Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Chuck Versus The Fourth Season

Chuck returns for a Fourth Season with Chuck (Zachary Levi) and Sarah's (Yvonne Strahovski) relationship in full swing, a new girlfriend for Morgan, the birth of a new baby Awesome, and the return of Chuck's mom (Linda Hamilton). More than previous seasons, Season Four is geared towards ongoing multiple episode arcs such as Chuck's search for his mother and his battle against Alexi Volkoff (Timothy Dalton) and his a criminal empire, but that doesn't mean there isn't plenty of fun along the way.

The Fourth Season missions include a trip to Milan to take a sexy killer (Karolina Kurkova) during Fashion Week, to prevent a nuclear war Sarah and Chuck play marriage counselors to Costa Gravas' Premier Alejandro Goya (Armand Assante) and his wife (Tia Texada), the team fakes Casey's (Adam Baldwin) death, Chuck goes on a mission without the Intersect to retrieve a diamond in Switzerland, and for Halloween the team takes down a scientist (Robert Englund) with a weaponized fear toxin.

Other adventures this year entail Chuck inviting a killer to Thanksgiving dinner, Chuck and Sarah going after an evil wedding planner (Clare Carey), the team travels to Paris to search for a nanochip hidden in a bottle of wine with stable on the label and a stork on the cork (in a very nice Court Jester homage), Chuck and Sarah become bank robbers, Sarah reunites with her old C.A.T. Squad teammates (Mini AndenMircea MonroeMercedes Masöhn) to take down Agusto Gaez (Lou Diamond Phillips), and the team travels to Morocco to rescue Roan Montgomery (John Larroquette) from a counterfeiter (Lesley-Ann Brandt) with an army of female agents (Ayelet Ben-ShaharKimberly EstradaDonna FeldmanTania L. Pearson).

Also this season  Ellie (Sarah Lancaster) gets pregnant a delivers a healthy baby girl into the family, Alexi Volkoff's daughter Vivian (Lauren Cohan) takes over Volkoff Industries, Morgan begins a relationship with Casey's daughter Alex (Mekenna Melvin), the guys unite for an unusual bachelor party, Ellie starts investigating her father's (Scott Bakula) work, Sarah goes undercover into Volkoff Industries, the return of Orion, smart bullets, the world's scariest haunted house, Jeffster returns to perform "Is This Love" and "Push It," a giant statue of Awesome, the giant blonde she-male, a wedding, Chuck and Sarah find themselves replaced by Casey's new team, and in his shining moment Chuck takes down the man who stole his mother without relying on the Intersect.


Season Four includes several guest-stars including Lou FerrignoDolph LundgrenKatie ClearyEric RobertsDave BautistaRob RiggleIndia de BeaufortPooja Kumar as Lester's wife to be, and a series of agents in the Buy More known as "Gretas" (Olivia MunnIsaiah MustafaStacy KeiblerSummer Glau). The season also marks the return of Hugo Panzer (Steve Austin), Heather Chandler (Nicole Richie), and Sarah's father (Gary Cole) the con man. Ray Wise and Robin Givens join the cast in recurring roles as Volkoff's assistant and NSA Director Jane Bentley respectively.

The extras on the five-disc set include "Buy Hard: The Jeff and Lester Episode" (which fills in time between season three and season four with the pair on the run), deleted scenes, a gag reel, a behind-the-scenes featurette on "Chuck vs. the Leftovers" (the episode Levi directed this season), and Joshua Gomez shows off his spy skills on the set.

Fans of the show should definitely pick this one up. Aside from the missions and Chuck and Sarah's journey to the altar there are some great individual moments for the entire cast. And Timothy Dalton is insanely entertaining as the season's main baddie.

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