TV & Movies

Is it because of the idiotic network programming? Seriously, who thought it was a good idea to put three shows (Chuck, Big Bang Theory, and Terminator: Sarah Conner Chronicles) that would attract the same audience on at the same time? Is it because you're watching Monday Night Football? Or were you hooked on Dancing With the Stars?

	Whatever your reason, you should be watching or recording Chuck. Chuck really is fun television. It is a clever blend of sitcom and adventure show with excellent production values. The one sentence producers meeting description of the show may have been "It's The 40 Year Old Virgin meets Mission: Impossible!" or "It's 'I Spy' for the 21st century!" or "It's Office Space meets Charlies' Angels!" The latter is likely because the director of Charlie's Angels, McG, is one of the producers of Chuck. The premise is that Chuck Bartowski (Zachary Levi) was exposed to a visual database ("the intersect") of top secret information. Chuck's eidetic memory stores every detail of the database and he becomes a walking asset and liability for the nation's spy networks, especially when the original database gets destroyed. Chuck is assigned two protectors, Sarah Walker (Yvonne Strahovski) from the CIA and John Casey (Adam Baldwin) from the NSA.
	The twist is the Chuck only recalls the database information when he actually sees something related to the data (like a person's face or address). So Chuck gets pulled into spy missions. When Chuck isn't being a spy he works at the local Buymore (a fictional equivalent of Best Buy or Circuit City) as part of the "Nerd-herd" (a fictional equivalent of the "Geek Squad"). The show is well balanced in its telling of two stories, each episode - one centered on "the intersect" and one centered on events in the Buymore and the hilarious cast of misfits that work there, including Chuck's best friend Morgan (Joshua Gomez).
	The magic of the show is that they have managed to fill each role with genuinely likeable people that you want to watch. Zachary Levi plays the smart everyman with a lot of charm. Yvonne Strahovski manages to pull off sweet, dangerous, and sexy at the same time. Adam Baldwin puts great humor into the brusque toughguy. Sarah Lancaster, as Chuck's sister, Ellie Bartowski, is given the least to do, she's there to provide balance and has no gimmick to work off of, but I don't care, she's so pretty I'm happy to just see her on screen after her previous show, ABC's What about Brian? was cancelled. She does get some good scenes when they have her play off of her character's fiancee, "Captain Awesome".
	Being both a comedy and an action show allows them to play the action with tongue in cheek. What other show could they pull off a girl-on-girl fight in a school shower room without seeming at all sleazy? They don't take themselves too seriously, but they also firmly avoid being camp. It's a show that can play with being sentimental and ironic at the same time. I was a little concerned about how long they could carry the premise - would a two year old database be of any use? But they managed to work around that with an "update" for Chuck. Season two has been just as enjoyable as season one. The 2007 Fall season introduced two clever, original, and entertaining shows - Chuck and Pushing Daisies. Unfortunately Pushing Daisies has been cancelled. Don't let Chuck be next. Give it a try!

Photo credits: NBC