In case my intention isn’t clear yet (oh nebulous void that is the readership of this blog), I’m trying to catch up on stuff. Not everything, as that would take roughly the rest of my natural born life, but there’s stuff that I’ve heard is good and that I want to watch, so I have been at my leisure. But I don’t exist solely in the past! I’ll be writing a review of the latest “Nurse Jackie” episode tomorrow, and I’ll be responding to “Torchwood” once it finishes its shortened season.
But right now I’m going to talk about the gem of critics and fan-boys eyes, the amazingly charming “Chuck.” Buffy meets Bond meets “The Office” meets all of that left over pop culture from the 80s. It’s a combination that really shouldn’t work, but somehow does through charm and a wonderful sense of fun.
Meet Charles Bartowski, Chuck (played by the brilliant Zachary Levi). Kicked out of Stanford years ago, Chuck has settled for a life of mediocrity at the local Buy More (think Best Buy but in green) as a member of the ‘nerd herd’. At the store he has his best friend Morgan (Joshua Gomez), a guy with a good heart but all the social graces of a cuddly wild boar, his boss Big Mike, and Jeff and Lester… Two characters I couldn’t describe properly even if I wanted to. And I don’t. It’s really much better if they introduce themselves.
Meanwhile, he lives with his sister Ellie (Sarah Lancaster) and her boyfriend, Devon (who Chuck calls ‘Captain Awesome.’ If that doesn’t make you want to watch this show I don’t know what will), both doctors. Ellie and Chuck are close, and you can imagine her worry at her brother’s situation. The smartest person in the room in 99% of situations, no girlfriend and still hanging around in her house, 12 units away from graduating at one of the world’s top universities… and stuck in a rut at the local electronics store. Woe is the concerned sister.
Enter the intersect. Through a series of highly unlikely events, Chuck gets a CIA/NSA super-computer of highly secretive information stuck in his head just as the actual intersect explodes into a colorful array of destruction. Yes. Stuck in his head. (Suspend disbelief! Buy into it! I promise its fun!)
Enter Sarah Walker (Yvonne Strahovski), the sexy CIA agent, and John Casey (Adam Baldwin – that’s right, it’s JAYNE!), the surly NSA major. They become Chuck’s handlers, protecting him and the intersect as they go about fighting super villains and saving the world once a week.
So, really, “Chuck” manages to be three shows all at once. It’s a work comedy, it’s a heartwarming family drama, and it’s a super-spy action thriller. I repeat – this is a combination that shouldn’t work. So why does it?
First, the writing. There are some patchy spots (the character of Morgan throughout the first season was very touch-and-go with fans, but come season two and he's easily one of my favorites), but for the most part this show’s writing is on a level all it’s own. It’s both versatile and clever, with writers willing to shuffle around truly hilarious comedy (both subtle and obvious in nature) right along with heart-wrenching scenes of lurve and loss. It’s really amazing to look at the range of these writers and realize how well they’ve done with a task that would seem impossible to the mere mortal script writer. How do they pull this off? Well, my guess is that having a show-runner like Josh Schwartz helps. While “The O.C.” and “Gossip Girl” had/have more than their share of issues, the first seasons for both of those shows did manage to juggle humor and drama in an impressive way. The difference this time is that Schwartz is aiming at an older audience and he’s erring more on the side of humor than drama, a fact that I can only rejoice at.
But all of that clever writing is crap if the cast can’t pull it off, and damn if “Chuck” doesn’t have fine actors. The best on the face of the planet? Maybe not. But very rarely have I been moved to empathize with people going through such ridiculous situations. (Whether those situations being Chuck getting tortured for the first time or dealing with the woes of Jeff and Lester trying to make their band hit it big.) Everyone consistently delivers a solid performance, from Mark Christopher Lawrence as Big Mike to Bonita Friedericy and General Diane Beckman, Casey’s boss. Even the guest-stars (and since the show is in constant need of fresh evil/good spies, there are a lot of them) seem to float seamlessly in and out of the script, and it’s a really great thing to see. Of course, the heart of the show is with Zachary Levi, who keeps up with the humor and drama of Chuck’s various situations with ease and a geeky, enthusiastic glee that is hard not to adopt as your own. He, really, makes the show work and gives it the sense of fun that separates “Chuck” from other shows out there.
And if all of this isn’t enough for you to at least consider watching this show, then maybe the romance will sucker you into it? Sarah and Chuck maintain a cover of dating to explain Sarah’s presence, but it quickly becomes a lot less pretending than the CIA agent is comfortable with, and a lot more of the fake stuff than Chuck would prefer. This is supposed to be the major hook for female audiences and might be where the show falls a bit short. (Hence, explaining why the female audience is lacking. Woe.) Don’t get me wrong – the chemistry between Levi and Strahovski is certainly there, and there are more than a dozen-odd cute moments (and UST moments - a lot of those) that have kept me glued to the edge of my seat. But honestly? While I have a great deal of sympathy for the ‘star-crossed lovers’ nature of their situation, it sort of hasn’t changed a lot in two years, you know? All the more noticeable because everything else in the show continues to progress and become more complicated, keeping the audience hooked on about fifteen different fronts.* Of course, I can overlook this minor fault and typical downfall of the will-they-won't-they couple because I’m just so damn pleased with everything else in the show. I just worry that if they keep it up too much longer I’ll start getting bored with it, which would be a damn shame, because they do it well. I just want to see them flex their writing muscles a bit more.
* That’s another thing I love about “Chuck.” The second season is amazingly better than the first (although the first was by no means bad) because the show runners clearly listened to the comments of critics and fans and Made The Show Better. That almost never actually happens in television! It just goes to show how dedicated Schwartz is to this venture, hopefully more than to his other projects? *crosses fingers*
The only other occasional flaws with the series are the complications that are involved with integrating all of Chuck’s world’s into a cohesive narrative. Sometimes we won’t see much of Ellie and Awesome, sometimes the Buy More crew will be off doing their own thing… It’s not bad, especially since when these worlds do collide it provides for amazing entertainment, but I suspect that this great show could be even better with a little more of that integration. (A step I already suspect the writers are going to be taking next season.)
So, in conclusion, why should you watch “Chuck”? Well, first of all because it’s been dangerously close to being canceled for the past two seasons due to low ratings, and I suspect the only reason it has stuck around for season three (granted, only for half a of the regular order of episodes) is because the guys in charge genuinely enjoy it. But besides that? Because it’s funnier than just about anything else on TV, it’s got more heart than the rest of your favorite shows combined, has amazing fight scenes, 80s references up the wazoo, great guest stars, smexy ladies (geeks and spies included), drool-worthy guys (geeks and spies included), an on-going plot that continues to get more interesting as time goes on, a cast to die for, and Jayne.
Guys. JAYNE.
It’s hard to say something like this about a show with so many different components, but they honestly haven’t done anything ‘wrong’. It’s all good, and the biggest fault with the show is that there isn’t enough time to give us more of all of it.
So take the summer to check out the first two seasons of “Chuck,” and tune-in late in the fall for season three. Yes? Yes? Come on. You know you want to.
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