Critical Response
"Chuck Versus the Beefcake" received positive reviews from critics. Keith Phipps of The A.V. Club gave the episode a B, calling it "a pretty good, if slightly-less-than-top-quality episode of one of the most predictably entertaining hours on television", explaining, "Why less-than-top quality? I think the Chuck/Sarah relationship is starting to go around in circles, and not in a fun, merry-go-round kind of way... That said, there was nothing really wrong with the way this episode treated Chuck and Sarah, and really nothing wrong with the way Zachary Levi and Yvonne Strahovski played it, particularly the long sequence in which our hero is forced to listen to Sarah make out with the titular beefcake (Jonathan Cake)."
Eric Goldman of IGN gave the episode an 8 out of 10, writing, "Overall, this was a decent episode, which gets a bit of a nudge up in my rating thanks to a couple of notable moments – most especially the absolutely huge action sequence that came near the end, as Barker and Sarah took on a heavily armed Fulcrum helicopter. Barker, two guns a' blazin', blowing up a gasoline tank, and the helicopter with it, was very cool and one of the biggest and most impressive action set pieces we've seen on this show."
Viewer response was also positive, with an 8.5/10 user rating at TV.com. The episode drew 6.657 million viewers.
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