"Chuck" is another one of those shows with a poor advertising campaign that will turn off prospective viewers like myself. A hot blonde in sunglasses with a gun in her hand next to a dweebish nerd wearing a pocket protector with the tagline "She's the Agent, He's the Secret". Just what the hell is all that about? Well actually it's a very simple premise and though star Zachary Levi makes an unlikely hero, he's actually quite likable as a retail electronics store employee turned secret agent. It helps that sexy blonde Yvonne Strahovski is also there to keep him company since she's very easy on the eyes.
As a sales associate at a "Best Buy" type store called "Buy More", Chuck Bartowski (Levi) leads a quiet but non-eventful life. He lives with his sister Ellie (Sarah Lancaster) and her boyfriend nicknamed "Captain Awesome" (Ryan McPartlin) in the Echo Park section of Los Angeles and like most computer geeks, his life could use some sense of direction. Out of the blue he gets a mysterious email from Bryce, his ex-best friend who not only stole Chuck's girlfriend, but got him kicked out of Stanford. Seems after graduation, Bryce took up the life of a government secret agent and out of desperation sent Chuck a massive amount of information before getting killed. Upon opening the email the info is somehow downloaded directly into Chuck's brain and with all other sources semmingly destroyed he now has a large quantity of government secrets in his head.
Naturally when the CIA get wind of this they send two agents to monitor Chuck until a solution can be found and that's when our hero meets Sarah (Yvonne Strahovski). Though her demeanor is initially no-nonsense, she genuinely finds herself liking the nerdy Chuck when she takes a job at the eatery across from "Buy More" and poses as his girlfriend. The same can't be said for her partner Casey (Adam Baldwin) who sees Chuck as a threat and liability despite the fact he's been assigned to protect him by moving in next door and getting a sales job at "Buy More."
Each week's episodes center around the trio finding themselves in typical secret agent situations with Chuck calling upon the knowledge in his brain to get them out of trouble. The problem is Chuck can't call upon the information at will and can only access it when triggered visually. The espionage plots and sub-plots are okay, but what makes the show enjoyable are the quirky relationships amongst the characters. There's some genuinely nice chemistry between Chuck and Sarah with him being the geek and her torn between duty to her country and her growing emotional attachment to him. Baldwin may play a straight as an arrow character, but he has a lot of fun doing it in campy fashion. Then there is the "Geek Squad" type of 'Buy More" employees known as the "Nerd Herd", Chuck's co-workers who are eccentric in their own right and have no clue about his extra curricular activities. "Chuck" is not great television, but the well cast leads and supporting players put it above average fare.
Video: The 1080p VC-1 transfer in 1.78 to 1 aspect ratio is an improvement over the previously released dvd version but not by much. I was surprised by how much video noise could be found in the image, but that may be due to the fact of budget limitations within a first season show.
Audio: Pretty much a standard Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack encoded at 640 kbps. Though "Chuck" has a bit of action adventure, I guess there's nothing really exciting to justify a mix that rivals your typical Hollywood blockbuster.
Extras: Pretty much what we got with the dvd release. The ten deleted scenes are actually kind of cute and are spread over all three discs.
Also included are the featurettes Chuck on Chuck with series creators Josh Schwartz and Chris Fedak sitting down to discuss the show with Levi and co-star Joshua Gomez, Chuck Vs. The Chuckles which is a rather mediocre gag real, Chuck's World, a look at the casting process featuring audition tapes and the rather lame Chuck's Online World which takes a peek at the show's website.
I haven't been able to catch up with the current season of the show but for a sale price of around 40 bucks you can get a blu ray hi-def version of a quirky little show that actually has potential.
