Chuck: Season 1 (2007 - 2008)

Now, I watched this show many years ago when it started airing, and I was quickly drawn in by the comedy that it presented, as well as the solid story line. It was a little bit of a different twist on the spy thing for me. A spy who did not want to be a spy? A spy with all the governments secrets buried in his head? A nerd with all of this that the government cannot afford to get rid of, who works in a crappy retail store, making peanuts and offering tech support? Well, let’s see how it goes. I liked it the first time I watched it, and I am most definitely enjoying it the second time around.

*CONTAINS SPOILERS*

Synopsis: Chuck Bartowski (Zachary Levi) is a regular guy that works at the Buy More for a doughnut savage, “Big” Mike (Mark Christopher Lawrence), with his best friend, Morgan Grimes (Joshua Gomez), and a few more ridiculous idiots. At his birthday party hosted by his sister, Ellie Bartowski (Sarah Lancaster), and her boyfriend, Devon Woodcomb (Ryan McPartlin), Chuck meets a lot of girls and lapses into telling them about his sad, failed existence and the miserable breakup he had with his ex-girlfriend, Jill, and how he cannot move on. Here we get a look at the man that is supposed to be insanely interesting and important to the United States government in a few hours. When the dreary party comes to a close, Chuck goes inside and reads an email from his old friend and current nemesis, Bryce Larkin (Matt Bomer). When Chuck opens the email, he is assaulted with the entirety of the United States government secrets being uploaded into his brain. He is now the Intersect, and highly valuable to the government  Bryce was a rogue agent, taken down by NSA Agent John Casey (Adam Baldwin), but not before the secrets are downloaded onto an email and uploaded into Chuck’s head.

“Dune fans have been going nuts over our costume since the eightht grade.” – Chuck

CIA Agent Sarah Walker (Yvonne Strahovski) makes a play for Chuck, and soon Chuck is in the middle of a war between the two entities, and has no means of escape. It seems Chuck has now become an important asset to the United States, and may not tell anyone. Sarah and Casey become Chuck’s handlers, and Casey takes a job at the Buy More while Sarah takes a job at the Wienerlicious. Chuck battles with his false cover of a couple with Sarah seeing as he has proper feelings for her, while Sarah appears to not be having any issues. Chuck also finds out that Sarah was once linked very intimately with Bryce, and this crushes him.

Chuck meets a girl, Lou (Rachel Bilson), a sandwich maker  and falls for her. Chuck feels he is entitled to a real relationship, and breaks up his and Sarah’s fake relationship. Chuck seems happy enough, but everything seems to be going wrong in his new relationship until eventually their relationship dissolves. On a mission,  Chuck and Sarah race to open and disarm what they perceive to be a bomb. When they arrive and realize that they cannot stop it in time, Sarah kisses Chuck, placing him into a state of confusion all over again. Casey and Sarah return to the container later, and when it is opened neither are them are prepared for what they find inside: Bryce Larkin – and not his corpse, either, as Casey would have expected. Somehow he has been brought back, and when he wakes he demands to speak to Chuck and only Chuck. Chuck hates Bryce, considering Bryce had him kicked out of Stanford University and then progressed to steal his girlfriend, Jill, there is obviously some bad blood between them. Reluctantly, Chuck hears what Bryce has to say, and whilst being held hostage by Bryce to make an escape, Chuck flashes on a man who is a Fulcrum operative. Chuck is desperate to escape, and finds out that Bryce was deep undercover, not rogue.

On a later unrelated mission, Chuck discovers that Bryce got Chuck expelled from Stanford to protect him from being recruited into the CIA, and sent him the Intersect because he knew Chuck would be the only one able to bear it. The team has a new problem, however, and that is that there is a sector that wants the Intersect, and wants it bad: Fulcrum. As though their hands were not full enough already, this adds strain. Chuck is worried about anyone ever discovering his identity, seeing as he will then be sent underground, never to see his family again or contact them, for their protection and his. Chuck hates the Intersect, and is desperate to get his old life back. General Diane Beckman (Bonita Friedericy) issues Casey orders to kill Chuck when the mission to remove the Intersect from his head is complete. Casey has started to grow attached to Chuck, but is aware of what his orders are.

Undercover, exposed and soaked.

Chuck is having a real hard time keeping his new spy life and his real life apart, and cannot stand that his spy life seems to be ruining his real life. He has a fake relationship with a beautiful woman, and his best friend and sister being pushed away thinking he is going nowhere in life. Morgan starts dating Anna Wu (Julia Ling), which causes a noise at the Buy More, what with Jeff Barnes (Scott Krinsky) feeling that he was robbed of his chance of being with Anna. Jeff is disgusting, and his best friend, Lester Patel (Vik Sahay), does nothing to help their situation, although they do keep the hilarious yet brain-dead and ridiculous humour on the roll. Chuck cannot wait for the possibility of the Intersect getting out of his head, and asks Sarah onto a real date, all the while informing Ellie that he is quitting the Buy More and then going to actively do something different about his life. The season concludes with Chuck narrowly avoiding going into protective custody, and finally rediscovering Devon’s grandmother’s ring, Chuck returns home to watch Devon and Ellie become engaged, wondering if his life will ever follow the same style.

Best Episode: Chuck Versus The Sandworm

Worst Episode: Chuck Versus The Helicopter

Rating: 7/10. Chuck was highly amusing for me. As I said, I loved it the first time I watched it, and I still do. The entertainment value cannot be denied, and again I was in stitches during the show. My favourite character is most definitely Casey. The man never ceases to amaze me, and the growling never gets old. It took awhile for Morgan to grow on me. He is an integral part of the show, but he is also extremely gross. The dynamic takes a while to settle between Chuck and Sarah, seeing as she likes him off and on and keeps taking up with Bryce. I think Ellie and Devon are sweet together. It is very sad to see how Ellie feels that Chuck is throwing his life and talents away, and his inability to tell her what he is really doing. However, to a certain degree I understand what she means, I mean it has been five years since Stanford and he has not moved on until the spy game recently, and yet here we are, back at the beginning, and he cannot even justify it to her. Jeff, Lester and the Buy More antics are a fountain of misguided laughs, and are pretty well done. I must say, the show is reasonably intelligent, and I think is is pretty cool how (at the time it was live) they used to advertise the Call Of Duty game releases throughout the show. The realism that that brings into the show is good, as it gives people something they know to identify with (goodness knows I did!). The wit is good, the execution is great, and a bundle of laughs. There is, however, a total discord with reality in the sense of things happening the way they are. I mean, if Chuck is to remain a spy, I can only assume that the government would properly train him as such seeing as he has the nation’s top secrets embedded in his brain? Also, I wish I knew why geeky guys like that underestimate their ability to land a girlfriend  Overall, a great watch if you are into the geeky humour. I love the references that I can understand, to movies, Star Wars, games and the like. I would highly recommend trying Chuck, even if it is just to let your inner geek out to see that you are truly not alone.

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