Monsters of Television

First of all, someone seems to have a glut of Casey one-liners burning a hole in his pocket because the first half-hour of this show had so many looped lines I thought Casey was going to break into full-on voiceover.

Chuck does it again this week, making up for its weak start and opening the story to a great many possibilities. Everything from Chuck’s secret leaking to the family he’s been whining to protect to Chuck actually getting good as his job to Chuck possibly losing his non-spy luster to Sarah. There might even be an unexpected triangle coming about between Chuck, Morgan, and Hannah (Hannah, Anna — how did I not see that before?).

Although there were some things that were magically divined throughout the episode (lucky Japanese pen laser!), they were discovered well enough that I wasn’t thrown out of the story. This season is opening up the way I wanted this show to be: still comedic but a little more grounded, a little more complicated, a lot more at stake. I’m almost excited for that things yet to be determined: how long will it take for the asset Chuck burns to come back for him; is Hannah actually a civilian; what will be the point that Chuck’s humanity bottoms out (where Carmichael takes over Bartowski) before Sarah reins him back in; what will the family do now that they’ve wised up (aka, become sentient humans); who will Hannah choose; and for the love all things that are good, how long do we have to wait until the return of Jeffster? This season is looking to be impressive.