Riotous ‘Chuck’ full of nuts, promise
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- September
- 26
Fortunately for NBC, both “Chuck� and its title character exceed expectations.
In this comedy series’ pilot, we see Chuck as a hapless computer technician at the Buy More electronics store, randomly referencing the part in Prince’s “Bat Danceâ€? in which Kim Basinger introduces herself as “Vicki Vale.” An equally vivacious blonde interrupts Chuck when she strolls up to his booth and asks for help with her phone.
Of course, the woman, Sarah (Yvonne Strahovski), is an undercover government agent pursuing Chuck (Zachary Levi) for other reasons. Chuck’s college roomie—a rogue CIA agent named Bryce (Matthew Bomer) –- frantically e-mailed him thousands of government secrets moments before succumbing to a fatal gunshot wound.
Now struggling to understand a power he didn’t pursue, Chuck must protect the world from threats he’s just beginning to comprehend, while keeping this knowledge a secret from friends and family. In this respect, it’s a bit of a twenty-something, comedy-driven version of “Smallville” without the superpowers.
I’ll admit I wasn’t enthusiastic about “Chuck” from the teasers I had seen. But for every time I scoffed at something forced in the pilot (Chuck’s unnecessary explanation of the Vicki Vale reference to Sarah), there were dozens of moments I found myself laughing for all the right reasons (the fact that there even was that Vicki Vale reference).
As Chuck, Levi has much of the look, charm and mannerisms exhibited in two other stars who got their big break on NBC: “Saturday Night Live” alum Jimmy Fallon and “The Office” star John Krasinski. He’s paired nicely with Strahovski, who’s equally adept at maneuvering herself in combat sequences as she is with heart-to-heart conversations.
“Chuck” clearly favors entertainment over realism. Case in point: Before Sarah reveals her identity to Chuck while they’re on a date at a rock club, she distracts him with provocative dance moves to throw sharp weapons at baddies approaching them. No, it’s not plausible. Yes, it is amusing.
The show also has its share of fun supporting characters, the most entertaining of whom are Chuck’s goofy friend Morgan (Joshua Gomez); Chuck’s sister Ellie (Sarah Lancaster) and her kindly alpha-male boyfriend, dubbed by Chuck as “Captain Awesome� (Ryan McPartlin); and FBI agent John Casey (Adam Baldwin).
While I do see the need for the show to keep Chuck grounded in an unfulfilling work environment, the pilot’s attempt to introduce the audience to his wacky coworkers was less successful. The clunkiest character introduction involved Harry Tang (C.S. Lee), who comes off like the poor man’s Dwight Schrute in his quest to become an assistant manager at Buy More. Here’s hoping that these periphery characters are better developed or phased out over time.
In short, “Chuck” is flat-out fun if you’re willing to suspend disbelief. I’m adding it to my DVR season pass.
Photo courtesy of NBC/Universal.
This entry was posted
on Wednesday, September 26th, 2007 at 3:58 pm by Chris Serico.
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Loved this show, thought it was really well done- the action was top notch and it had some incredibly funny moments. I hope NBC allows a word of mouth campaign time to get viewership established. Seriously good stuff here.