Chuck and Sarah: A couple worth (show)killing for?

Those who keep up with the daily happenings in TV Land are likely aware of  the “Chuckopalypse.”  If you’re not, check out our recap of the episode (“Chuck vs. the Mask“) or continue reading after the jump for a brief explanation.

The rest of our Monday night recaps are linked at the end of this post if you’d rather skip the conversation about the “Chuckopalypse.”  And you can always find the IMDb’s round-up of TV recaps the day after an episode airs by scrolling about midway down the IMDb homepage.

Ready? Here we go:  A significant portion of “Chuck’s” devoted viewership is up in arms — on the verge of mutiny, really — at what they consider to be a major pollutant to the delicate Chuckosphere.

These folks, who some would call “shippers” (i.e., people who believe a series flies or dies based on what happens in a central romantic relationship, usually of the “will-they-or-won’t-they” variety), believe that the producers betrayed them by having Chuck (Zachary Levi) and his usually-off-but-only-on-for-a-tantalizingly-short-time love interest Sarah Walker (Yvonne Strahovski) pair off with other people.

It’s perfectly fine for Chuck’s eyes to wander, mind you; he tried to make it work again with his ex-girlfriend — alas, she was a spy! — and another the girl at the mall’s sandwich shop, but he always came back to Sarah.  To a nerd like Chuck, Sarah is the ultimate unattainable girl: sexy, smart, skilled with weapons and hand-to-hand combat.  Why on Earth would she be interested in a Buy More employee? Doesn’t matter; she just is.

The sticking point, Sarah has been keen to remind Chuck, is that they’re both spies and co-workers; ergo, they can’t do anything about it.  Sarah has said it dozens of times: Spies do not fall in love. Therefore, Sarah must remain unattainable, and if anyone is to do the attaining, it must be Chuck.

A couple of weeks ago Chuck meets nice girl Hannah on a plane, they hit it off, she finds him in Burbank, and sparks fly.  Fine so far. Where things get problematic, in the eyes of some fans, is that Sarah appears to be ready to pair off with fellow super-spy Shaw, who is not only her superior but has often reminded her not to fall in love with her charge, Chuck.

(Once also can’t help noticing that those upset fans are perfectly fine with Chuck getting busy with others while Sarah isn’t allowed the same perk. Hello, and welcome to the Buy More! My name is Double Standard. How may I assist you today?)

It does not matter that Chuck and Sarah’s distractions happen to be played by the adorable Kristin Kreuk and handsome Brandon Routh. The problem is that Chuck and Sarah are supposed to end up together, dammit.  That was the implied promise, understand. Three seasons in, Chuck and Sarah have almost had sex and almost ran away together.

The complaints don’t just in there. Chuck is almost a spy but can’t quite give up the training wheels; the adventures of Morgan, Jeff, Lester and the Buy More gang are almost baked to the point that they can stand alone each week;  and the series almost seems to have hit its stride but this season’s episodes haven’t quite cleared the bar between solid and outstanding.  All this, and an Olympics-forced hiatus, too.

That’s a lot of “almosts” to put up with, and the extended tease appears to have pushed some fans to the breaking point. Next-day viewer reaction has ranged from the merely peeved to really ticked off to “let’s stop watching to force the producers to write the show we want” (see comments in that last link) tough talk.

Let’s put that last idea to rest right now, especially if you happen to be one of the viewers who worked very hard to save “Chuck” last season. “Chuck” has never been one of the shiniest examples of the Golden Age of the Scripted TV Hour and, frankly, you’ll find better espionage action over on USA during an episode of “Burn Notice.” But what it is, and has always been, is the kind of good fun that’s in short supply on network television.

If you stop watching it, there will be no script rewrites. There will only be a cancellation announcement.

As NPR’s Linda Holmes reminds us (via an effective metaphor) in her blog post on this topic, “When you like a show, you’re effectively on a bus with everyone else who likes it, and you’ve got to let the driver do the driving…But if you get up there with everybody else on the bus and start trying to grab the wheel, you will find yourself tumbling down the side of a ravine, and at the bottom of that ravine, there will be nothing to watch except ‘Deal or No Deal‘.”

Sure, you might not have love love LOVED “Chuck vs. The Mask“  and yes, the Chuckster left us in a tough place to wait until March 1,  but can we please refrain from calling for the head of Mr. Bartowski?  Honestly, did you stick around to watch the mess that went down after that “Chuck” episode?

I agree with Holmes and our pals Alan Sepinwall and Mo Ryan, whose various calls for calm on the subject are far more eloquent than this one.

And, in case you need a reminder of what a truly bad episode of television looks like, we have plenty of episodes of “Heroes” available on for viewing on IMDb. That includes the season finale, which would work perfectly well as a series finale in my opinion.  (Just an observation.)

Now consider that NBC could be quicker to renew that hot garbage than give Casey, Sarah and Chuck a fourth season of missions if  “Chuck’s” post-Olympics ratings take a dive. Yep. That’s right.

So please…simmer down, my friends. Simmer down now.

The full recap of the “Heroes” finale is below along with the rest of our Monday night coverage.

“Heroes”: Brave New World (Season finale)

“How I Met Your Mother”: Rabbit or Duck

“House”: 5 to 9

“The Bachelor”: Meet the Families

“The Big Bang Theory”: The Large Hadron Collision

“Damages”: Flight’s at 11:08

“Secret Diary of a Call Girl”: Fantasy vs. Reality

“24″ Day 8: 10:00 p.m.-11:00 p.m