The Best And Worst Things About "Chuck"

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The end is not near, it's here. Chuck, the pop-culture inspired brain-child of show-runners Josh Schwartz (The O.C., Gossip Girl) and Chris Fedak has finally reached the end of an improbable five-year run. While the masses may have lamed out on the oddball NBC spy dramedy starring Zachary Levi and Yvonne Strahovski, over the years it gained a cult following that we are proud to be a part of.

Four years ago we wouldn't have believed that Chuck would end after a healthy amount of seasons on its own terms and yet here we are. Join us as we say goodbye to Charles Carmichael Bartowski and co. by reminiscing on the best—and not so best—parts of the series.

Written by Frazier Tharpe (@The_SummerMan)

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Best: Guest Stars

Nicole Richie as an ass-kicking enemy spy; Timothy Dalton as a bipolar archvillain, hilarious yet threatening; Linda Hamilton as Chuck's fierce spy mother; John Laroquette as a suave, boozing, washed-up James Bond type. These are just a few of Chuck's long list of special guest stars that also includes Eric Roberts, Michael Clarke Duncan, Jordana Brewster, Chevy Chase, Dolph Lundgren, Carrie-Anne Moss, and Bo Derek. Hell, they even took the bland Brandon Routh out of the unemployment line and turned him into a perfect nemesis.

How did a struggling series afford all of these talented cameos, you ask? Take one look at the special effects and there's your answer. But we wouldn't have had it any other way, not when the casting was so spot-on. Armand Assante as a cheesy foreign dictator: perfect. And of course Eric Roberts would be the head of a rogue version of the A-team. If Chuck itself is an ode to pop culture past and present, then the tons of special cameos were necessary—and they were always fun.

Best: The Intersect

One of the coolest things about this show was its basic premise, and the Intersect was what that premise hinged on. Of course, the idea of the CIA and NSA encoding all of their secrets and intel on to a super computer able to be downloaded into the brain to create the perfect spy is utterly unbelievable. Once you get past that however, it's quite a cool concept.

Things never got stale either: Season three featured the awesome Intersect 2.0 which came complete with kung-fu, and later seasons explored the negative psychological side-effects that having a super-computer in one's brain would probably cause. Every program glitches sooner or later.

Best/Worst: Tone

Simply put, Chuck was fun. Most of the best series out right now are dark, gloomy dramas, which is cool and all, but a little levity goes a long way. The show reveled in all its spying-is-fun glory with more ridiculously improbable gadgets than the Roger Moore Bond films and comic book villains that would've been right at home in an '80s action B-movie. That is to say, for the most part, it was very enjoyable. The series couldn't have been more clearer about its intentions than in the pilot scene pictured above, which depicts Chuck defusing a bomb—with a porn virus.

However, the series did occasionally stray too far into the goofy zone, and maybe a reason it never did well in the ratings was because on any given episode audiences weren't sure whether to laugh with it or at it. 

Worst: Plot Holes

If you're looking for airtight spy missions with believable circumstances and stakes Chuck is not the show for you. Even with an understanding that this is a goofily fun series to just kick back and enjoy, each mission week in and week out almost always featured the most glaring plot hole imaginable. We're not asking for Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy-level realism but too many episodes required us to take off our thinking caps lest the whole plot fall apart.

Best: Music

If Josh Schwartz's name is on the executive producer list, you can guarantee the series is going to feature some excellent, albeit decidedly alternative, music each week. Chuck was no exception, especially the time it hilariously riffed on a key musical moment from that other great Josh Schwartz show.

Worst: Chuck's Personality

OK, we understand that Chuck's softness was the heart of the series; his decidedly non badass demeanor is how he won the girl and he went the entire series without even killing anyone. But sometimes the fact that dude is the King of All Simps was annoying to no end.

Countless times he interrupted high-profile government missions to—get this—talk about his feelings. And each time it was groan worthy. How he never got fired for his utter lack of compartmentalization skills is beyond us.

Best: Season Two

In its second season, the series found itself and delivered 22 episodes of a near perfect blend of comedy, action, and romance.

For a good laugh enjoy "Chuck vs. the Seduction," and watch John Laroquette teach Chuck how to woo enemy spy Melinda Clarke. Marvel at the meta brilliance of "Chuck vs. Santa Claus," which features Reginald VelJohnson reprising his Die Hard role as Sgt. Al Powell. Guest star Jordana Brewster twisted the Chuck-Sarah dynamic into a triangle, the mythology deepened with the addition of Scott Bakula as Chuck's absentee (for a good reason) dad, and Chevy Chase was excellent as season villain Ted Roarke. Did we mention it had great action?

If the show had been cancelled after season one it would've been a shame, but after season two it would've been a crime.

Best: Subway

Chuck lasted so long in part because it was on NBC, a network with its fair share of problems. Between the writer's strike, several regime changes, and several shitty shows that fared worst in the ratings department, keeping Chuck seemed like a sensible option each year.

Still, in 2009 things looked dire until Subway got swept up in a fan campaign that resulted in the show being renewed with a catch: Subway would foot some of the bills, in exchange for the cast hocking footlongs during the episodes, ad nauseam. So we got more Chuck and with scenes like Big Mike's hilarious soliloquies on the beauty of a $5 footlong? No brainer!

Worst: The Extra Arcs

Don't get us wrong, we were ecstatic that NBC allowed a series that probably cost more money than it earned the opportuntity to reach almost 100 episodes. But during the show's third season, and then again for the fourth, the network ordered an inital 13 episodes for the season only to unexpectedly extend the order to full-season length midway through. More Chuck! Sounds like a dream come true for us fans, right?

Well, it would've been except that showrunners Chris Fedak and Josh Scwhartz approached each of the initial 13 as if that was all they were going to get, and planned accordingly. The first half of both seasons are tightly plotted, fully-formed arcs with a beginning, and decidedly epic and satisfying ending (in case it wound up being the end).

Schwartz and Fedak were right to approach them that way; most of the blame is with NBC. The episodes that followed play like an unnecessary sequel to a great movie, featuring underwhelming stand-alones and extensions of the overall season plot that inevitably felt sloppy and rushed.

Best: "Chuck Vs. The Santa Suit"

A lot of good concept shows are plot first, characters second. Therefore it was a relief that Chuck took its time to let its characters naturally grow into their destinies. The plan was always for Chuck Bartowski to become a real-deal spy, but in retrospect it's admirable that Fedak and Schwartz let his evolution marinate over the better part of three seasons.

Over time we came to realize that it wasn't the Intersect that made Chuck a worthwile spy, and it all came to a head this season in the series highlight "Chuck vs. the Santa Suit," in which he squared off with nemesis Daniel Shaw (Brandon Routh) and saved the day all on his own without the super-computer crutch, completing a five-year transition from geek to hero. (The episode also confirmed, as we all assumed, that Stan Lee does indeed work for the CIA.)

Best: Sarah Walker/Yvonne Strahovski

Chuck contributed many great characters that will be remembered fondly, like Morgan (Joshua Gomez), the quintessential best friend, Casey (Adam Baldwin) the gruff sniper with the heart of gold, and the aptly named Big Mike, the Buy More head honcho.

The real success of the series though, was Yvonne Strahovski as Sarah Walker. Over five years she went from handler to love interest to supportive girlfriend and finally supportive wife, but her sheer badass-ness stayed the same. Strahovski was game since episode one, willingly appearing in skimpy outfits to please us men at home (thank you, Yvonne) while displaying some real dramatic and comedic chops along the way.

We're betting Sarah Walker goes down in history with the likes of Sydney Bristow as one of TV's premier ass-kicking leading ladies, and we're hoping that Yvonne walks away from Chuck with a great career waiting.

Best: Jeffster!

As the show and Chuck got deeper and deeper into the spy world, critics wondered why they insisted on tethering the action to the Buy More, the pseudo Best Buy in which Chuck and the gang maintain their cover identities. To the critics we say: The show would be nothing without the hilariously ridiculous antics of the Buy More, specifically the hare-brained comedy duo of Jeff and Lester.

Their most memorable contribution to the series was Jeffster!, the godawful cover band that they would sometimes moonlight as, usually to hijack events such as Chuck's sister Ellie's wedding. Their encore in the season night's finale was perhaps the greatest fan-service that the episode delivered.

Best: Finales

The proper Chuck series finale aired last night, but it wasn't the first time the series served up a satisfying conclusion to the story. During seasons three and four, when it looked like the aforementioned 13 episode orders were the end of the road, Schwartz and Fedak wrote episodes that could double as mid-season finales or, if need be, series finales.

Season three's would-be closer, "Chuck vs. the Other Guy," brought a cathartic end to the increasingly frustrating will-they-or-won't-they, while completing Chuck's transition from hapless geek to fully-formed spy, kill and all. Then they took it a step further in season four with "Chuck vs. the Push-Mix," which saw Chuck avenging his family (SPOILER ALERT: Mom & Dad were spies too) and perhaps one of the best proposal scenes in TV history.

Overall, those episodes arguably hold up better than last night's "Chuck vs. the Goodbye" but on a purely character level the real finale hit all the right notes: Jeffster! saved the day, Chuck has the Intersect again, and Chuck and Sarah's tender, uncertain reconnection at the beach ranks just as high as their moments in the previous finales.