Tube Watch – Chuck

  • Title: Chuck
  • tv.com: link

A retail store employee whose brain is filled with government secrets after receiving an e-mail?  Okay, once you get through the entirely ridiculous and idiotic premise, Chuck is a pretty good show.

The premise of the show involves a computer geek named Chuck (Zachary Levi) who accidently downloads all of the US Government’s security secrets into his brain.  Now Chuck is a vital resource to the government and two agents from the NSA (Adam Baldwin) and CIA (Yvonne Strahovski) are sent to guard Chuck and help him use his knowledge to solve missions.

The rest of the cast includes Chuck’s sister Sarah (Sarah Lancaster) and her husband nicknamed Capain Awesome (Ryan McPartlin), and Chuck’s work buddies most notably his best friednd Morgan (Joshua Gomez).  Every week we get some variation of Chuck dealing with keeping his normal life separate from his new responsibilities and dealing with his crush for Sarah (Strahovski), who, to protect him, has taken on the role of his fake girlfriend.  The appearance of Rachel Bilson in the latest episode “Chuck Versus the Truth” as a possible love interest for our hero should serve as a catalyst for the Chuck/Sarah realtionship.  We’ll have to see how it goes.

Levi is well-cast as the loveable good-hearted Chuck and the supporting cast around his is strong.  Baldwin is his usually gruff but loveable self and I like the relationships between Chuck and his friends and family.  The break-out star of the show though is the mostly unknown Yvonne Strahovski (please, don’t ask me to pronounce it) who is adept at both comedy and kicking ass (and do even get me started on her uniform for her cover identity at the Wienelicious…).

Okay, so the level of talent in front of the camera has been a little better than that in the writing room so far (not something which is likely to be improved by the writer’s strike), but for those willing to accept a certain level of ridiculousness and fun, Chuck might be right up your alley.  For more on the show including clips and full episodes available online check out the official Chuck page on NBC.com.