Although NBC has not officially held its upfront yet, the news is pouring in via a number of sources that Chuck has been renewed for a third season.

The caveat is that it’s only for 13 episodes (with a potential back-9 pickup) and there’s going to be some budget cutting.

Exactly how the budget is going to be cut isn’t yet released, but expect to see some minor characters reduced in scope and possibly eliminated altogether.  It is also reported that the show is going to lose a couple of staff writers.

I’m going to go out on a limb and assume that Yvonne Strahovski is not in danger of getting the boot.

In addition to at least 13 more episodes of Sarah Walker, there has also been news that Yvonne Strahovski is set to star in at least two more films in addition to “I Love You Too” announced late last month.

The ever-loyal Strahotski forumners have created threads dedicated to each, a heretofore unnamed project and a movie called “Shadows from the Sky.”

Though both are early in development and it is not entirely clear how big of a role Ms. Strahovski will play, I’m sure you’re all with me when I say that any amount of Yvonne is a great thing!

So check out the forum threads, and breathe a collective sigh of relief.  Whether it was the “Save Chuck” campaign, divine intervention, or just good business — Chuck is back!

Edit: The official announcement has been released.  It looks like we won’t be seeing Chuck back until March, though.

For those who haven’t already stumbled across it, ChuckPodCast.com has a new podcast up featuring our girl Yvonne Strahovski!

Though they have long been casting the pod all about the show, this is the first time Ms. Strahovski has made her appearance on the show.

Getting a chance to see or hear Yvonne in an interview is so rare that I didn’t want to pass up the opportunity to pass the word along.

The Australian accent is to die for!

Edit: I tried to post this up much sooner, but ChuckPodCast went down for maintenance for a few days.  Sorry about the delay.

Edit 2: Turns out this isn’t the first time she’s been on the show.  Oops.

I decided I better post this bit of news before I get further inundated with emails.  I admit I was a little slow on the draw with posting this up.

For those who haven’t already heard, Yvonne Strahovski is currently in her homeland of Australia filming a new movie called “I Love You Too.”

Firmly in the romantic comedy genre, the movie follows the exploits of two ‘blokes’ as they attempt to win the love of the women they love (presumably not the same woman).

Other than Yvonne, the movie stars Brendan Cowell, Peter Dinklage, and Megan Gale.

Prinicipal photography started this past Monday and there’s no word yet on the release date or even if it will be distributed outside of the land of Oz.

You can read more about the movie over at Moviehole, where they have a pretty lengthy article on the inception of the film, as well as blurbs from the actors — including Yvonne Strahovski.

If you’d like to follow the latest buzz on the film, I recommend the dedicated thread on our forums.  Our roving band of Strahovski fans get the news faster than I can possibly post it up here.

We’ll you keep you posted as we find out more!

Though it doesn’t quite live up to last week’s Yvonne Strahovski binge, the season finale of Chuck has brought in a respectable 72 new screen captures from Episode 2.22 – Chuck Versus the Ring.

The thing about Robbie McNeill’s directing is that he loves to get close-ups of Yvonne’s face.  Honestly, who wouldn’t?  I appreciate his attention to the details of Ms. Strahovski’s amazing facial expressions.

Though I require that Yvonne be part of every picture, I did try to sneak in a few where she wasn’t the main focus of the picture.  Surely everyone wants to see the aftermath of Chuck’s kung fu spree, or the loving gaze of Awesome and Ellie.

And if you need a soundtrack to your screen capture viewing, be sure to check out our music page where Rob has updated the songs for this latest episode.

Enjoy!

The biggest part of me wants to just randomly throw characters on the screen right now in an expression of excitement.

That, however, would not be the most responsible or professional thing to do, so I’m going to instead review the penultimate, best, most awesome, unbelievable episode of Chuck ever – Chuck Versus the Ring.

There may be some pretty huge spoilers implied, so read at your own risk.

“Thank you for saving my life at least once a week.”

Maybe Chuck didn’t save our lives every week by invading our living rooms with amazing television, but I feel like this quote pretty much sums it up, doesn’t it?

For the last two seasons now we’ve watched the old Chuck.  We’ve watched a premise not unlike the ‘Get Smart’ universe, with a bumbling spy, a shadowy anti-spy organization, and a hot agent 99.

But now we get the new Chuck.  The improved Chuck.  The OMG I can’t believe I just saw that Chuck.  Wow.  I know it’s just touchy feely descriptions, but this episode of Chuck was spectacular.

I didn’t think they could make better episodes than what we’ve seen, but this episode has taken the show to a whole new level.

“You look like a real bridesmaid.”

The one level of disappointment that this episode brings, of course, is the Charah dynamic once again being interrupted about a billion times.  It seems Sarah is never going to be able to express her feelings to Chuck.

If Chuck could read Sarah’s face like we could, he’d know she’s crazy about him.  He needs to take a little Yvonne Strahovski 101 so he can get the message.

With the stuff at the end now, what kind of Chuck are we going to get?  Will he be as lovable to Sarah in the future?  Will he be as lovable to anyone, for that matter?

I don’t know, but Sarah really has rotten luck when trying to get it all out.  Now if Chuck can just figure out how to shut the hell up maybe he’ll get somewhere.

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