Chuck, played by Zachary Levi, is a five season TV series about an ordinary guy who works at a retail electronic store and gets sucked into the dangerous secret world of spies. Firefly/Serenity’s Adam Baldwin and Yvonne Strahovski play his handlers. When Chuck aired live on NBC, I didn’t watch it because I already had a spy or a woman kicking butt TV show though I don’t recall specifically which show.
Chuck ended up in my queue because there were whispers in Christian circles that it had Christian influences. Now that I have seen Chuck, I can honestly say that I felt more sanctified watching a Joss Whedon series, and he is an atheist. I don’t need a TV show to feel God-inspired to enjoy it, but I have no idea what those people were talking about. Maybe they were referencing the fact that Levi is a Christian.
Chuck has two solid factors that distinguish it from other shows: nerd culture references and brilliant casting of well-known actors. There were icons from the action and spy movie and TV world such as Linda Hamilton, Scott Bakula, Timothy Dalton, Richard Chamberlain, Mark Hamill, Carrie-Anne Moss, Gary Cole, Robert Patrick, Rebecca Romjin, Robert Englund, Michael Rooker, Tricia Helfer, Dolph Lundgren, Lou Ferrigno, Udo Kier, Melinda Clarke, Arnold Vosloo, Mark Pellegrino, Summer Glau, Dominic Monaghan, Brandon Routh, Angie Harmon and pre-The Walking Dead fame Lauren Cohan. There was also genius comedic casting such as John Larroquette, Fred Willard, Christopher Lloyd, Reginald VelJohnson, Swoosie Kurtz, Ana Gasteyer and Tony Hale. There were great dramatic turns by Tony Todd, Carl Lumbly, Angus Macfayden and Lou Diamond Philips. Nicole Ritchie appeared in a couple of episodes. There are hilarious cameos by Bo Derek and Stan Lee. I do not recall seeing her outside of Chuck, but I enjoyed Mini Anden’s frequent appearances. The only actor that I was not happy to see was Kristin Kreuk. Kreuk is a beautiful woman, but she sucked the life out of Smallville with her wooden acting.
Chuck is the perfect multitasking tv show that you don’t have to give your complete attention to, but can still follow the plot, enjoy and be entertained. Chuck’s strongest episodes explained the overall framework of Chuck’s spy world as the backdrop for his family and life, which is reminiscent of Alias. What makes it background tv is the relationship dynamic of whether or not the nice guy will get the hot spy chick. They would get together, then split up, rinse and repeat. To be fair, by the last season, they found an inventive way to do it, but it was so repetitive and retro that it reminded me of Moonlighting and Cheers. By Chuck’s final season, the entire narrative began to flail, and every story line was reminiscent of an earlier episode. Chuck probably should have ended after four seasons.
Chuck is a spy action comedy, but the comedic relief was a bit broad and obvious although as the seasons progressed, the comedic elements were fleshed out more as real people instead of a breather from the action. For instance, I love it when women look good while kicking ass, but the constant camera ogling of almost every woman who entered Chuck’s universe was a bit much and had as much sophistication and nuance as Three’s Company. Initially I thought it was funny because it poked fun at the trope of a hot, scantily clad woman walking in slo-mo with her hair flowing dramatically behind her, but when it happened in almost every episode, I realized that it was not done ironically.
Also while all dramas and comedies at some point rely on misunderstanding and miscommunication to draw out tension, Chuck sometimes took it to unrealistic extremes. You have a guy with the entire database of the spy world, and you think that he is losing his mind when he tells you some crazy theory that is not crazier than what occurred every episode that preceded it.
Chuck is not must see TV, but if you enjoy the spy genre and want to laugh, you should definitely give it a shot. Chuck is a bit too sitcomish for my taste because I primarily came for the action, but it had heart and was earnestly entertaining.