NBC’s new fall lineup got off to a great start last night with the premiere of “Chuck.” I didn’t know what to expect of Chuck’s series premiere. Quite frankly, I probably wouldn’t have watched it, if the show didn’t air right before the season premiere of Heroes. The previews did seem to have some good comedic moments. But, in the end previews are just trailers, which, thanks to great editing, don’t necessarily capture a show’s true feel.
What “Chuck” lacks in realism it makes up for with several surprisingly funny and laudable comedic moments.
“Chuck” centers around a computer geek named Chuck Bartowski, who unwittingly downloads government secrets to his brain. Chuck works for the Nerd Herd, a group of computer technicians that work out of Buy More. Sound familiar? It should. It’s a spoof off of Best Buy’s Geek Squad.
The writer’s did an excellent job of painting Chuck’s character in the opening sequence without being long winded.
The premiere opened on Chuck trying to duck out of his own birthday party. His sister tries her best to hook her nerd-brother up with one of her sexy doctor friends. Alas, Chuck can’t have a conversation with a woman without bringing up the last girl he dated over 5 years ago at Stanford. Inter-cut a humorous courtship scene with some outrageous and outwardly fake explosions, that could never survive in a serious show like 24 or Prison Break, and you had a swift moving 10 minutes that kept fans watching past the commercial break.
Chuck’s roommate from Stanford Bryce, also the guy who stole his girl and got him kicked out of Stanford, has broken into a joint NSA and CIA facility and stolen some valuable information. Before blowing up the entire computer system, Bryce escapes with secret information that he emails to his estranged college-bud Chuck.
Now, through the miracle of television and accepting a world of fiction, Chuck logs somehow downloads all this information into his brain like a scene out of the Matrix. I guess Mac Pro email works different from PC email. Which reminds me, I need to take my PC to the repair shop.
Enter the lovely Sarah, a CIA agent slash ninja who tries to figure out exactly what Chuck knows and why the information was sent to him. Now, ninjas may sound cheesy, but in the world of Chuck they’re hysterical. Who knows? Maybe that’s just me. But, seeing ninjas either on stage at the Upright Citizens Brigade or attacking a computer geek for his Mac Pro just reminds me of my teenager years watching Kung-Fu flicks on Sunday afternoons.
After a less than deadly showdown between Chuck, his sidekick friend Morgan, and Sarah the sexy ninja the Mac Pro falls to the ground and is broken beyond repair. I have to laugh at this. If this was Prison Break or 24, the government would be able to fix a hard drive that fell two feet to the floor with no problem. Hey, they retrieved Scofield’s hard disk after a year of sitting at the bottom of the river. But, I guess Chuck just has one really hard destructive surface for a floor.
If you missed the series premiere of Chuck you can catch it on NBC Rewind. Right now it’s the number 2 most requested video on NBC, right on the heels of Heroes.
As for me, I’ll be sure to stay tuned next Monday at 8pm to see what happens next for Chuck.
