BLUE MAG

My main problem with “Chuck” is that I don’t believe for a second that a real-life Chuck who looks like Zachary Levi would not be as they say, “swimming in it.” By “it” I mean girls, with the kissing and the brassieres and the whatnot. Sure he’s sort of nerdy, he plays video games, and he doesn’t have a kickass job, but he’s he’s sarcastic and shy, super cute and fit-looking, and he dresses cool. Not buying it.

However “Chuck” does seem like a pretty fun show. So the idea is that one night Chuck gets an email from an old Stanford pal he hasn’t talked to in years, who is actually a super spy. The email consists of encoded images from a computer that has all of the NSA’s and CIA’s data in it (stupid Patriot Act). Plus the computer was one of those super smart ones so it also contains extrapolations and connections and thus some of the data pertains to future events…or something. Anyway Chuck is hypmotized by the images and thus gets them imprinted in his brain. The CIA and NSA are then after Chuck. The NSA sends the wonderful Adam Baldwin, and the CIA sends a leggy blonde spy. Guess which one is going to fall complicatedly in love with the Chuckster?

The blonde is played by Yvonne Strzechowski, who has a really short IMDB profile. She is passable as a super agent, she doesn’t stand out and she’s not terribly boring. And Adam Baldwin is one of my favorite TV character actors. The rest of Chuck’s peripheral characters are actually pretty good–Joshua Gomez as the sidekick Morgan, and the rest of Chuck’s coworkers at the Nerd Herd provide capable comic background action, if a little flat.

The action in this pilot was well handled, and the ending — setting up the juxtaposition between Chuck’s newfound government agent status and his work problems — gives you a slightly above-average setup for a show. Don sez check this one out.