Chuck Season 3

Chuck is back! After a near brush with cancellation, staved off by Subway sandwiches, our favorite Nerd Herder is back. I rejoiced when I heard the news that we would get at least another season to watch Chuck do his thing.

But at the same time, I was a bit worried. Given the "upgrade" Chuck received at the end of season 2, how could the formula work? What would happen between Chuck and Sarah? How would the Bartowski team function with Chuck suddenly able to out-perform everyone? And sure, I had read on-line reports that everything would be cool but I had to see it for myself.

So last night, we had the two hour extravaganza, a kick-off for Chuck's return. And I honestly didn't know what to expect. What we got were the first two episodes of the new season back-to-back. Huh.

In some ways, I expected bigger. Something a bit more epic. Something to rival the craziness of the last few episodes of season 2 (at the very least, a Jeffster performance of some kind). But what I saw was good. The team is back in business, Chuck is getting used to the upgrade, and the dynamic is still working. I particularly loved the scene with Emmett where Chuck had to restrain himself. Great, great stuff (leading up to a scene that seemed more in line with a certain show on a different network on Friday nights, but more on that in a bit).

Now I'm cautiously optimistic. The next few weeks will tell us if the show can keep going. And recent news suggests to me that NBC won't be quite so quick to cancel in the future (I mean, there's a lot of hours to fill in prime time, fellas. Just saying). So I guess I'll just strap in for some great nerd fun.

Oh, and I know I haven't said much about Dollhouse in a while. I suppose that I didn't want to admit that the show would really end. And, given the sporadic nature of its schedule this season, it was hard to remember to blog. But given the huge twist this past week and the fact that there are only two episodes left, well ... I'm thinking a postmortem might be in order by the end of the month.