Chuck...You're Losing Me, Man

I'm beginning to think that maybe Chuck might not make it to a permanent spot in my TV viewing week. I've been watching the show since its premiere, and have kind of enjoyed it, but it is beginning to test my patience. Last night's episode, "Chuck Vs. The Nemesis," was, to put it frankly, ridiculously bad.

In my previous postings on Chuck, I have said that while the show is mighty unrealistic, that hardly matters. "Sure, it's completely unrealistic and often silly. But why does a TV show have to be realistic and/or serious all the time -- even a 'spy' show?" Truer words have never been written.

Last night's show went a little too far for me. Chuck's old college buddy, Bryce (who got him kicked out of college, stole his girlfriend, and was involved with Sarah), returned from the dead. That's right. He returned from the dead. According to him, he was revived by a group of rogue, super secret, CIA agents who answer only to themselves, and are unknown to most "super secret" agents. Bryce, himself, was not rogue, and his "theft" of the intersect computer (what Chuck now has in his brain) was to protect it from these guys. At least, I think that's what he was saying. The story got so convoluted that I could hardly make heads or tails of it.

Naturally, the return of Bryce means that Chuck's budding romance with Sarah may never actually bloom (not that it ever would -- she is a CIA agent and he works at an electronics store, after all). In fact, at the end of the show, as Bryce leaves to go deep undercover, he makes a cryptic remark to Sarah that could be code for a secret meeting place ("We'll always have Omaha"). The last few frames of the episode showed both Bryce and Chuck calling a confused Sarah at the same time.

Oh my, who will she choose? She is so torn. She has spent the entire season as a detached, emotionless spy who never reveals her true feelings, and now she has to decide if she should throw away her entire career and and run off with her formerly dead boyfriend, or stay on her current assignment and maintain a fake relationship with Chuck, despite having some true feelings for him. What a dilemma. (note: this paragraph is intended to be sarcastic)

The rest of the show dealt with Chuck's buddy, Morgan, and his new girlfriend's jealousy toward Ellie, and the Buy More's preparation for "black Friday." I think that the writers of Chuck (when they return from their strike) need to stop writing this show to be some type of soap opera. The show had an interesting niche to begin with: a spy show and a comedy mixed into one. But all of the "who will she choose" romantic bullshit is turning Chuck into Melrose Place.

UPDATE: I may be almost through with Chuck, but NBC is not. It is one of only three new series to get officially picked up for a full season.