Chuck (Season 5)

Chuck is one of the first series that comes to mind when I think of a TV show falling off in terms of quality. Season 4 was already pretty flawed, especially its second half, but Season 5 is especially mixed. It has a lot of good moments and ideas, but it also has some of my least favorite plot developments in the whole series.

Season 5 of Chuck is also divided into two mini-arcs, though by choice this time rather than because of executive meddling. Both arcs have their strengths and weaknesses, but to be frank, neither of them are anything great. The first half of the season focuses on Morgan having the Intersect and getting corrupted by it, and I can not understate how irritating that makes him. I liked Morgan in the first four seasons, but what happened to him here is nothing short of character assassination, and I don't use that term likely (I've only used it to describe Cordelia in Angel Season 4). The worst part is that the rest of this stretch actually has some cool ideas. Chuck having to live without the Intersect, Sarah's new spy business, the CIA corruption and the subsequent reveal that a secretly alive Shaw is responsible are all really interesting plot points that aren't explored since we instead have three straight episodes of Morgansect being annoying.

The second half of the season deals with a whole new villain, Nicholas Quinn, who also really sucks. He's super hatable and slimy without any of the charm of someone like Volkoff. If anything, his insistence that the Intersect is his comes off as whiny, and it doesn't help that he gets away with destroying much of Chuck's life right at the end of the series. Given how much happier almost every other finale of Chuck was, seeing Quinn come in and ruin everything just really hurts to watch. The part I'm more mixed on, though, is Quinn brainwashing Sarah right before the finale, and her not even getting her full memory back until, ambiguously, the very last scene. The thing is, I can't say this isn't badly executed, the last three episodes are actually a great love letter to Chuck and Sarah's relationship and the series as a whole. But once again, after so many potential endings that ended much more happily, it kinda sucks that this is the one the show settled with.

Highlights:

Chuck Vs The Santa Suit: Ending the first arc on a somewhat high note, Chuck Vs The Santa Suit has that aforementioned Shaw reveal that leads to a pretty great confrontation between him and Chuck. Everything gets resolved really neatly and satisfyingly in this one, and all of the extra Christmas vibes makes for a fun episode. My only gripe is that the pacing in the first half was so off that "Vs The Santa Suit" felt a bit more rushed than it should've been. But compared to pretty much all of that first half, this episode was still a definite high point.

Chuck Vs The Bullet Train: Some of Chuck's best episodes are the "high concept action movie episodes". The Die Hard in a Buy More, Chuck on a plane, Sarah's solo mission, so the penultimate episode of Chuck being a fun action-packed episode on a train is perfectly fitting. Of course, it also ends on the gut punch of Quinn successfully capturing Sarah, a moment I'm pretty mixed on because of what it leads to, but this is otherwise a super entertaining episode.

Chuck Vs Sarah/The Goodbye: I pretty much already gave my thoughts on the finale above. I hate the idea of Sarah getting brain-washed, but I also can't say it wasn't well-executed. This is an emotional last two episodes that gives pretty much every other character a satisfying resolution and shows a lot of love for Chuck as a series through its running gags, returning characters, and slew of bookends that harken back to the show's pilot.

Overall, Season 5 of Chuck is a mess. Its first half has some great ideas but they were wasted since the show chose to focus on the awfully-written Intersect Morgan. The second half was awful in concept but it was at the very least an improvement in terms of executiion. There are a lot of fun moments and the ending was fairly emotional, but I couldn't help but feel a bit let down when the show finished.

2/5 Stars

My ranking of the Chuck seasons would be:

3 > 2 > 4A > 1 > 4B > 5

My ranking of the Chuck finales would be:

3 > 2 > 4 > 5 > 1

Favorite Episode: Chuck Vs The Other Guy