Chuck in 3D: The eye popping and the… not so… eye popping.

Now, I love Chuck as much as the next gal but Chuck vs. The Third Dimension wasn’t one of the shows best outings, and not just because the 3d glasses were tricky/cumbersome/gave everything a blue hue (although, for optimum viewing I would recommend watching the episode at hulu.com. I originally saw it on a regular TV screen and was disappointed to see that hardly anything popped out at me-- which probably serves me right for still having an analog TV, but watching it on hulu.com was super fun. The smallest things were coming out of the screen, including the opening credits and the posters on Chuck’s wall).

Anyway, let’s start with the good things about this episode:



- Dominic Monahan was actually funny! I was never a fan of his Charlie on Lost (always found that character to be utterly useless and annoying) but as Tyler Martin with that cockney accent the guy really made the two-dimensional and admittedly stereotypical rock star character really stand out. A few of his best lines were the ones he murmured after all of Casey’s tranq darts. My fave? “I feel like a daffodil.”

- Speaking tranq darts-- I loved them. I’ve seen some reviews calling the repeated use of them tiring but I thought they got funnier the more they appeared. Especially when used on Chuck himself.

- Chuck’s nightmare. Great way to start the episode, and a rather ingenious way to paradoxically excite the fangirls and fanboys. The fangirls got their “charah” (Chuck and Sarah, for the uninitiated) moment, even if it was a dream, and the (sex-crazed) fanboys got their fill of Yvonne Strahovski in black lingerie. Thank you show. Too bad the whole thing ended with a stabbing.

- The BuyMore! A lot of people felt that this week’s BuyMore storyline had absolutely nothing to do with the spyworld storyline, but while that may be true it was nonetheless entertaining. Come on, Lester shouting he’s a man after Butterman yanked his skivvies (tiny, tiny skivvies) off him wedgie style? Jeff eating a urinal cake (and Emmett having to splash himself silly?) Those two will always bring the lulz and I love them for it. The show would not be the same without them.

The not so good:

- The Mauser incident; dealt with and swept under the rug. It took about 20 seconds of air time for Chuck to finally tell Sarah why he’s been acting the way he has towards her and for Sarah to explain that it’s all just part of the job. The Mauser incident has been tiding us for weeks since the last episode. It’s spurred on dozens of fanfics. And it’s one of those psychological things so essential to Chuck’s overall conflict with this new life and this new girl and what kind of world he’s being forced to live in now that the fact that it was just thrown out the way it was was a little bit disappointing. (Especially for those out there who have written dozens of—pretty bad—fanfics dedicated to the issue.

- Chuck and Sarah chemistry. A dream/nightmare is not enough to tide us over and so when the final scene with Chuck and Sarah came about (in their usual heart-to-heart courtyard setting) we were expecting some fireworks. And we didn’t even get sparks. This is the episode they were using to reel in new viewers and if I was a new viewer watching the show for the first time I’d wonder what all the Chuck/Sarah fuss was about. Their lines fell flat, and the usually ultra express Yvonne Strahovski left some a little something to be desired (and I only say that cuz she usually gives us so much with just a smile or a look.