What I’m Watching: Chuck

Chuck: Season 3, Episode 10 “Chuck Versus the Tic Tac” (B+)

While team separations never end up panning out in the long run, the way this one played out still worked pretty well. Adam Baldwin is a spectacular actor who plays stoic very well, and obviously Casey wasn’t actually betraying his country, but there was still considerable suspense until his motivations were discovered. Robert Patrick is now a completely typecast actor, always playing the gruff military commander who demands loyalty from those he helped to mold. Chuck does need to get with the program a little, comprehending that not everything is about him and testing his ability to keep an eye on his team members. Hopefully Sarah isn’t going to transfer to Washington, but I really would love to see more of Shaw. I wonder if there will be a temporary team in place to work with Chuck while Sarah and Casey aren’t around. It would also be nice if Casey could spend some time with his former love and his daughter, not so subtly named Alex after her supposedly departed father. Getting away from speculation about the future and addressing what actually happened in this episode, I’m increasingly impressed by the terrific music choices this show continually employs. Chuck does a fantastic job of getting into his flash-driven powers and reacting in such an excited way every time it works. Watching him smash headfirst into a clear see-through wall was quite hilarious. Awesome and Morgan fighting over who gets to be more involved in missions after they discovered that the other knew about Chuck was also very entertaining. I guess Ellie and Awesome will be sticking around, which is nice, because as much as great as it’s been to see Awesome a lot lately, I’d love to see more of Ellie too.