Chuck

Chuck


a nerd becomes a spy



Type of Pilot: Action; Comedy; Spy; Thriller


Similar Shows: Jake 2.0


The Inner Light: Jake 2.0 minus the cool bits and the funny bits. Sigh.


Strengths: Hmm...


Weaknesses: It was muddled. I couldn't really follow some of the logic of what was happening. Why did the guy at the start steal top secret data and send it to Chuck via subliminal email? Why are the NSA and the CIA fighting over Chuck (and the top secret data now embedded in his brain) and why, oh why, didn't the government have a back-up of their top secret files? A back-up is basic computing.


Impressive Characters: Sarah Walker, Chuck's CIA partner (and love interest), is super-cool when she goes into spy action. She's Sydney Bristow from Alias, basically. Yes, we've seen this before. But it is cool to watch.


Impressive Actors: Zachary Levi is fine as the hero of the piece, but the funnier one is Joshua Gomez as his best friend Morgan. When he's on-screen the humour is laugh-out-loud funny. It would be an infinitely better show if he was the one that became the spy. It would also be better if Sarah Lancaster was playing the spy-babe. She's gorgeous and she's stuck playing Chuck's sister. Crazy.


Less-Than-Impressive Characters: All of them.


Less-Than-Impressive Actors: Adam Baldwin is great as the NSA agent assigned to Chuck. I love him. But why does he always play the exact same character?


Continuity: Hard to say. Maybe they'll go the self-contained episodes route, and maybe they'll set up an arc of some sort. I hope they opt for lots of continuity. It will help raise the show up.


Rewatchability: Zero!


Other Info: Airing on Monday's at 8, Chuck goes head-to-head with Prison Break, How I Met Your Mother, The Big Bang Theory, Everybody Hates Chris and Aliens In America. Given that each of those shows is much better than Chuck I don't think it will have a long run.

Three Things I Really Like About This Pilot:

There's one sequence where Sarah Walker, Chuck's CIA partner, disables an oncoming car that is simply stunning.

Sarah Lancaster is too beautiful for words. Sigh. She plays Chuck's sister and she only gets a couple of scenes. But I enjoyed those scenes.

Morgan, the best friend, is funny.

Three Things I Really Don't Like About This Pilot:

It's muddled.

It's Jake 2.0 minus the cool bits.

It's Jake 2.0 minus the funny bits.

Miscellaneous Comments:


If you are going to do Jake 2.0, why would you decide not to give him the super-powers??

GRADE: B-