Chuck had one thing going for it that Heroes couldn’t — it was new.
While I have heaps of opinions and desires for where I want to see my Heroes characters go, I had no feelings at all about where I wanted Chuck to go.
Indeed, I barely even had a concept of the premise. All I knew was that it was a comedy with a hot chick and Jayne. That was enough for me.
Overall, I was pleasantly surprised with Chuck. It was certainly outlandish, but it was aware of that fact and didn’t come across as overly silly.
The first episode sees our hero receiving an email from his old college roommate containing the secrets of the entire US government.
Through technology that doesn’t exist IRL, this information is embedded in images which then get stuck in Chuck’s head.
After a bungled robbery attempt of Chuck’s computer, his head ends up being the only thing left on earth with the secrets in it.
With the right triggers, he can remember the info and save the day.
Clearly, the US government is miffed about this so the CIA sends out their best woman while the NSA sends out their best man.
In the end, Chuck goes back to his normal life while the two adversarial agents watch over him.
The first episode was clearly all for set up. I think the real fun begins now that Jayne has gotten a job working at ‘Buy More’ (aka Best Buy).
The chick is played by an Australian actress named Yvonne Strzechowski. I had to look that up to spell it. I will always have to look that up to spell it.
Honestly, that could be a detriment to her career in the long run, but for now she is a joy to watch. Though not your typical hottie, she exudes a lot of cuteness which can take a girl far. She’s also very HD-friendly which is a bonus these days.
Adam Baldwin’s character didn’t get a lot of screen time in the pilot, but I’m eager to see him bring his Jayne sensibilities to a frustrated NSA agent forced to work at a Best Buy.
Zachary Levi plays a grounded Chuck who has the comedic timing of Zach Braff. Unfortunately, a lot of his humor is bogged down by his best friend in the show played by Joshua Gomez.
The problem with Gomez’s character is that his humor is not the same as the rest of the show.
He brings 5th grade bathroom humor to the higher brow humor of the other characters. It just doesn’t work out quite right and I hope to see his character tweaked a bit for future episodes.
Overall, it’s extremely worthwhile to see where Chuck is going. If it doesn’t work out, you’ll always have Yvonne Lkjasdfoirlhowerbowski.
I agree, my least favorite thing about the show was the best friend. Chuck needs to find a better Turk.
I have to look up how to spell eureka. Good call all around on the show. Gomez should have shushed much earlier in his comments. Big sister isn’t hard to look at either.
I think the best friend character on Reaper was far better played. And funnier, though it doesn’t have the same nerd vibe, but does ring a lot of the same notes (Young guy in retail with a geekier friend, suddenly thrust into a situation of action that makes his life look boring in comparison). Hopefully it will still be good even if not directed by Kevin Smith.
It was funny reading on my favorite DVD info site that “a number of HDTV displays… some of which had their anamorphic settings wrong so the video was squished”, just like a real Best Buy.
[...] Okay, so when I watched the episode of Chuck I wrote a review of it on my personal blog. You can check it out here. [...]
[...] you go back and read my first review I pointed out that what it really had going for it was potential. It hadn’t started firing on [...]