If you've never seen NBC's Chuck, you're missing out on one of TV's best shows. It's inspired so much love that the fans launched an unprecedented campaign to bring it back for season 3, and we succeeded! The show returns in March 2010, and in the meantime, fans are trying to keep the show fresh in the minds of viewers. www.chucktv.net has launched "Chuck Me Mondays," where fans watch one episode of the show every Monday at 7:00 pm (mountain time) from the pilot all the way up to the season 2 finale, and chat about it live on the site or using Twitter. You can watch with your DVDs, iTunes downloads, or for free on http://www.thewb.com/shows/chuck. For my part, I'll be reviewing each episode of the series as we watch it every Monday right here on YourHub!

Week 2: Chucks Versus the Helicopter
Original Airdate: 10/01/07

Episode Rating: C+

Most shows take at least a season to find their footing, if not more, and that's why so few shows survive in today's TV climate. Chuck did not take long to find its rhythm; the pilot suggested that the show knew exactly where to go from beat one, but in truth, the first few real episodes were a bit clunky. Not bad, but you can tell in the early episodes that the writers were experimenting with the formula to figure out what worked, and I would say that they really hit the mark with episode 5 and haven't had a weak hour since. But episodes two, three and four were a wee bit rough.

Chuck Versus the Helicopter is, in my opinion, the weakest episode of the series. In all fairness, it did have to follow the excellent pilot, which would weaken its strength no matter what. Most of what makes this episode weak can be found in the basic premise, which is the rivalry between Sarah and Casey (the NSA and the CIA). It's a theme hinted at in the pilot-apparently, the CIA and NSA don't like each other (who knew?), and as such Sarah and Casey aren't the best of friends. It was a joke that rang flat in the pilot, and basing the second episode around it wasn't a good choice.

The government sends in a special doctor to try and remove the Intersect from Chuck's head (right...that's going to happen in episode two), but is killed before he can get to work. Chuck uncovers a trail that leads him to suspect both Sarah and Casey and puts the two agents at constant odds; in the end, everybody has to work together to save the day. Given that the entire show does hinge on the premise of "Team Bartowski" (Chuck, Sarah and Casey), I suppose it was important to give us an episode that showed us how they learned to trust each other, but the writing's a little off and the constant finger pointing feels unoriginal. Given that Chuck quickly established itself as one of the freshest, most original shows on television, this automatically makes Helicopter the series' weakest installment.

But it's still Chuck, after all, and there's no denying that this is a fun hour. Watching this episode for the first time on TV two years ago, I remember thinking that, while the plot felt contrived, the characters were just amazing. Funny, three-dimensional, and brilliantly acted. If the writers didn't know exactly what to do with the plot for this outing, they had the characters under control, and so did the actors. There are some absolutely classic moments from each star---Chuck saving the day with creativity and intelligence, not brawn, is a trademark of the character and there are a few great scenes like that here---Casey, always good for a few laughs, hits all the right notes---Morgan is as hilarious as he always was.

In the end, Chuck Versus the Helicopter is a fun hour of TV. The cast is great, the music selections continue to impress, and there is a particularly thrilling action sequence at the end. But the way the episode goes back and forth from "Sarah's the villain," "no, Casey's the villain," "no, back to Sarah," "wait, they're both good guys," is contrived and tiresome, and less original than we expect from the show. But the writers learned from their mistakes-the CIA/NSA rivalry was never mentioned again, and the third episode is much stronger. For fans that have seen the whole series, it's interesting to revisit the episode and see exactly how far the show has come (watching season one in one go, you see how far they came in just two or three episodes). Plus, there's a great big Lost shout out early in the episode that always gives me a big goofy grin.

Next week, we'll revisit the show's third episode, Chuck Versus the Tango, which gave us the first real intersect mission. For now, join Chuck fans nationwide by watching Chuck Versus the Helicopter tonight at 7:00 PM on DVD or online (links above) and chatting about it live via Twitter or www.chucktv.net.