Chuck: The Complete Second Season Blu-ray Review

• Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
  
• Video Codec: VC-1
  
• Resolution: 1080p/24
• Audio Codec: English Dolby Digital 5.1, Spanish Dolby Digital 2.0
  
• Subtitles: English SDH, Dutch, French, Spanish
  
• Region: ABC (Region-Free)
  
• Rating: Not Rated
  
• Discs: 4
• Studio: Warner Home Video
  
• Release Date: January 5, 2010
• List Price: $69.97[amazon-product align=”right”]B001FB4VYO[/amazon-product]

BestBuy.com:

Purchase Chuck: The Complete Second Season

on Blu-ray at CD Universe



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Overall
[Rating:3/5]
The Series
[Rating:4/5]
Video Quality
[Rating:3.5/5]
Audio Quality
[Rating:3/5]
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:3/5]

Click thumbnails for high-resolution 1920X1080p screen captures

More Screen Captures (13 Total)

(Screen captures are lightly compressed with lossy JPEG  thus are meant as a general representation of the content and do not fully reveal the capabilities of the Blu-ray format)

The Series

[Rating:4/5]

With Chuck now kicking off its third season, Chuck: The Complete Second Season arrives on Blu-ray Disc from Warner Home Video. In this second season, the reluctant spy Chuck Bartowski (Zachary Levi) with the government supercomputer in his head returns to take on the forces of evil. His relationship with his handler Sarah (Yvonne Strahovski) and their cover story is once again what helps drive the story as the two fake a relationship as cover, but struggle conceal their true feelings from each other.

Season Two adds some new twists to keep the show fresh. There’s an episode in 3D, which seems to be latest thing to kick life into a franchise these days. Former network-mate Medium did the same thing a couple of seasons ago. Chuck gets to hunt down a second intersect (that’s the computer in his head) and his character also develops a bit more confidence in the field.

Just how long this series, that mixes a little bit of Get Smart, James Bond, and Jake 2.0 (anybody remember that short-lived series?) can survive with the contrived circumstances of Chuck working in the big-box store the Buy More with his pretend girlfriend-cum-handler has yet to be seen. Perhaps the whole scenario will soon grow tiresome, but Season Two is sufficiently pleasant, charming, and humorous to sustain the momentum the series gained in Season One. Guest appearances by Scott Bakula, Jerome Bettis, and a recurring role for Tony Hale (Arrested Development) make it that much more enjoyable to watch.

Video Quality

[Rating:3.5/5]

Chuck has historically never been a great looking series production-wise. Its look is purposely diffuse with blown out white levels and sometimes pushed flesh tones. As such, when it comes to this 1080p/24 VC-1 transfer on Blu-ray from Warner, there is only so much that can be expected. It is a solid effort, to be sure, that certainly raises the level of quality above what we normally see from Chuck’s 1080i broadcast. It is absent any compression artifacts and color reproduction is vibrant. Graininess fluctuates, but that is more a consequence of production than the transfer.

Audio Quality

[Rating:3/5]

Chuck: The Complete Second Season is yet another TV on BD release from Warner that comes with nothing more than a lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack. The mix offers a lot of moments of fine ambience and some discrete panning into the surrounds on occasion. Check out some of the club scenes or “Chuck Versus the Third Dimension” for the best examples of this. High frequencies are a bit grungy, dialogue is pinched, and definitely shows some clipping on occasion.

Supplemental Materials

[Rating:3/5]

There’s a hefty amount of supplements offered on Chuck, but they are heavily weighted towards deleted scenes and everything is in standard definition.

The supplements provided on this release are:

Disc 1:

• Declassified Scenes (1.78:1; 480i/60) — Deleted scenes

Disc 2:

• Declassified Scenes (1.78:1; 480i/60) — Deleted scenes

Disc 3:

• Declassified Scenes (1.78:1; 480i/60) — Deleted scenes

Disc 4:

• Chuck Versus the Third Dimension (3D) (1.78:1; 1080p/24; VC-1) — An episode of Chuck in anaglyphic 3-D. 2-pairs of 3-D glasses are provided in the set.

Behind the Scenes & Schemes:

• Chuck: A Real-Life Captain Awesome Tip For Being Awesome — First Dates: Sage Advice on How to Behave on a “First Date” (1.78:1; 480i/60; 0:01.17) — “Captain Awesome” provides his outlook on surviving a first date.
• Truth, Spies, and Regular Guys: Exploring the Mythology of Chuck (1.78:1; 480i/60) — Cast and crew explore the characters of the series:
  • The Secret Agents (0:10.04)
  • The Agents Secrets (0:10.21)
• John Casey Presents: So You Want to Be a Deadly Spy? (1.78:1; 480i/60; 0:02.41) — Character “John Casey” tells you what it takes to be a “real” spy.
• Chuck: A Real-Life Captain Awesome Tip for Being Awesome: How to be a Hit at Your High School Reunion (1.78:1; 480i/60; 0:00.34) — More “awesome” tips from captain awesome.
• Dude in Distress (1.78:1; 480i/60; 0:17.46) — Action sequences between “Sarah” and her adversaries.
• Chuck: A Real-Life Captain Awesome Tip for Being Awesome: Running into an Ex (1.78:1; 480i/60; 0:00.32)
• Chuck Versus the Chuckles Gag Reel (1.78:1; 480i/60; 0:07.36)
• Chuck: A Real-Life Captain Awesome Tip for Being Awesome: Job Interviews (1.78:1; 480i/60; 0:00.35)
• Chuck Versus the Webisodes — 5 Chuck Webisodes
• Declassified Scenes (1.78:1; 480i/60) — Deleted scenes

The Definitive Word

Overall:

[Rating:3/5]

In this second season in, Chuck still has enough steam to hold interest with charm, humor, and just enough plausible action. The Blu-ray release from Warner more than adequately captures the look of the series and despite the lack of a lossless soundtrack is solid enough to recommend for fans of this series and newcomers alike.

BestBuy.com:

Purchase Chuck: The Complete Second Season

on Blu-ray at CD Universe



Shop with us for more Blu-ray releases at Amazon.com