Geoff's ranking of TV Dramas. #15: CHUCK

SPOILERS BELOW.

Chuck (NBC) will go down in history as "the little show that could, and did persevere". On paper, it looks as the type of show that wouldn't garner much ratings (it hasn't), that has a limited appeal (I wouldn't agree but I admit that its audience is pretty set at this point), and that would be canceled after its first season. Yet, from its premiere in 2007, at the end of each season, this show has stared cancellation in the face. Each time, cancellation blinked.

The Wikipedia link above provides more specifics about the show, but in a nutshell "Chuck" is about a young man named Chuck (Zach Levi), smart but lacking in ambition who somehow gets involved with the CIA because of an "Intersect" that is implanted in his mind. The "Intersect" is a database/neural supercomputer that causes Chuck to 'flash' and recall various bits of information whenever he sees something that triggers the Intersect's database. This makes him a valuable asset to the Pentagon, who assigns two handlers to watch him: CIA agent Sarah Walker (Yvonne Strahovski) and NSA Agent Col. John Casey (Adam Baldwin). Chuck has to keep all of this a secret from his friends at the Buy More where he works (kind of like a fictional Best Buy) and family in his sister and her fiance. To complicate matters, Chuck falls in love with Sarah, who surprisingly seems to reciprocate...but how can a Nerd love a Spy?

Of course, what I've said above can't even begin to describe the hijinks and twists that the story takes from there up to the present; for that, you should watch the show. "Chuck" is most of all a show with heart, and about heart. Zach Levi said in an interview with Alan Sepinwall that:

Our show itself is very special in that regard. I've said this before: we're not as consistently as

funny as a comedy, we're not as consistently dramatic as a drama, not as consistently action-packed as a "24" or whatever. So if you're looking for specifically any one of those genres, I don't know if "Chuck" is your style. But if you're looking for something that combines all of it, there's only one show, and that's ours. I don't know of any other one.

The closest one I can think of is "Pushing Daisies" which I've already mentioned on this site; it premiered the same year as "Chuck" did and had a similar mix of comedy and drama, you'd just substitute "fantasy" for "action." Still, Levi is right; Chuck does a great combination of action, drama and comedy, but the selling point is the show's heart, and by extension the characters and actors heart. Over the show's run, the entire team has become an extended family of sorts (moreso with the relationship between Chuck and Sarah which culminated in their wedding at the end of last season) and to me, that's what kept me as a fan. Sure, the writing was good, the comedy was funny, the action was passable when it happened, though you'd never mistake this show for 'The Unit' or 'Band of Brothers'. Throughought it all though, the emotional journey that its key stars make is the show's selling point, and it's what earns "Chuck" a place on my top dramas.

Chuck isn't perfect. The acting is good, but the low-budget nature will come out frequently whether it be bluescreen or "instantaneous travel", it can't really be called a 'realistic' show, and the target audience is admittedly of a nerdy type. If you can't find a humor or buzz in hearing the song "Tom Sawyer" while seeing Chuck play "Space Invaders" (heck, if you have no idea what either "Tom Sawyer" or "Space Invaders" is), then odds are that a lot of the humor in Chuck wouldn't tickle your fancy. Additionally, I admit that Chuck the character can be pretty annoying at times with his insecurity, but maybe that's me being annoyed with the traits I identify with as well :) Still, the chemistry between Chuck and Sarah is evident, I can buy that Sarah would fall in love with this guy, I admire the growth in Chuck from the beginning till now, I enjoy Morgan, Casey, the Buy-More crew and General Beckman...Ellie (Chuck's sister) has been a wet blanket through most of the series but hopefully that will change. Captain Awesome (Chuck's brother-in-law) is awesome, lol.

Seasonwise, it is pretty consistent and it's better to talk about story-arcs than seasons. I enjoyed all seasons that dealt with Chuck's father and his mother. I enjoyed the Alexi Volkoff storyline in the most recent season, and I was probably the only one who liked Hannah. Stories that didn't work for me too much included the one with Chevy Chase, and while I didn't HATE Shaw like many other fans did, I think it could have been done better. I'm not a fan of "will-they-won't-they" drama but "Chuck" did a decent job of it without making both parties seem like bombheads, unlike another show I like which I'll describe in another post. What I'm most grateful for is that "Chuck" now has the opportunity to go out on its own terms. It's been renewed for its fifth and final season, and so the writers know what they have to do and how they want to do it. I'm looking forward to great things, and I know that the Buy-More, Castle, and all things involved will go down in TV history as "the little show that did." Let's hear some Cake!