Ladies and gentlemen, Chuck is back and more of a spy than ever. It has been just over 9 months since the thrilling finale to the second season, and I know that I was not the only one waiting to see what was in store for one of my favorite shows on television. For the uninitiated, aside from strongly urging you to drop this paper right now and go to Hulu, iTunes or NBC and instantly watch every episode thus far, and for those who just forget (9 months is a long time), I will do my best to quickly recap the first two seasons.Charles "Chuck" Bartowski (Zachary Levi) is an average guy who works an average job at a store called Buy More-the Best Buy equivalent in the world of Chuck. Chuck has a short, bearded best friend named Morgan (Joshua Gomez), and the two of them have been living their lives as typical middle-class nobodies. One day all that changes when Chuck receives an e-mail from his former roommate. This email contains a secret CIA database called "The Intersect" that uploads itself into Chuck's brain and gives him access to all the CIA, FBI and NSA files on any known criminals. He is instantly thrown into the spy world with two partners to protect and help him out: Col. John Casey (Adam Baldwin), an NSA tough guy, and Agent Sarah Walker (Yvonne Strahovski), a beautiful but lethal CIA agent. Over the entire first and second season, Chuck, Casey and Sarah work together to fight bad guys, but not without lots of humorous dialogue and problematic situations usually caused by Chuck's overwillingness to help and his lack of any spy skills. Chuck's biggest dilemma is attempting to live a normal life while hiding the secret from his family and friends. He also falls deeply in love with Sarah-a big issue, as on-the-job relationships are forbidden. At the end of the second season, Chuck quits his menial job, and a new version of "The Intersect" is uploaded to Chuck's brain, updating all the information he currently has while turning him into a quasi-super spy by allowing him to learn and master advanced kung fu, among many other skills, in a flash.

If the first two seasons were about Chuck bumbling through the spy world with protection from Sarah and Casey, the third season changes the dynamic a little bit. As the general who gives the orders says in the season three premiere, "For the last two years, we protected Chuck from the world. Now we must protect the world from Chuck." Chuck has the potential to become the world's most deadly, dangerous and knowledgeable spy if he is not trained to use his newfound skills properly.

I, among many fans, was nervous that this brand new "badass spy" Chuck would ruin the whole dynamic of the show, but my fears were relieved almost instantly. The geeky, awkward everyday hero may have appeared to become a real spy, but right from the opening scene with Chuck awkwardly failing a training mission, we can see that this is the same old Chuck-even though he now has a more versatile skill base than fixing computers and being awkward around women. There was lots of good action, humor and emotion as the episode followed the attempted training of Chuck into a super spy-who, like Keanu Reeves from The Matrix, has to stay calm and collected to harness his complete power (which is not the easiest thing in the world when trying to foil a terrorist plot and take down a criminal syndicate named "The Ring"). The two-hour premiere episode also focused largely on Chuck and Sarah's internal conflict of wanting to be with each other without compromising their lives, an issue that has been heightened with the two of them now working as equals.

While I found that the season premiere was not the best episode of Chuck I have ever seen, I recognize that it included a lot of setup and allowed for the writers to tie up many loose ends quickly so that the rest of the season can have a smooth plotline. In a bittersweet plot point, tying up one of those loose ends also meant the surprising death of one of my favorite characters on the show-the evil Buy More boss, Emmett Milbarge (Tony Hale, a.k.a. Buster from Arrested Development), but also the much-welcomed revival of the original nice guy boss, Big Mike (Mark Christopher Lawrence).

Considering this show was on the brink of cancellation last year, writer and creator Josh Schwartz has not shown any signs of slowing down and actually kicked the show up another notch. With an all-star cast of cameos planned for this season (Vinnie Jones, "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, Angie Harmon, Kristen Kreuk, Brandon Routh) on top of the already incredible plot these episodes set up this is definitely one show that I'll be watching every Monday. With all the action, humor and romance one could ask for in a perfect balance, how could you not?