How Chuck Lost its Mojo

Last year I wrote an essay on why I think Chuck is the best written show on television.  I stand by that essay, of course.  At the time, I believe it was.  I recently received a message from a friend, thanking me for encouraging them to watch Chuck.  They had started watching season three and they felt it was so good that every episode felt like it was sweeps week.

And that was Chuck: Season Three.  Every week I couldn't wait for Monday night, and every Monday night it was even better than I thought it would be.  It had romance, drama, comedy, and action, and every single one of those aspects was played out to perfection.  No areas were lacking.  It wasn't afraid to evolve and change.  In fact, I felt there were drastic changes to plot and situations from episode to episode.  And they were never predictable or unnecessary changes.  Unlike most TV shows, Chuck allowed itself a natural progression, never holding back for fear of what change might mean to the writing process and the fan base.  Just letting it happen for the sake of an amazing story.

But enough about why Chuck was great.  This is about why it's not so great now.  Now, this is a little bit of a spoiler alert, but this is really one of those spoilers that isn't really a spoiler, because you know it's going to happen eventually.  At the end of season three, Chuck and Sarah finally become a real couple.  Now, personally, I don't understand why this is the cause of so much downfall in television.  When the two main love interests finally get together in a series, why do the writers suddenly go, "Shit.  Whadda we do now?  There must be DRAMA!"  The fans love the couple, and want to see them together.  They love them for a reason.  They work together.  Their relationship really doesn't have to change that much.  Kind of like on How I Met Your Mother, Robin and Ted had an awesome relationship, which was most likely made possible because we all knew they had to break up.

But specifically in Chuck, the relationship really started to pull focus from the spy stuff.  In previous seasons, the show worked so well because the spy missions were really well though-out, and put the characters in real danger and real situations, which naturally allowed them to become closer and get to know each other, thus facilitating the personal relationships.  Now in season four I find that the missions are written around what is happening with Sarah and Chuck, to make some point or work out some problem in their relationship.  It's boring.

There was an episode a few weeks ago that completely revolved around when Chuck will propose.  He wanted to do it in the perfect place in France while they were on a mission, but he missed his moment. After they got home they were told the mission wasn't over and they had to go back to France, and it was so obviously a "We need a reason to get them back to the same place so he can actually propose."  And that's when it hit me.  Chuck has become one of those dumb romantic comedies that just expects that if you put two people on screen who are falling in love, the audience will care about them.  Often in those movies I find I am bored and angry because there isn't even a reason for the characters to like each other.  I love Chuck and Sarah, I do.  I was absolutely giddy when they became a real couple.  But why do I care about them?  The answer is a lot more complicated then he wants to plan the perfect proposal.

I will give Chuck this.  The past two episodes have actually been very good.  For the first time since the season started, I was excited again.  Sarah went undercover.  She had to pretend to kill Agent Casey and in the process she put him in a coma.  She couldn't communicate with Chuck so they had to use a tone system, which was impossible to understand.  The show regained a sense of danger and suspense.  There was a lot of talk about Sarah being prepared to stay undercover for the long haul.  To be honest, I started to get excited about the concept.  I felt it was just what the show needed to get its mojo back.  So what did they do?  They resolved it in two episodes.

This sadly makes me skeptical that Chuck will regain its former glory.  But I will remain a loyal fan, for now.

Anyone who hasn't seen Chuck, I highly reccomend watching Season 1 - 3.  It just gets better and better, I can't even tell you.