Save Chuck

Normally I don’t wax poetic over one of my favorite television shows.  However, the rumor of its potential demise is enough to state my case for it to continue forward.

I am talking about “Chuck”, a rather witty “actedy” (or an action/comedy hybrid, hence the name) that airs Monday nights on NBC.  The premise of the show centers around a rather nerdy twenty-something single guy with a hot girlfriend who works in an electronics store by day and helps the government infiltrate the bad guys at night.  Okay, so the whole thing might seem rather implausible to anyone who’s never tuned in to this gem of a show and would rather settle for something less esoteric like “Dancing With The Stars” or “How I Met Your Mother”.  Then again, “House” does air in that same time slot.  But at least Dr. House is not as quirky as Charles Carmichael.

Anyway, here is my attempt to offer a brief synopsis of the show.  In the first episode of Season One, Chuck Bartowski receives an e-mail attachment from his former college roommate Bryce Larkin, which turns out to be The Intersect.  Chuck ends up with a load of government data lodged well into the gray matter that is his brain, which attracts the attention of two government agents,  Agents Sarah Walker (the smokin’ hot chick) and John Casey (the gung-ho dude with serious personal issues) who attempt to retrieve the data.  However, when it’s discovered Chuck has intermittent “flashes” that cause him to recall pertinent information (i.e. when he encounters the bad guys or spots anything unusual), both Walker and Casey decide to put their “asset” (as is he referred to from time to time) to good use.  Of course, this unique arrangement poses problems with Chuck as he has to lead a double life, all the while letting his employer Buy More (which is a knock-off of Best Buy if there were one), his family (namely his sister Ellie and live-in boyfriend turned future-stepbrother “Captain Awesome”) and his friends (including best buddy/co-worker Morgan Grimes) to be none the wiser.  To make things even more complicated, Agents Walker and Casey have to take covers working nearby, both at the Buy More and the Weinerlicious/Orange Orange.  And get this, Agent Walker gets to be Chuck’s girlfriend as a means of keeping up appearances.

Okay, I’ve pretty much said a mouthful so far.  However, the events tend to get even more interesting as they progress.  During the first season, the government attempts to rebuild a new Intersect so that Chuck’s capabilities would be rendered useless.  Along the way, we find out why Chuck was expelled from Stanford with a semester left to go and why Bryce has a tendency to pop up when least expected.  That season was cut off unexpectedly due to the Writer’s Strike, so the supposed completion of the new Intersect wouldn’t take place until the beginning of Season 2.  As Agent Casey was about to do away with Chuck one and for all, a computer virus ends up destroying the new Intersect.  A rival agency named Fulcrum was responsible for the incident, and ends up going after the original which they believe belonged to Bryce.  When a criminal crashes into the Buy More on Christmas Eve and takes everyone hostage, Chuck has an encounter with a  Fulcrum agent named Mauser, who posed as a police negotiator that discovers his secret and attempts to exploit him to further the agency’s evil dilemma before Sarah shoots him dead.  Chuck and Sarah’s relationship, which was getting quite personal up to this point, end up being strained for a period of time.  However, both would end up being paired together for a mission where they would be a “married couple”.  The subdivision they move into to turns out to be a front for a Fulcrum operation which they use to test their version of the Intersect on unsuspecting neighbors before loading it into Chuck’s brain.

So now Chuck Bartowski has more info in this crainium that would make the average guy’s head explode.  Meanwhile, a mysterious character named Orion, who designed the original Intersect, makes contact with Chuck, giving our hero hope that he might get all that juicy material out of his brain.  Sarah ends up getting called out by her superior over her “personal” relationship with Chuck, who also assists him in locating his long-lost father that the two end up meeting and discover that he was indeed the mysterious Orion.

And that’s where the series is as of now.  As you could imagine, it’s one of those stories that just gets better as it goes along.  Season 1 was more of a general setup of the entire premise, while Season 2 really began to delve into the heart of the matter.  To end it abruptly would be disheartening since the likelihood of having all the loose ends put together by season’s end is remote at best.  And besides, the antics that take place within the Buy More (mainly the relationship between Big Mike and his subordinates) really do create a suspension of disbelief.  It serves as a reminder that our lives need not be as humdrum as they appear.  Even if you do work a rather dull, meaningless job at the lower rung of the corporate ladder with no hope of getting anywhere, it doesn’t hurt to daydream just a little.  Okay, so it doesn’t have to be a James Bond or Walter Mitty kind of experience, but hopefully you get the idea.

In the meantime, you might want to check out ChuckTV.net to find lots of stuff about the show, including potential spoilers, episode  photos, and info on how you can keep “Chuck” alive for Season 3.  Oh, and don’t forget to visit hulu.com to view any episodes you haven’t seen yet.  Trust me, this is a great show that’s worth checking out that deserves to continue.  Otherwise, I wouldn’t have much else to watch that night.  Unless, of course pro wrestling counts …