Can’t This Spy Get Some Birthday Cake?

I was late in becoming a fan of the American TV spy “dramedy” Chuck—very late, in fact: only within the last few months have I started watching that 2007-2012 NBC series, and I’m currently about halfway through Season 4. I don’t really remember why I eschewed the show during its network run. It probably had something to do with its being broadcast on Mondays at 8 p.m.—not a time I think of as offering tremendous entertainment opportunities. (Chuck’s competition in 2007, for instance, included The Big Bang Theory and Dancing with the Stars.) Regardless, I originally missed seeing what has now become one of my favorite evening diversions.

The show is quirky and over-the-top at times. But it offers a wonderful cast of performers, among them Zachary Levi as the eponymous accidental spy Chuck Bartowski, Adam Baldwin as brusque career soldier/NSA agent John Casey, Joshua Gomez as surprisingly endearing computer nerd Morgan Grimes (Chuck’s best friend since childhood) … and of course, Yvonne Strahovski as canny, tough, resourceful, and—sorry, I’m a male—downright stunning blond CIA agent Sarah Walker. (If you don’t trust my judgment on that last count, check out this compilation video of Walker’s appearances throughout the series.) During the program’s early years, Chuck bounced around between a few girlfriends (one of them played by Smallville’s Kristin Kreuk), disappointed that Walker was his CIA “handler,” but nothing more. However, he kept coming back to Sarah, who—he learns much later—had fallen in love with him almost from their first meeting, though she was afraid to admit that. (It seems spies have to be independent, never enjoying free time enough for lasting relationships.)

I bring all of this up, because today—in addition to being National Paperback Day (you already knew that, right?)—is the 36th anniversary of Yvonne Strahovski’s birth. The Australian actress of Polish descent has gone on since Chuck to co-star in Dexter and the limited series 24: Live Another Day, and she can now been seen in The Handmaid’s Tale. In that Hulu dystopian drama she plays Serena Joy Waterford, a character described by Wikipedia as “a former conservative cultural activist”—“poised and deeply religious, but capable of great cruelty … She is desperate to become a mother.” (In real life, Strahovski is expecting her first child in September of this year.)

Happy birthday, Sarah … I mean Yvonne!