least important thematic ties, as well as an opportunity to see Chuck be a good friend to Morgan. Though Morgan's characterization has been one of season two's biggest improvements, t...

By asepinwall@starledger.com (Alan Sepinwall) It's clear by now that Zachary Levi and Yvonne Strahovski have all kinds of chemistry together, that Morgan is right about what Sarah's love for him does for Chuck's confidence, and that Chuck and Sarah would each love to be with the other if circumstances were different. And I think that ep...

By Alan Sepinwall(asepinwall@starledger.com) I still think NBC is being short-sighted in its decision to bench "Chuck" for the next six weeks (it returns the night after the Super Bowl with a 3-D episode), given how the ratings suffered after its last (albeit much longer) hiatus, but if they have to go away for a while, at least they're l...

By Alan Sepinwall(asepinwall@starledger.com) Gary Cole is great virtually all of the time. That's a given. (The rare exceptions are roles like the one in "Pineapple Express" where he's not given anything to do, as if his mere presence will elevate material that isn't there in the first place.) He's so comfortable in his own skin, and in the...

By asepinwall@starledger.com (Alan Sepinwall) • You knew sooner or later the show was going to get around to having Chuck look for his deadbeat dad, no doubt trying to use Sarah, Casey and General Beckman to help. A nice scene for Sarah Lancaster and Zachary Levi at the end. Now, does everybody assume his dad will also be a spy?

By asepinwall@starledger.com (Alan Sepinwall) • As NBC announced back at its "in-front" schedule thing last April, "Chuck" and "Heroes" will both be sitting out January because they don't repeat well. But instead of being replaced by "American Gladiators" and "Deal or No Deal" as originally planned, the fill-in programming will be a...

By asepinwall@starledger.com (Alan Sepinwall) Just as good was Yvonne Strahovski. We know by now that the sensitive stuff is one of her specialties, so it's not a surprise that she would be strong in an episode where Sarah has to shut down any jealous feelings out of professional necessity (and out of her desire to let Chuck move on from his...

By asepinwall@starledger.com (Alan Sepinwall) Hell of a night for homages to "The Wire." First, Dwight on "The Office" talks about juking the stats, and then "Life on Mars" features three different "Wire" alums -- Chad Coleman (Cutty), Chris Bauer (Frank Sobotka) and Clarke Peters (Cool Lester Smooth) -- in guest roles. Now, Peters was...

By asepinwall@starledger.com (Alan Sepinwall) Between the Grant Park rally and now this episode, Oprah's been quite the primetime fixture this week, hasn't she?) I think the Jack/Kenneth plot tailed off after a while, but even it offered highlights late into the episode, like Kenneth slipping out of his page's jacket and into a sweat...

By asepinwall@starledger.com (Alan Sepinwall) Like I said last year, Yvonne Strahovski may not be the funniest person on this show (though she's still at least ahead of Sarah Lancaster), but that's no sin when Zachary Levi and Adam Baldwin and the rest are around. She's there to kick ass and look great doing it (which she does a bang up job o...

By noreply@blogger.com (Alan Sepinwall) Some other thoughts on "Chuck vs. the Seduction": • Yvonne Strahovski, good sport: the Wienerlicious costume may be gone (sigh...), but she's still willing to put the girls on display, this time with Sarah's fantasy gymnastics routine on the way into the Buy More.

By Alan Sepinwall(noreply@blogger.com) • Schwartz and Fedak originally wanted Chuck Norris to play a big bad guy this year -- in an episode that would, of course, be called "Chuck vs. Chuck" -- but they couldn't land their white whale. Still, when Colt started limbering up to kill Chuck, I couldn't help but think of the best scene of N...

By Alan Sepinwall In today's column, I am very happy to see new and improved episodes of "Chuck":. What’s the opposite of the sophomore slump? The sophmore surge? Sophomore surprise? Whatever you want to call it, "Chuck" is experiencing it — big-time. ...

By Alan Sepinwall The episode had a few weak spots -- after being really engaged in the Chuck/Sarah thing for the last three episodes, their bickering here didn't click for me, and Morgan with Anna's parents was definitely on the low end of the Morgan curve -- but what other show is going to give me gratuitous...

By Alan Sepinwall Reading the Nielsen tea leaves is supposed to be part of my job description, but I'm damned if I can figure out what Monday's numbers -- which, thanks in part to one of the worst "Monday Night Football" games ever, were up from the previous week but still terrible compared to "Chuck" and "Her...

By Alan Sepinwall I'm not saying the big showdown at the Buy More would have fit seamlessly into a John Woo or Jet Li movie, but moments like Casey two-fisting a pair of semi-automatics or Sarah and Bryce fighting back to back looked a lot more impressive than what this show has typically given us when it's tim...

By Alan Sepinwall I know there's also been a lot of debate about what value Morgan brings to the show. I've generally been agnostic to favorable about Morgan, with "Chuck Versus the Sandworm" being a symbol of all the good things he can add to the show. This episode was the flip side of that, the first time I activ...

By Alan Sepinwall Not sure yet what I'd like to see happen with the assistant manager position. It could be a new character, or it could be Harry Tang protege Lester, but I feel like we've been given several hints now that Morgan will wind up with it, and that might be best. It would give Joshua Gomez a different co...

By Alan Sepinwall After last week's outstanding "Chuck Versus the Sandworm," it was all but inevitable that the next episode would be a letdown. "Chuck Versus the Alma Mater" wasn't a bad episode, necessarily, but it was probably my least favorite episode since "Chuck Versus the Helicopter" in week two.

By Alan Sepinwall A couple of points to note. First, Warner Bros. is really holding the line on the budget right now, as the green screen effects in several scenes (particularly the one outside the Pie Hole when Olive first found the pigeon) looked like something out of the '70s. I hadn't realized just how much o...