Chuck. Ex-Stanford. 20-something. Doesn’t have a girlfriend. Supervisor of the “Nerd Herd” at a Buy More by day. Gears of War pwner by night. Sounds familiar? Dive right in.

Oh, also a US national security “asset”.

Charles “Chuck” Bartowski is the protagonist of a new(ish) TV show on NBC, created by the man behind The OC - Josh Schwartz. It began its life on the 24th of September, 2007 as the seat-warmer occupying the Monday 8 PM slot (in the US) leading into the second season of Heroes. A good bit of money was poured into the promotion (though us folks in India had to be content with reading about it) and the series launched with (reportedly) much fanfare. Quoting liberally from the Wikipedia entry, it was touted as a cross between The Bourne Supremacy and The 40-Year-Old Virgin, targetting the 18-34 demographic. There are NUMEROUS references to Gears, Oldboy, Call of Duty (3 & 4), Comic-Con, LOST, Mario, Lord of the Rings, Dune and WHAT not to keep everyone happy. Throw in some light humour and a good bit of action, not much to complain about!

Chuck lives an ordinary (I could have used the b word, but kids could be reading this article) life fixing broken phones, cremating crashed hard drives, discussing sandwiches with his buddy Morgan, humping his 360 and fixing broken phones. Oh, he also rues the fact that he got kicked out of Stanford University on (false) charges of cheating on an exam, had his (only) girlfriend stolen from him and hasn’t been able to get over either for five long years. The guy who was responsible for his life taking the hairpin - Bryce Larkin, roommate, friend, brother, traitor - is probably a reasonably successful accountant now. Ouch. No, that won’t do it. OUCH!

It’s another (not so) hard day’s night in Chuck’s life when he gets a mail from his old nemesis… only that it’s full of images encrypted with top-level secrets of the CIA and the NSA combined, that were stored on a computer better known as the The Intersect - an effort at inter-departmental cooperation and intel-pooling. Bryce’s work obviously involved something more than spreadsheets! The ex-CIA agent now gone rogue, only complicates things further for his “friend” as in the process of escaping from his former colleagues, he destroys the Intersect, shows off a good bit of parkour and gets himself shot and killed. That leaves a bewildered Chuck (after a trance-inducing slideshow-on-caffeine) as the only store of the Intersect’s information (given that his hard-drive gets destroyed in an attempt by someone to confiscate the data), and the most prized and valuable head in all of the United States… possibly the world!

The agencies despatch their own agents after him; PYT Sarah Walker from the CIA, who’s supposed to put her talents to use in securing Chuck and his safety, and Agent John Casey from the NSA. Casey talks in wham-bam-ian so there’s a minor tug of war between the two agents before they finally fall on the same page. Chuck, meanwhile, gets “flashes” on seemingly ordinary people around him who turn out to be everything from demolition experts to weapon launderers to crazy foreign agents, and in the process uncovers all manner of conspiracies and assassination plots.

A typical episode of Chuck revolves around the skullduggery getting mixed up with Chuck’s personal life, often with humorous results. The poor guy has to juggle the all-guns-blazing-detonation-prone agency work (which isn’t even his) with his feelings for Sarah, his not-too-happy past, devoting quality time to his loving sister Ellie, keeping Casey’s nose out of his private life, figuring out the Walker-Larkin connection and pulling best buddy Morgan out of the trouble he keeps getting into. Regular doses of quirky humour from the oddballs Chuck shares his workspace with, and the intentionally put-on spy-talk mix with the explosions and some pretty good music to dish out some rather savorable entertainment, that you wouldn’t mind coming back to.

One was doubtful though, as to how long this formula could last. Just so we’re clear about this, it’s been going great till now; but there just isn’t enough scope for (flat out nonsensical) comedy as it could be in a more conventional setting. Make no mistake about this, Chuck is a likeable character and Zachary Levi exudes a pleasantness and vulnerability that keeps you from turning away from the screen. Yvonne Strzechowski as Sarah Walker and Sarah Lancaster as Chuck’s sister also bring a certain warmth to the treatment. A typical sitcom however involves a tightly knit bunch of characters with polarised quirks that complement and fire off each other episode after episode. Chuck’s colleagues at Buy More fit the bill, but they scarcely figure in the core plot; any attempt to force the humour in (there have been a few, but not numerous or bad enough to turn a viewer off) by buying the fringe more screen-time would only manage to seem contrived and break the experience. The core cast comprising of Chuck himself, Sarah and Agent Casey are basically a bunch of relatively normal people put, to quote an old cliche, into abnormal circumstances. Charles Bartowski sure is a funny guy and he can make up for the lack of smiles in the other two (especially Casey), but not enough to keep a pure comedic show running. Chuck’s other selling point is the action, of which there was a good deal in the first few episodes, what with car chases, out-of-control choppers and some pretty nice explosions. But it is not a sustainable proposition and could get old sooner than one could expect (speaking of constant action, Prison Break, anyone?). Besides, it places too great a strain on both the script and the budget. Something more was needed to keep viewers coming back and prevent the series from settling into a routine.

Lately, it looks like the writers have been trying to bring just that “extra” in, with a greater push being given or atleast a more conscious effort being put in recent episodes (there have been nine till date) to establish what looks like a larger story arc, covering Chuck’s past and tying it in with the plots in individual episodes: the real reason he got expelled from Stanford, his progress in the fake relationship with Sarah and then someone else. There’s more carry-forward now from episode to episode, than one initially expected from what initially looked like a formulaic comedy. It’s still early for the series, and there is time for the story and tone to really develop. But the concept in itself is pretty solid and the rather likeable characters beg to be explored and filled in. And after all, how many TV shows have a fresh CIA recruit download a porno-triggered virus to stop a laptop-controlled-explosive from blowing up?! Chuck had us sold at Irene Demova, and we will be watching eagerly to see how the series progresses and keep you posted about it. Till then, eyeballs ho!

Links:
NBC Offical Chuck Page (Yep, that’s where the pics are from)
Buy More
Nerd Herd

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• Vijay Sinha Says:
  November 26th, 2007 at 2:29 pm

  Maybe it’s the pessimist inside me, but this just seems like bad McDonalds’ Meal Combo of Agent Cody Banks with a dash of The Wizard. Still willing to give it a chance, and hey! Irene Demova! She’s got the moves, I’ll give you that.

• Dev Kanchen Says:
  November 26th, 2007 at 6:02 pm

  Cody Banks. Hm. Haven’t dared to watch it yet, so I don’t know. Seems it’s been compared quite often to one Jake 2.0 though. Either way…