"Chuck" comes back on Sunday night (I gave a few early thoughts on the new episodes last month), which means purchasers of the "Chuck: The Complete Second Season" DVD set (which hits stores and places like Amazon tomorrow) will only have a few days to dive through the 22 episodes to get up to speed for the new batch. (In fairness to Warner Bros., the release date was set back when everyone assumed season three wouldn't begin until March, and I don't know how easy it is to change course at the last minute.) After the jump, a few thoughts on the DVD set, and if you're interested in a chance to meet the cast and/or help out a real good cause, go check out the We Heart Chuck site for details, ASAP...
My review copy was one of the limited-edition ones, which includes the 3-D version of "Chuck vs. the Third Dimension" as well as two pairs of 3-D glasses so that you and your special lady or gentleman friend can watch it together. Having just seen "Avatar," it's hard to be as impressed by effects like a knife flying at the screen or Big Mike's donut moving towards his mouth, but the episode itself remains fun.
And that's my sum feeling about the set in general. The special features are interesting to varying degrees, but the real draw is 22 episodes of one of the most purely fun seasons of TV I've ever had the pleasure to watch and review.
As to the other features, my favorite was probably "Dude in Distress," a breakdown of how they put together the show's stunts (with an extended look at Sarah and Nicole Richie's shower smackdown in "Chuck vs. the Cougars"), but there are also deleted scenes from most episodes (nothing plot-heavy from what I saw; mostly it's jokes that got cut for time), the webisodes about the Buy More staff that ran early last year, a funny gag reel (if you like that sort of thing; if nothing else, it's a rare opportunity to see the usually serious Yvonne Strahovski smiling and laughing), a more general behind-the-scenes featurette, and a couple of funny sequences where Captain Awesome and Casey separately offer tips on how to deal with everyday problems like job interviewing, first dates and going to your high school reunion.
But, again, I was much happier to just have a permanent copy of episodes like "Chuck vs. the Santa Claus" or "Chuck vs. the Colonel" than I was to play with the bonus features. This is going to become one of my go-to DVD sets whenever I'm having a sick day. (Which I'm hoping today doesn't turn into.)