After a long month and a half, Chuck finally made its return this week with “Chuck vs. 3D.” All across America hundreds of thousands of 3D glasses were distributed so people could watch the 3D commercial for Monsters and Aliens. NBC decided to take advantage of this opportunity and also have an episode of Chuck in 3D. And that’s what we got here.
Now, while Paramount was heavy into its marketing for Aliens and Monsters in the US, they opted not to do the same thing in Canada. As a result, there were no 3D glasses handed out here. So I cannot really comment on how effective the 3D was, as I did not see it. Which I was okay with, really. The more annoying part is that even though us Canadians didn’t have 3D glasses with which to watch Chuck, we were still provided with the 3D feed. If you’ve ever tried to watch 3D programming without wearing 3D glasses, you know how poor and distracting the resulting picture quality can be. So my review this week may be somewhat negatively biased; it’s a lot harder to get into something that is painful to look at.
I really think NBC should have brought Chuck back a week earlier if it wanted to do a post-Superbowl 3D episode. The aftermath of “Chuck vs. Santa Claus,” specifically how it affected Chuck’s view of Sarah, should have been a big deal. Instead, it felt like a rather minor subplot.
I can understand why the Chuck and Sarah story wasn’t given more prominence. This was supposed to be the goofy 3D episode, and NBC was also probably hoping for a lot of first time viewers. Those people wouldn’t really know or care about the tension between Chuck and Sarah. But it still would have been nice to have an episode that really explored the rift between the two (or to have even dragged it out a few episodes before Chuck revealed what he had seen).
When watching the episode, it almost felt like there were scenes missing from the episode. The Tyler plot seemed to jump forward a little too quickly in places. For instance, at the start of the episode, Tyler is totally unfazed by death threats. But then after his run-in with the two assassins (that was awfully brief and not all that threatening), when we next see him, he’s terrified by the threat against his life. They could have easily dropped the Morgan subplot and used the extra time to flesh out the episode’s A story.
That’s not to say that the Morgan subplot wasn’t amusing. There were a few laughs to be had there. And it made me cheer not once, but twice, when they busted out “Final Countdown.” But really the quest for the golden ticket was pretty pointless and more than a little predictable.
Predictability was another big problem that plagued “Chuck vs. The Third Dimension.” Everything from the two women that approached Chuck and Tyler being killers, to Tyler’s repeated druggings to Butterman selling the Golden Ticket, to Chuck joining Sarah and Casey on their mission despite being given the night off, it was all very by-the-numbers and predictable.
There were a few nice moments in the episode though. The aforementioned ending, with Chuck choosing to go on the mission, may have been predictable, but it was still a sweet moment. As was the scene where Chuck tells Tyler about how Sarah and Casey are the best, and that he trusts them with his life, all while Sarah watches on the monitor. Predictable stuff, but sweet.
As I said before, I can’t really comment on the success of the 3D element of “Chuck vs. The Third Dimension.” Who knows, maybe the fun of watching it all unfold in 3D made the episode a good deal more enjoyable. When watched without 3D glasses though, I can definitively say it was an underwhelming return for a great show.
Trevor MacKay is the sci-fi/horror/fantasy/cheesy/random geeky stuff guy. If something is geeky and/or unbelievably cheesy, he’s there.
