Post by wdm0744 on Oct 8, 2009 17:29:06 GMT -5
I wrote this for a parenting magazine, so that explains the section concerning objectionable material. I think this is the first TV review on the Reader Review section, but given my love of "Chuck" and the discussion on the TV forum, I felt it appropriate.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy. Oh - and brace yourself - it's long:
TV Review: Chuck
It’s every geek’s fantasy.
Someday the world will need you. Someday the call will come and your gift for math, your ravenous love for obscure comic books, your allegiance to geek chic bands, and those long, lonely hours of practice with video games will finally, blessedly pay off. You – and only you – can save the world.
And there’ll be a girl. Of course there’ll be a girl. She’ll be beautiful and strong, yet she’ll shield a vulnerable side from the rest of the world that she just might share with you. Let’s be honest – in the end, it’s all about the girl. What’s the use of saving the world if she’s not in it?
And once the battle has past, once you have proven the purity and courage buried deep within your awkward shell, once all the enemies of freedom and justice have been laid to rest; maybe, - just maybe - the nerd will get the girl. (Of course, it helps if she’s a bit of a closet nerd as well.)
Fellow geeks, I’m here to announce that your hero in Converse sneakers and a clip-on tie has arrived. His name is Chuck Bartowski, and this is his story.
Chuck was once a promising engineering student at Stanford University. Everything was looking good for Charles, but then, in his senior year, his friend and roommate, Bryce Larkin claimed to have found copies of tests hidden under Chuck’s bed and reported him to the Dean. Chuck proclaimed his innocence, but no one would listen. He was summarily expelled, and to make matters even worse, his girlfriend left him and started dating Bryce.
Now, years later, Chuck wallows in a sheltered, under-realized existence. He lives with his sister, Ellie and her extreme sports-loving surgeon boyfriend, Devon (or as Chuck calls him, “Captain Awesome”) in a stylish but humble Burbank apartment. He’s stuck in a dead-end job managing the Nerd Herd for a local Buy More store (think Best Buy and their Geek Squad) and wastes away his nights playing video games with his best friend, Morgan (a poster child for man-boys everywhere).
Then one night, Chuck receives a mysterious email from Bryce. Once he opens it, he is flooded with thousands of flashes of arcane video clips and random photographs. The next morning everything seems normal, but soon, Chuck begins to remember secrets he shouldn’t know. Government secrets. “Scary; get-killed-for-having-them secrets”. Chuck doesn’t know it yet, but he has just become the most valuable intelligence asset in the world.
As it turns out, Bryce Larkin is a spy. A rogue spy, to be exact. For reasons unknown, he hacked a top secret government computer that gathers data from CIA and NSA servers and converts it into subliminal images. Bryce downloaded the intelligence, sent it to Chuck, and then destroyed the computer. Now all of the government’s secrets are in his head.
Of course, having a guy with a government supercomputer in his brain working unprotected in a Burbank Buy More is an extremely dangerous proposition. So, the NSA and CIA both send their top agents to guard Chuck at all costs.
The NSA sends John Casey, a gruff and ruthless Special Forces veteran with a love of all things Reagan and little patience for Chuck’s naïve antics. The CIA sends Sarah Walker, a beautiful, mysterious, and deadly professional with a troubled past, who begins to develop complicated feelings for Chuck. Casey reluctantly suits up to pose as a fellow Buy More employee while Sarah’s cover is playing as Chuck’s new girlfriend.
Suddenly life becomes a much more interesting than Chuck ever expected, and a whole lot more dangerous than he ever feared. He’s forced to overcome his insecurities and go toe to toe with heartless gangsters, international arms dealers, cold-blooded terrorists, and shadowy spies; all the while struggling to go on with his every day life and keep his second job a secret from his family and friends. Through his adventures, Chuck’s true heroic colors shine through, but all he really wants is to get the computer out of his head and settle down into a normal life with the girl of his dreams.
Week after week, episode after episode, Chuck serves up an hour of escapist fun, thrilling stunts, touching romance, genuine drama, and appealing comedy. It’s a wonderful, genre-bending extravaganza with sold nerd credentials and a dead-center aim for its target audience; and yet it still somehow manages to appeal to all ages.
But on a deeper level, Chuck speaks to the interests, the fears, the joys, the dreams, and even the eccentric quirks of my generation (the NES generation, if you will). It has a finger on my pulse and the pulse of my idealistic but technologically oversaturated brethren, and it perfectly captures our awkward struggle to come to grips with the realities of adult life and parenthood.
We can see the same fear and insecurity within ourselves that threatens to drown out Chuck’s burning desire to take on the world and do something great. We can identify with his fight to remain committed to his family and friends while at the same time confront the ever-growing lists of demands thrust upon him. Chuck Bartowski is our everyman, and Chuck is one of the only shows made by and for geeks. This is our time people.
Zachary Levi is the perfect choice for this unconventional leading man. He’s a charming and relatable actor, and he’s equally adept playing both his comedic notes and the dramatic tones. Levi is our reliable anchor to reality. He lives in a world where black-clad ninjas steal desktops and Afghani terrorists haunt the aisles of a suburban electronics store, but his incredulity in the face of such outlandish turns clues us into the show’s tongue-in-cheek attitude.
Truth be told, Chuck’s path to heroism is littered with clueless blunders. He’s a bewildered sheep in a wolf’s world, but he is far from a mere clown. Sarah and Casey would rather tackle a situation with all guns blazing, but Chuck’s more intellectual approach often saves the day. But it’s his honesty and loyalty that truly set him apart, his sensitivity and empathy that make him one of a kind in a world of cynical spies and ruthless killers. Chuck has a good brain and a good heart, and both are an integral part of his character and the show as a whole.
Australian-born Yvonne Strahovski is a truly gifted actress. As Sarah Walker, she’s a dynamo of action/adventure, but she also serves admirably as the main channel for most of the series’ emotional and dramatic turmoil. Though she is breathtakingly gorgeous, Strahovski is utterly convincing with a gun in her hand or in the thick of a pitched and bloody fist fight. She’s the ideal nerd-boy fantasy (a girl with perfect hair and make-up that can still beat you up), but she is never relegated solely to the shallow realm of pure eye candy (although, to be fair, the producers rarely miss an opportunity to catch her in her underwear or a slinky evening dress).
Sarah Walker is a full and complex character; capable of brutality and tenderness, stoically emotionless and professional, and yet, in the moments when her guard is down, you can catch a glimpse of the hurt and lonely woman longing to find redemption in the love of a kind and gentle man.
Levi and Strahovski have a remarkably natural chemistry together. The romantic spark between Chuck and Sarah is palpable, but Sarah’s job and the circumstances of Chuck’s predicament constantly conspire to keep them apart. The level of angst and emotional turmoil can sometimes get to be a bit much for a show that is primarily geared toward comedy, but on the whole, Chuck and Sarah are one of the most convincing and heartbreaking romantic duos on television.
Rounding out the rest of “Team Bartowski”, Adam Baldwin delivers a consistently entertaining performance as the muscle bound but emotionally repressed Agent Casey. It’s a ton of fun to see a man who has survived torture and war chaff under the burden of mundane suburbia. It’s as if you took every testosterone-fueled action star from the 1980s and forced them to deal with the typical frustrations of retail customer service without resorting to employing a toaster as a deadly weapon.
This “fish out of water” dynamic, combined with inspired interplay between Levi’s sensitive nerd and Baldwin’s gruff soldier provides, a great deal of comedic gold. But Casey, too, is not simply one-dimensional. He often seems heartless and he claims to care for nothing, but despite his protestations and prickly demeanor, it’s clear that he actually cares a great deal. He’s is deeply patriotic and he holds dear to the American Dream - but not for himself. Casey puts his life on the line to ensure that the Dream is available for everyone else, even if he himself is not emotionally equipped to enjoy it. Casey is prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice for those he claims to disdain.
The supporting cast is excellent as well. Sarah Lancaster is lovely and heartwarming as Chuck’s mothering older sister Ellie. As Chuck is our anchor, she is his admit the chaotic and zany turmoil swirling around him. Ryan McPartlin steals nearly every scene he’s in as “Captain Awesome”. While it would have been very easy to write him as merely a macho buffoon, the producers have wisely developed Devon as a much more complex and likeable character. Sure his enthusiasm and bravado may be a bit much, but Devon desperately loves Ellie and he is fiercely committed to her. Chuck can go off and rescue the world safe in the knowledge that his sister is cared for and deeply loved.
Chuck’s Buy More comrades are the show’s comedy foot soldiers. Joshua Gomez is annoying, but endearing as Chuck’s best friend Morgan, and his “on again/ off again” relationship with the slightly freaking Anna (Julia Ling) is funny and entertaining more often than not. Of course, the real stars of the Buy More are Jeff (Scott Krinksy), a creepy alcoholic, and Lester, played beautifully by Vik Sahay (think of Dwight Schrute from The Office, only more extroverted). The duo of disgust (or Jeffster, if you prefer) instigate much mischief, most of it funny, some of it silly.
Chuck is one of my favorite shows on TV, but this brings up the only complaint I have against it. The comedy can, at times, be too broad. Most of the time the laughs hit the right chord. Often its absurd situations, pop culture references, and witty dialogue can even seem inspired, but Chuck’s comedy is about as subtle as a kick to the face.
That’s not a fatal flaw, but sometimes it feels like I’m being told something should be funny rather than being shown that it truly is. The musical score by Tim Jones often exacerbates this problem by introducing clownish melodies that only serve to drive home the over-the-top silliness in these scenes.
Speaking of the music in Chuck, while the score is a bit too electronic for my tastes, most of the episodes are accompanied by a truly delightful and masterfully selected playlist of popular songs, classic hits, and 80’s favorites. The songs are usually an uncanny fit for their scenes and the fun and quirky soundtrack really makes the show feel as if it lives in and among our popular psyche.
Finally, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention Chuck’s excellent stunts and visual effects. Stunt coordinator Merritt Yohnka has won a Creative Awards Emmy two years in a row for his work on the series and his accolades are well-deserved. The brutal, visceral, and well-executed fight scenes in many of the episodes are complex and entertaining, and they wouldn’t look at all out of place in a big budget action movie. The visual effects are also quite impressive. While some of the CGI bits may look a bit cheesy, on the whole, Chuck’s special effects are leaps and bounds ahead of much of the stuff on network TV.
From personal experience I can tell you that Chuck appeals to all ages. My wife and I have recruited our parents, her brothers, our friends, and even some of their parents to the rabid ranks of Chuck fanatics. The series is lighthearted and fun, and while it is much more appropriate for family viewing than much of what is on in primetime, there are still some areas of caution to keep in mind.
A number of episodes feature a heavy dose of sexualized humor, some of it subtle, some of it quite direct. Sarah is often dressed provocatively and a few other women are shown in various stages of undress. Now normally, I would come down hard if I felt like a show was objectifying women, but in this case the spirit is much more winking than exploitive. It’s as if the cast and crew are in on the joke, and that mitigates the content somewhat.
The violence in Chuck can also be more graphic and unflinching than you might expect. Many enemies are shot in frenzied fire fights and Sarah’s frequent rounds of fisticuffs often leave her bruised and bloodied. Two episodes in the second season also feature scenes of torture that seem out of place with the general tone of the series. Nothing too grim (we’re not talking about 24 here), but still worthy of caution.
On the other hand, Chuck often highlights such positive virtues as loyalty, sacrifice, and unconditional love. Family and friends are valued and personal responsibility is emphasized. A good portion of the show deals with the reality that actions have consequences and that life hardly ever heads in the direction we think it will. Chuck comes to realize he can’t control his destiny - his challenge is simply to live the life he’s been given.
Chuck is currently on hiatus, but it will return for a third season beginning in March 2010. In the meantime, you can find the first season on DVD or free online at WB.com. A DVD set for the second season will likely be released early next year, but for now you can watch some episodes for free at NBC.com, or you can purchase episodes for $1.99 on various sites, including Amazon.com and the Playstation Network.
Give Chuck a chance. I could only recommend it more highly if I drove to your house, put a disc in your DVD player, and forced you to watch it. Don’t worry – I’ll bring brownies.
But seriously - bottom line: It’s a good show with a good heart, and it shows us true heroes are sometimes found in unlikely places. What more could you ask for?
Anyway, I hope you enjoy. Oh - and brace yourself - it's long:
TV Review: Chuck
It’s every geek’s fantasy.
Someday the world will need you. Someday the call will come and your gift for math, your ravenous love for obscure comic books, your allegiance to geek chic bands, and those long, lonely hours of practice with video games will finally, blessedly pay off. You – and only you – can save the world.
And there’ll be a girl. Of course there’ll be a girl. She’ll be beautiful and strong, yet she’ll shield a vulnerable side from the rest of the world that she just might share with you. Let’s be honest – in the end, it’s all about the girl. What’s the use of saving the world if she’s not in it?
And once the battle has past, once you have proven the purity and courage buried deep within your awkward shell, once all the enemies of freedom and justice have been laid to rest; maybe, - just maybe - the nerd will get the girl. (Of course, it helps if she’s a bit of a closet nerd as well.)
Fellow geeks, I’m here to announce that your hero in Converse sneakers and a clip-on tie has arrived. His name is Chuck Bartowski, and this is his story.
Chuck was once a promising engineering student at Stanford University. Everything was looking good for Charles, but then, in his senior year, his friend and roommate, Bryce Larkin claimed to have found copies of tests hidden under Chuck’s bed and reported him to the Dean. Chuck proclaimed his innocence, but no one would listen. He was summarily expelled, and to make matters even worse, his girlfriend left him and started dating Bryce.
Now, years later, Chuck wallows in a sheltered, under-realized existence. He lives with his sister, Ellie and her extreme sports-loving surgeon boyfriend, Devon (or as Chuck calls him, “Captain Awesome”) in a stylish but humble Burbank apartment. He’s stuck in a dead-end job managing the Nerd Herd for a local Buy More store (think Best Buy and their Geek Squad) and wastes away his nights playing video games with his best friend, Morgan (a poster child for man-boys everywhere).
Then one night, Chuck receives a mysterious email from Bryce. Once he opens it, he is flooded with thousands of flashes of arcane video clips and random photographs. The next morning everything seems normal, but soon, Chuck begins to remember secrets he shouldn’t know. Government secrets. “Scary; get-killed-for-having-them secrets”. Chuck doesn’t know it yet, but he has just become the most valuable intelligence asset in the world.
As it turns out, Bryce Larkin is a spy. A rogue spy, to be exact. For reasons unknown, he hacked a top secret government computer that gathers data from CIA and NSA servers and converts it into subliminal images. Bryce downloaded the intelligence, sent it to Chuck, and then destroyed the computer. Now all of the government’s secrets are in his head.
Of course, having a guy with a government supercomputer in his brain working unprotected in a Burbank Buy More is an extremely dangerous proposition. So, the NSA and CIA both send their top agents to guard Chuck at all costs.
The NSA sends John Casey, a gruff and ruthless Special Forces veteran with a love of all things Reagan and little patience for Chuck’s naïve antics. The CIA sends Sarah Walker, a beautiful, mysterious, and deadly professional with a troubled past, who begins to develop complicated feelings for Chuck. Casey reluctantly suits up to pose as a fellow Buy More employee while Sarah’s cover is playing as Chuck’s new girlfriend.
Suddenly life becomes a much more interesting than Chuck ever expected, and a whole lot more dangerous than he ever feared. He’s forced to overcome his insecurities and go toe to toe with heartless gangsters, international arms dealers, cold-blooded terrorists, and shadowy spies; all the while struggling to go on with his every day life and keep his second job a secret from his family and friends. Through his adventures, Chuck’s true heroic colors shine through, but all he really wants is to get the computer out of his head and settle down into a normal life with the girl of his dreams.
Week after week, episode after episode, Chuck serves up an hour of escapist fun, thrilling stunts, touching romance, genuine drama, and appealing comedy. It’s a wonderful, genre-bending extravaganza with sold nerd credentials and a dead-center aim for its target audience; and yet it still somehow manages to appeal to all ages.
But on a deeper level, Chuck speaks to the interests, the fears, the joys, the dreams, and even the eccentric quirks of my generation (the NES generation, if you will). It has a finger on my pulse and the pulse of my idealistic but technologically oversaturated brethren, and it perfectly captures our awkward struggle to come to grips with the realities of adult life and parenthood.
We can see the same fear and insecurity within ourselves that threatens to drown out Chuck’s burning desire to take on the world and do something great. We can identify with his fight to remain committed to his family and friends while at the same time confront the ever-growing lists of demands thrust upon him. Chuck Bartowski is our everyman, and Chuck is one of the only shows made by and for geeks. This is our time people.
Zachary Levi is the perfect choice for this unconventional leading man. He’s a charming and relatable actor, and he’s equally adept playing both his comedic notes and the dramatic tones. Levi is our reliable anchor to reality. He lives in a world where black-clad ninjas steal desktops and Afghani terrorists haunt the aisles of a suburban electronics store, but his incredulity in the face of such outlandish turns clues us into the show’s tongue-in-cheek attitude.
Truth be told, Chuck’s path to heroism is littered with clueless blunders. He’s a bewildered sheep in a wolf’s world, but he is far from a mere clown. Sarah and Casey would rather tackle a situation with all guns blazing, but Chuck’s more intellectual approach often saves the day. But it’s his honesty and loyalty that truly set him apart, his sensitivity and empathy that make him one of a kind in a world of cynical spies and ruthless killers. Chuck has a good brain and a good heart, and both are an integral part of his character and the show as a whole.
Australian-born Yvonne Strahovski is a truly gifted actress. As Sarah Walker, she’s a dynamo of action/adventure, but she also serves admirably as the main channel for most of the series’ emotional and dramatic turmoil. Though she is breathtakingly gorgeous, Strahovski is utterly convincing with a gun in her hand or in the thick of a pitched and bloody fist fight. She’s the ideal nerd-boy fantasy (a girl with perfect hair and make-up that can still beat you up), but she is never relegated solely to the shallow realm of pure eye candy (although, to be fair, the producers rarely miss an opportunity to catch her in her underwear or a slinky evening dress).
Sarah Walker is a full and complex character; capable of brutality and tenderness, stoically emotionless and professional, and yet, in the moments when her guard is down, you can catch a glimpse of the hurt and lonely woman longing to find redemption in the love of a kind and gentle man.
Levi and Strahovski have a remarkably natural chemistry together. The romantic spark between Chuck and Sarah is palpable, but Sarah’s job and the circumstances of Chuck’s predicament constantly conspire to keep them apart. The level of angst and emotional turmoil can sometimes get to be a bit much for a show that is primarily geared toward comedy, but on the whole, Chuck and Sarah are one of the most convincing and heartbreaking romantic duos on television.
Rounding out the rest of “Team Bartowski”, Adam Baldwin delivers a consistently entertaining performance as the muscle bound but emotionally repressed Agent Casey. It’s a ton of fun to see a man who has survived torture and war chaff under the burden of mundane suburbia. It’s as if you took every testosterone-fueled action star from the 1980s and forced them to deal with the typical frustrations of retail customer service without resorting to employing a toaster as a deadly weapon.
This “fish out of water” dynamic, combined with inspired interplay between Levi’s sensitive nerd and Baldwin’s gruff soldier provides, a great deal of comedic gold. But Casey, too, is not simply one-dimensional. He often seems heartless and he claims to care for nothing, but despite his protestations and prickly demeanor, it’s clear that he actually cares a great deal. He’s is deeply patriotic and he holds dear to the American Dream - but not for himself. Casey puts his life on the line to ensure that the Dream is available for everyone else, even if he himself is not emotionally equipped to enjoy it. Casey is prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice for those he claims to disdain.
The supporting cast is excellent as well. Sarah Lancaster is lovely and heartwarming as Chuck’s mothering older sister Ellie. As Chuck is our anchor, she is his admit the chaotic and zany turmoil swirling around him. Ryan McPartlin steals nearly every scene he’s in as “Captain Awesome”. While it would have been very easy to write him as merely a macho buffoon, the producers have wisely developed Devon as a much more complex and likeable character. Sure his enthusiasm and bravado may be a bit much, but Devon desperately loves Ellie and he is fiercely committed to her. Chuck can go off and rescue the world safe in the knowledge that his sister is cared for and deeply loved.
Chuck’s Buy More comrades are the show’s comedy foot soldiers. Joshua Gomez is annoying, but endearing as Chuck’s best friend Morgan, and his “on again/ off again” relationship with the slightly freaking Anna (Julia Ling) is funny and entertaining more often than not. Of course, the real stars of the Buy More are Jeff (Scott Krinksy), a creepy alcoholic, and Lester, played beautifully by Vik Sahay (think of Dwight Schrute from The Office, only more extroverted). The duo of disgust (or Jeffster, if you prefer) instigate much mischief, most of it funny, some of it silly.
Chuck is one of my favorite shows on TV, but this brings up the only complaint I have against it. The comedy can, at times, be too broad. Most of the time the laughs hit the right chord. Often its absurd situations, pop culture references, and witty dialogue can even seem inspired, but Chuck’s comedy is about as subtle as a kick to the face.
That’s not a fatal flaw, but sometimes it feels like I’m being told something should be funny rather than being shown that it truly is. The musical score by Tim Jones often exacerbates this problem by introducing clownish melodies that only serve to drive home the over-the-top silliness in these scenes.
Speaking of the music in Chuck, while the score is a bit too electronic for my tastes, most of the episodes are accompanied by a truly delightful and masterfully selected playlist of popular songs, classic hits, and 80’s favorites. The songs are usually an uncanny fit for their scenes and the fun and quirky soundtrack really makes the show feel as if it lives in and among our popular psyche.
Finally, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention Chuck’s excellent stunts and visual effects. Stunt coordinator Merritt Yohnka has won a Creative Awards Emmy two years in a row for his work on the series and his accolades are well-deserved. The brutal, visceral, and well-executed fight scenes in many of the episodes are complex and entertaining, and they wouldn’t look at all out of place in a big budget action movie. The visual effects are also quite impressive. While some of the CGI bits may look a bit cheesy, on the whole, Chuck’s special effects are leaps and bounds ahead of much of the stuff on network TV.
From personal experience I can tell you that Chuck appeals to all ages. My wife and I have recruited our parents, her brothers, our friends, and even some of their parents to the rabid ranks of Chuck fanatics. The series is lighthearted and fun, and while it is much more appropriate for family viewing than much of what is on in primetime, there are still some areas of caution to keep in mind.
A number of episodes feature a heavy dose of sexualized humor, some of it subtle, some of it quite direct. Sarah is often dressed provocatively and a few other women are shown in various stages of undress. Now normally, I would come down hard if I felt like a show was objectifying women, but in this case the spirit is much more winking than exploitive. It’s as if the cast and crew are in on the joke, and that mitigates the content somewhat.
The violence in Chuck can also be more graphic and unflinching than you might expect. Many enemies are shot in frenzied fire fights and Sarah’s frequent rounds of fisticuffs often leave her bruised and bloodied. Two episodes in the second season also feature scenes of torture that seem out of place with the general tone of the series. Nothing too grim (we’re not talking about 24 here), but still worthy of caution.
On the other hand, Chuck often highlights such positive virtues as loyalty, sacrifice, and unconditional love. Family and friends are valued and personal responsibility is emphasized. A good portion of the show deals with the reality that actions have consequences and that life hardly ever heads in the direction we think it will. Chuck comes to realize he can’t control his destiny - his challenge is simply to live the life he’s been given.
Chuck is currently on hiatus, but it will return for a third season beginning in March 2010. In the meantime, you can find the first season on DVD or free online at WB.com. A DVD set for the second season will likely be released early next year, but for now you can watch some episodes for free at NBC.com, or you can purchase episodes for $1.99 on various sites, including Amazon.com and the Playstation Network.
Give Chuck a chance. I could only recommend it more highly if I drove to your house, put a disc in your DVD player, and forced you to watch it. Don’t worry – I’ll bring brownies.
But seriously - bottom line: It’s a good show with a good heart, and it shows us true heroes are sometimes found in unlikely places. What more could you ask for?