Does it get better?

I've finished season 3 recently. While I do believe the show has enough redeeming qualities to be enjoyed on the most superficial level, I'm honestly beginning to get frustrated with it.

- The show is simply too repetitive. How often are they going to foil an assassination attempt? I prefer quality over quantity -- I don't want to see plots being rehashed again and again. Shorter seasons would have at least helped with the pacing, which has been all over the place in the second and third seasons.

- The will they/won't they aspect of Sarah and Chuck's relationship was engaging in the first season, and a portion of the second, but then it really tested my patience when they kept 'breaking up' over and over again. It had gotten so ridiculous in the third season that by the time they did eventually get together, I no longer cared. Naturally they should've hooked up a lot sooner but the writers kept contriving scenarios and reasons to keep them apart, despite it being clear that Sarah reciprocated the love Chuck had for her.

- While some episodes were fairly solid, the third season was a tad too angsty at times. Chuck works best with a more lighthearted and humorous tone, especially considering how weak the writing tends to be for the spy-related plots. Much of the dramatic storytelling fell flat for me, although it had its moments.

- The twists they started pulling in the second and third seasons were banal and silly even for Chuck. So not only was Chuck's roommate in college a spy, but so was his ex-girlfriend, his college professor, his dad, and now his mom too? Is his sister keeping a secret from him? Does he have a long lost uncle who's a navy SEAL? A cousin who's a KGB agent? Are his grandparents James and Tracy Bond? When do the stupid twists end? It only needed the one reveal; that his roommate was a spy, to set-up the premise of the show. The others were self-indulgent and pointless. What made Chuck such an appealing show to me from the beginning was the whole idea of an ordinary guy being thrust into an extraordinary situation. It loses all its flair when it becomes more and more apparent how entrenched Chuck really was in the spy life, making his encounter with the intersect inevitable rather than an accident.

I am loving what they're doing with the secondary characters like Devon, Morgan and Casey, and even Jeff+Lester are less obnoxious. But the writing for Chuck and Sarah has been quite melodramatic, and I'm still unsatisfied with the overall story. I see it as more of a guilty pleasure than anything else. Will Sarah and Chuck remain together in season 4 or will the writers contrive more excuses for relationship drama? And will the spy-related plots improve or remain as unimaginitive?


Reported for doody.