Chuck

The TV series "Chuck" was recommended to me by an office friend who knew of my addiction to watching TV series. Before I move on, let me clarify the addiction part...it's not actually an addiction in the strict sense of the word. We do have a couple of TV sets at home---however, with the children watching cartoons all the time and the wife tuned in to what telenovela and gossip program is on---it's a rarity that I get to grab hold of the remote and do channel surfing much less keep track of any TV series for that matter! So with the trusty DSL and torrent downloader, I just keep pace with my favorite shows by downloading them via the internet.

"Chuck" was not part of my monitored list. I have heard of it and skimped through a couple of reviews during it's initial airing in September 2007 but at that time I was too busy following a bunch of other shows. It was only after I read about the fan campaign for a third season that I started wondering what the fuss was all about. It was only then that I asked my friend to give me a copy of the season 1 and 2 of "Chuck".

The series is about an "average computer-whiz-next-door", Chuck, played by Zachary Levi, who receives an encoded e-mail from an old college friend now working in the CIA; the message embeds the only remaining copy of the world's greatest spy secrets into Chuck's brain making him sort of an intelligence national treasure guarded no less by the CIA, Major John Casey(Adam Baldwin) and the NSA, Agent Sarah Walker(Yvonne Strahovski). It is an action-comedy with a love twist that is reminiscent of the appeal of the show "Louis and Clark" back in the early 90's.

As part of her cover, Sarah poses as Chuck's girlfriend. While Casey provides cover as part of Chuck's posse of sales men at Buy More(a parody of Best Buy's Geek Squad). Being a socially awkward twenty-something guy from California, Chuck is inevitably smitten with the blond bombshell look of Sarah. Who wouldn't be? If I were Chuck I would be crawling and begging her to make it real! Anyway, the appeal comes from this relationship and is sort of a guessing game for the viewer. What makes you want to watch the next episode is that in each one Sarah would give hints as to her real for feelings for Chuck. I'm currently on episode 9 of season 1 and there's this love triangle between Chuck, Sarah, and Lou (played by Rachel Bilson)---things are really getting complicated with this fellow!