I’m still a little uncertain about “Chuck.” There’s a whole lot to like about it, but I still can’t get a handle on what the producers are planning to do with it.
Chuck Bartowski (Zachary Levi) is the title character, a computer geek who finds himself working simultaneously for two different government agencies as a result of his former college roommate sending him a coded E-mail which, when Chuck opens it, bombards him with an ungodly amount of classified information that’s sent straight into his subconscious mind, only emerging in bits and pieces as he spots various “triggers.” It’s an odd blend of action, comedy, and romance…and when I say “odd,” I mean that it feels like it’s trying too hard to be all three things; there are elements of “Alias,” Jim Cameron’s “True Lies,” and even “Mr. and Mrs. Smith,” but it’s definitely not a seamless blend of genres.
Having now checked out the pilot as well as the subsequent pair of episodes, it’s fair to call the second episode, “Chuck versus The Helicopter,” the series’ equivalent of a “Gilligan ruins a chance for the castaways to get off the island” plot, where it looks like Chuck’s gonna get the classified government information out of his head but – rather unsurprisingly, given that it’s only the second episode – he doesn’t. Hopefully, we won’t be getting one of these every week…and, more crucially, let’s hope the show’s humor doesn’t slide into the God-awful slapstick realm that it does here. There’s a scene where Chuck brings Sarah (Yvonne Strzechowski), the government agent who’s posing as his girlfriend to stay close to the secrets he possesses, over for dinner at his sister’s house, and when it comes times to serve dessert, you’ll feel like you’re watching a bad episode of “Three’s Company.” Thankfully, the third episode, “Chuck versus The Tango” (are you seeing the pattern here?), works better than either of the two segments which preceded it, leaving us hopeful but still fearful that it could prove to be an isolated success.
My biggest concern about the show, though, is that I’m just not entirely sure how “Chuck” is gonna do in that Monday-at-8PM timeslot it’s been given by NBC.
I’m not saying it’s gonna do badly there, but, basically, I just have absolutely no feel for it at all. It’s up against one massive ratings powerhouse (“Dancing with the Stars”), but, otherwise, all of its other competition is probably more or less on even footing. “Prison Break” is coming off a lackluster season, while the other two major networks are offering up sitcoms that are really funny but have rarely been major comedic players in the ratings (CBS’s “How I Met Your Mother” and The CW’s “Everybody Hates Chris”), and they’re paired with new sitcoms that seem poised to score similar descriptions in the future (CBS’s “The Big Bang Theory” and The CW’s “Aliens in America”). If it doesn’t take off right away – and, of course, provided that it maintains the standards set by that third episode – here’s hoping they at least give it a shot elsewhere on the schedule.
Here’s a teaser:
