Review: "Chuck" Turns Nerd Herd Into Mod Squad

Zach Levi, a supporting player on “Less Than Perfect,” gets a chance to shine in “Chuck,” one of the new shows that critics really seem to like this fall. I’m not sure I can make up my mind about it until I see a couple more episodes. The pilot is pretty entertaining, even though the plot’s ridiculous. One of the reasons I prefer CW’s similar “Reaper” is that it makes a story about the Devil and Hell seem entirely believable in the middle of the suburbs, while “Chuck” has a hard time doing the same with its CIA and NSA spooks. Go figure.

Levi plays the titular Chuck, a Nerd Herd worker at the Buy More store – think Geek Squad and Best Buy. He’s a pathetic loser, still living with his sister and mooning over the girl he lost to his dashing college roommate, Bryce, five years ago. Then one day he gets an email from Bryce that bursts into a psychedelic video montage. Chuck is hypnotized by the images, not realizing that he is downloading all of the government’s secrets directly into his brain. Unbeknownst to Chuck, Bryce is a government superspy involved in some sort of interagency conspiracy – but not so super that he doesn’t get dead shortly after emailing Chuck. Now there’s only one set of files, and it’s in Chuck’s head.

Among those who come hoping to retrieve the info are a sexy CIA killer named Sarah (Yvonne Strahovski) and a cranky NSA officer named John (Adam Baldwin). When they found out what has happened, there’s sentiment in Washington for offing Chuck. Sarah, who seems to have formed a soft spot for Chuck, tries to protect him from John's hit squad, which leads to an exciting dance-floor showdown. He thinks she's into some really dirty dancing, but it's just the way she has to contort herself to stab, shoot and karate-kick the bad guys into oblivion without Chuck noticing. This is fun stuff, as is a car chase in which a skater boi bystander gets the best line of the whole pilot.

But then, just as he's got a bunch of guns pointed at him, Chuck begins to make sense of the torrent of info coursing through his brain. He figures out that a few of the images reveal a bomb plot aimed at a U.S. general AND SET TO EXPLODE RIGHT ACROSS TOWN IN JUST A LITTLE WHILE. Chuck, naturally, comes in handy at stopping this assassination, both because of the secrets in his brain and the Nerd Herd knowhow in his fingertips.

As the pilot ends, Sarah and John start hanging around the Buy More waiting for Chuck’s brain to pop out more urgent secrets. Hopefully one of them will quickly lose patience and whack Chuck’s obnoxious pint-sized sidekick Morgan, played by Joshua Gomez as a kind of discount Seth Green with a greasy beard. Shudder. I felt pretty much the same way about Chuck's protective sister and her dopey boyfriend, known as Captain Awesome. Scenes at the sister's place just feel like work.

Levi is an appearing everyman sort of hero, and the action sequences are excellently staged (McG is an executive producer, along with “O.C.” auteur Josh Schwartz). But the spy-vs.-spy friction mostly just rubbed me the wrong way. And really, the most original threat they can come up with for their pilot episode is a bomb that ticks down the last seconds on its digital timer as the hero tries to defuse it? That’s the best they could do?

There’s a real chance this show could win me over in the weeks to come. It's a far better geek show than "The Big Bang Theory," that's for sure. More interesting spy plots would be a start. Shooting Captain Awesome would be even better.

Comments

[Bri]

haha I LOVE THIS SHOW!