Ellen Gray: Try 'Chuck' in 3-D

CHUCK. 8 tonight, Channel 10.

MEDIUM. 10 tonight, Channel 10.

IF YOU happen to have any of those cardboard 3-D glasses lying around the house - or left over from last night's Super Bowl movie ads - you might want to drag them out tonight for NBC's "Chuck."

Or not.

I tried, using a pair that came with the screener for "Chuck Versus the Third Dimension," but didn't get very far, thanks to my astigmatism, which pretty much renders most such technology useless, along with those "magic pictures" the rest of you claim to be able to see.

Oh, I think I saw the guys at the Buy More pop up from the background a little more, but I can't say that made them funnier than usual.

Flat on the screen, they're already funnier than most big-box store employees, and I'm not just saying that because they haven't once tried to sell me an extended-service contract.

Or even because of the challenge involving a "urinal cake" in tonight's episode.

The real news on tonight's "Chuck," other than it's back (along with "Heroes"), is guest star Dominic Monaghan, of "Lost" fame, who's playing a rock star.

Yes, just like "Lost" Charlie was once, long ago, before the plane crash and the life change and the beautiful, sacrificial death that still makes some people weep . . .

(Sorry. Forgot myself for a moment.)

Anyway, this Monaghan rock star calls himself Tyler Martin, and he seems to be a lot more successful than our Charlie. A cartoonish figure who's being targeted by bad guys for reasons as idiotic as the bad guys' reasons usually are on "Chuck," he's really only there as yet another opportunity for Chuck (Zachary Levi) to discover the Real Meaning of Responsibility.

Or something like that.

Love for "Chuck" runs deep, but not nearly as wide as NBC would like it to, so if you're one of the people who's been worrying for months that this sweet and silly spy comedy might go away, you should probably try to watch it tonight, while you still can.

Glasses optional.

NBC's "Medium" also returns tonight after a considerably longer hiatus, this time moving into the time slot formerly graced by "My Own Worst Enemy" (runner-up to "The Biggest Loser" for show title that best describes its own network).

As befits a show about a psychic, "Medium" was a little ahead of its time last season, with Allison (Patricia Arquette) and Joe Dubois (Jake Weber) both getting booted from their jobs at the same time and struggling to make ends meet with three kids and a mortgage.

Realistic as the Duboises' troubles often were - surprisingly so, considering the rest of the show - they weren't exactly fun to watch, and for better or worse, NBC seems committed to more escapist fare.

So with most of the family's money problems having been resolved by the time the show wrapped up its fourth season last May, Season 5 opens tonight with Allison's old boss, Manuel Devalos (Miguel Sandoval) back in the district attorney's office, and Allison herself back dreaming dreams and working cases, most as outlandish as ever.

Parts of tonight's episode and next week's also focus on the Dubois offspring and their own burgeoning psychic abilities, yet another growth opportunity for a show that keeps finding a way to survive in an ever-tougher world. *

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