Chuck The Complete Fourth Season   Starring: Zachary Levi, Yvonne Strahovski, Adam Baldwin, Joshua Gomez and Sarah Lancaster Warner Home Video RRP: £39.99 1000183574 Certificate: 15 Available 03 October 2011

Chuck Bartowski is a regular guy and computer geek turned secret agent who unwittingly downloads the Intersect into his head - a database filled with highly classified government information - and quickly becomes the government's most vital secret. Assigned to protect him is John Casey, of the NSA, and superspy Sarah Walker, the CIA's top agent and Chuck's dream girl. He must now confront terrifying assassins and international terrorists, leaving the fate of mankind in his unlikely hands. With his new Intersect abilities - Chuck is fully equipped with deadly fighting skills and ready to face any CIA mission that comes his way...

Season four of Chuck opens with our hero drawn back into the world of spying, despite promising his sister he would stay as far away from the CIA as possible. Working at the refurbished Buy More electrical store, which is a front for a top secret CIA base, Chuck and his team spend this season attempting to track down his mother (played by Linda Hamilton) as well as trying to bring down evil arms dealer Alexei Volkoff (played by Timothy Dalton). While Hamilton is interesting in her role, it is Dalton who steals this season. He gets to play several different personas here, all radically different, and all wonderfully over the top - whilst appearing extremely natural. Dalton was always my favourite Bond actor and I was surprised to see that he'd aged incredibly well, especially when you consider that his last Bond film was 1989's Licence to Kill.

We also learn more about the origins of the Intersect, see Chuck and Sarah preparing for their wedding day and Jeff, Lester and Big Mike are also brought back to work at the new Buy More.

Extras include five episodes of Buy Hard: The Jeff and Lester Story (these are all under 3 minutes each and follow Jeff, Lester and Big Mike as they attempt to get a copy of the game Halo: Reach. While it's amusing, it's also obviously one huge Microsoft ad for Halo: Reach); Deleted Scenes (which are included on each disc, apart from disc 4, - with each representing deleted scenes for the episodes on that particular disc); Chuck Vs Directing (12 min, 56 sec look at Zachary Levi's episode he directed this season); Spying on the Chuck Cast: Operation Gomez (9 min, 40 sec extra that follows Joshua Gomez (who plays Morgan Grimes) around the set as he explains how he is like a spy behind the scenes); and Gag Reel (4 min, 36 sec).

This is another great season and also works as a standalone collection - it doesn't matter if you haven't seen the show before as it doesn't take long to get into. And everything is neatly wrapped up by the conclusion. It will be interesting to see where the writers go with the fifth, and final season.

8

Darren Rea