Chuck, fall 2007 action series

I've been seeing intriguing commercials on TV about a new TV series called "Chuck".

Yeah, the name is weak, but the clips have got my attention.

The commercials ask "What is Chuck's secret?"

We see Chuck, a nerdy, white-shirted, tech consultant, who works at a place that looks suspiciously like Best Buy (who also have white-shirted computer/tech consultants known as The Geek Squad. They have distinctive service vehicles, b&w Volkswagen Beetles).

Chuck has trouble getting dates, let alone being able to be chat with them, but something happens that turns him into a babe magnet.

We see one woman, a blonde, preparing for a date. She straps an ankle holster packed with throwing knives around her shapely leg! Interesting! That got my attention. :blush:

So the title of the show must be referring to
Chuck being a secret agent.
It seems like the show is going to be
light-hearted 'fish-out-of-water' (outside of your experience) action adventure, rather than serious like Alias
. If the show is more like a
Marshall Flinkman on field operations kind of fun, than a farce like Maxwell Smart in Get Smart, the show needs to get the right balance of fun with action, otherwise you get a mess like She Spies.
 
The first episode was good and the show has potential.

http://www.thenewstribune.com/ae/story/162154.html
Chuck offers quirk take of spy dramas

NBC's new series "Chuck" (premiering at 8 p.m. Monday) will never be mistaken for, say, "Masterpiece Theatre," not with a ninja fight in the pilot and significant scenes taking place at a hot dog stand called Wienerlicious. The show, created by Josh Schwartz ("The O.C.") and Chris Fedak, is unashamed of mining its premise – geeky guy becomes highly valued government asset – for comedy. Chuck Bartowski (Zachary Levi) lives with his sister (Sarah Lancaster), works at a big-box store called Buy More, where he's part of the Nerd Herd troubleshooting team, plays a lot of video games and generally avoids the opposite sex.

And then an old college roommate turned rogue spy e-mails him an encrypted file that, burned onto his brain, makes Chuck just about the most important person in the espionage game, as evidenced by the sudden presence of both a beautiful CIA handler and an intimidating National Security Agency agent in his life.

Oh, and he's applying for an assistant manager job at Buy More.

"It's as much about him trying to save the world as it is about him trying to save the Buy More," Schwartz says. "We always saw that his spy life was equally as dangerous as his life at the Buy More. … It really is a balance between that office comedy, the spy action and then the Chuck quarter-life crisis, for lack of a better word, at home."

commonsensemedia.org said:
Reviewed By: Will Wade

A secret agent breaks into a top-secret government facility to steal an enormous trove of data gathered by all of the U.S. intelligence agencies but is shot making his getaway. As his dying act, the spy emails the entire file to an old friend, now a tech-support worker at an electronics store.

When Chuck (Zachary Levi) opens the message, every seemingly unrelated scrap of data about global espionage is subliminally implanted into his brain. The CIA and the NSA track the email to him, but they can't decide whether to take advantage of his newfound knowledge or try to scrub his mind clean. But as he slowly starts to connect the dots, Chuck's ability to spot dangerous plots as they unfold makes him an invaluable asset, and they recruit him to join the war on terror.

Believable? Absolutely not. Fun? Most definitely. CHUCK is a completely improbable but highly entertaining romp through two worlds that rarely meet in the media: secret agents and high-tech nerds.

And there's good reason to keep the worlds separate. Chuck's biggest concerns are playing video games and finding a date, preferably with his new CIA handler, Sarah (Yvonne Strahovski). But Sarah has other things on her mind, including protecting the world and mourning her late boyfriend, the same spy who emailed the secret data to Chuck in the first place.

It's the contradictions between these agendas that make the show fun, as Chuck pursues his extracurricular activities while maintaining his cover as a tech-support nerd. His geek skills also prove useful in his new job, such as when he intentionally accesses a virus-infected porn Web site to disable a laptop that is controlling a ticking time bomb.

Though Chuck's spy life is obviously a farce, the interactions between Chuck and his tech-support pals ring true and are often quite funny, especially his relationship with best friend Morgan (Joshua Gomez), who is, if anything, a bigger nerd than Chuck.

Fans will probably enjoy other spy shows, including Alias (which also has some lighthearted moments) and 24 (which is a lot more serious).
 
This website has gathered reviews from 22 critics. Go to the website for links to the full reviews.
http://www.metacritic.com/tv/shows/chuck

Chuck averages 74 on a scale from 0 to 100.

100
Chicago Sun-Times
Doug Elfman Cute, creative and slick, this is one of the best new shows of the fall season.

88
USA Today
Robert Bianco In a sense, Monday's promising premiere is the first in a three-part introduction, with each episode building on and improving upon the one before.

88
New York Daily News
David Bianculli
Chuck sounds like a regrettably derivative idea - a remake of "Jake 2.0." But it's not. Chuck is a blast.

83
Entertainment Weekly
Gillian Flynn
While there are a a few too many "awkward-guy moments," there are enough genuinely sweet ones to balance them out. [28 Sep 2007, p.93]

80
LA Weekly
Robert Abele
It's actually a kick to watch. Its joys are broader and self-consciously zanier than the CW series.

80
Variety
Brian Lowry
Chuck possesses modest charm, impressive stunt work and another mildly appealing reluctant hero.

80
Newsday
Diane Werts
The real-world intrigue is matched in dramatic flair by Chuck-world jeopardy. His store's fierce assistant-manager competition resounds as fatefully as saving the universe from evil. Which makes the dark light enough and the light dark enough to meld into a tasty escapist treat.

80
Los Angeles Times
Robert Lloyd
The pilot is an especially persuasive hour of action-adventure, but subsequent lower-budget episodes preserve the esprit and suspense.

80
Kansas City Star
Aaron Barnhart
The results aren't much different from a video game, for the violence on Chuck is pretty cartoony, but after watching two episodes I'm hooked. This is a fun escapist show.

80
Orlando Sentinel
Hal Boedeker
Chases, stunts and explosions fill the funny, flashy adventure.

80
Washington Post
Tom Shales
The show has a happily palpable likability going for it, a lot of that courtesy of Zachary Levi, who plays the unlikely and in fact unwilling hero.

80
Miami Herald
Glenn Garvin
Schwartz's good eye for characters and cutting sense of humor--makes Chuck a thoroughly enjoyable romp.

80
Newark Star-Ledger
Alan Sepinwall
Chuck starts a step slower, with more exposition in the first two episodes and no larger-than-life character like Satan to smooth over that, but by episode three, it's just as assured and entertaining in its own extremely similar way.

80
The New York Times
Alessandra Stanley
The series is part spy spoof, part workplace comedy, and it is a genuinely engaging homage to the nerd hero.

75
Detroit Free Press
Mike Duffy
It's headed in the right direction ... fast, loose and fun.

70
Philadelphia Daily News
Ellen Gray
"The O.C." team of Josh Schwartz and McG keep this one fast and mostly funny, but it's no "Heroes."

70
Philadelphia Inquirer
Jonathan Storm
Chuck is one of two new fantastical shows premiering Monday on NBC, making a Heroes sandwich. That's fantastical, not fantastic.

70
Hollywood Reporter
Barry Garron
The pilot is full of dark, dangerous and sexy moments.

70
Boston Globe
Matthew Gilbert
It's good, not great, and tonight's strong pilot gives way next week to a noticeably less stellar hour.

63
New York Post
Linda Stasi
For reasons too obvious to bother with, NBC managed to take a really terrific and fun premiere and somehow let it morph over the following episodes into just another take-it-or-leave-it show.

60
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Melanie McFarland
Chuck is, at its best, cute--and that's not enough to keep up with the big dogs.

60
Chicago Tribune
Maureen Ryan
Still, despite Chuck's zippy pace and fun dialogue, this nerd-friendly "spy-fi" show from "O.C." creator Josh Schwartz has plot holes you could drive a truck through.

60
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Rob Owen
Levi exudes an everyman appeal that may catch on with viewers, but the show's plots need to grow beyond the action-adventure tropes of 1970s TV if Chuck hopes to avoid being chucked off NBC's prime-time schedule.

60
PopMatters
Roger Holland
A good-natured show with a convincing sense of fun and a likeable cast, Chuck also has the wit, confidence, and grasp of the cultural climate to turn a running joke about a celebrity porn site into a major plot device.

25
San Francisco Chronicle
Tim Goodman
A charming but underwhelming pilot.... The second episode is dismal, sucking all the air out of whatever hopes you might have had for that one.
 
I'm hooked on Chuck - last night when they had him sitting in front of the TV at "Buy More" and running all the pictures in front of him - he said Oceanic Flight 815 is shot out of..... Very interesting for an NBC show to talk about Lost!
 
After a long hiatis for the Fall Season, Chuck is back for Season 3.

The new and improved Chuck has the ability summon skills by accessing instructions implanted into his brain through 'Intersect 2.0'.

Chuck, Sarah and Casey all face professional conflicts as they grow to respect each other and a genuine romantic interest develops between Chuck and Sarah. Chuck’s desire to maintain his close relationships and eventually return to a normal life is challenged by the dangers and growing responsibilities of his new secret life, and he gradually becomes a more competent, confident and willing spy.

The 2-part Season 3 premiere pulled the series highest ratings since 2007 (excluding a special 3-D episode which aired after the 2008 Super Bowl) 7.7 million viewers and a 3.0 demo rating for the first hour, falling to 7.2 million and a 2.9 for the second half.
 
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