Chuck: Season 5 Review


What is with the 2011-2012 season and shows falling apart in their final seasons?  Chuck has by no means reached the creative heights it consistently reached in its second season, but I wasn't expecting the lazily written season that this was.  It seems Chris Fedak and his writing team were just content with getting their paycheck.  Not one risk was taking and nothing new was brought to the table during the course of the season.

Every episode was extremely predictable.  Then again most episodes of Chuck have been predictable, but there were always a few episodes each season that went against the grain of the show's storytelling.  There was none of that this season.  Every episode started off with some goofy one-liners, then came case of the week bad guy, then came the obnoxious Subway advertisement, then came our leads magically defeating tens of bad guys to get out of a tough situation and all ending with a romantic moment..  Even the overarching story of the season was just a rehash of every season before.  Some mysterious, evil organization with a new name instead.  At least in past seasons the evil organization had a personality.  This time it was bland to the point that I can't even remember the organization's name or the actors who portrayed its leaders.  It really makes you wonder why fans even fought so hard for these people because all they were in it for was the money.

Luckily, the cast wasn't in it for the money.  It seemed almost every actor built on their characters wonderfully this season.  Zachary Levi has become more of a team player of the years instead of the absolute lead he once was, but Levi was able to once again take command of the show in this final season.  Even though his character wasn't given anything new to do, Levi was able to add some new intricacies to the character and give Chuck a fitting end.  Yvonne Strahovski continued her run as the standout of the cast.  Even though her character was put into some idiotic situations and was written into places that made no sense for her character, Strahvoski was able to rise above the material and make Sarah still seem believable.  Adam Baldwin and Joshua Gomez continued on their ever increasing chemistry and had their best seasons yet.  Even the barely used Sarah Lancaster, Ryan McPartlin and Mekenna Melvin get their moments to shine.

Unfortunately, the cast alone can't save the show from the poor writing.  Especially a show with such a low budget.  The lack of writing makes the amateurish directing become more apparent, and the effects for the show are laughably bad at this point.  It's sad to say but some of these episodes reached Syfy TV Movie of the Week bad.

The finale was at least a step up, but it tried to fix to many errors (such as the intersect being used on yet another person and then yet again on another person) a little too late.  The final scene tried to be touching and would have been touching if all that came before it wasn't such a disappointment.

4/10

2 comments:

  1. I thoroughly agree ! Chuck seemed to get better and better through season 1,2 and 3, and 4 was good but then the weakness of season 5 was showing at the end, and season 5 was the worst season by far. In my opinion though, I think the finale saved it somewhat, as the final scenes were very heart-warming, but overall I was surprised at how terrible season 5 was, which is not something I expected from such a obviously talented writer team. Damn shame, but at least the fond memories of one of the best TV programmes ever will stay with me for the rest of my life :)

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  2. Season 5 was the worst. how about using the intersect on sarah to restore her and let her diffuse the bomb. she practically did anyway. It was so bad I went back and watched the finale of S4 as THAT was an appropriate ending for the series

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