Chuck

A geeky guy named Chuck (Zachary Levi) accidentally downloads all of the CIA and NSA’s secrets into his skull. Befriended by a beautiful CIA agent (Yvonne Strahovski) and antagonized by a tough NSA agent (Adam Baldwin), Chuck and his hapless pal Morgan (Joshua Gomez) must deal with spies, rogue government agents, and ninjas -- not to mention the disapproval of Chuck’s ultra-successful sister and her husband, Captain Awesome. It’s a comedy-spy drama with an emphasis on the comedy.

The Pitch:	It's "Heroes," only there's one hero, and his superpower is apparently having his brain stuffed full of government secrets against his will. But other than that? Exactly like "Heroes."
When It’s On	Mondays at 8 PT/ET, NBC
When It Starts	Mon 9/24
What It’s Up Against	How I Met Your Mother/Big Bang Theory (CBS), Prison Break (Fox), Everybody Hates Chris/Aliens in America (CW), Dancing With the Stars (ABC)
Starring...	Zachary Levi, Yvonne Strahovski, Adam Baldwin
Cliche-o-Meter	Sci-Fi Geeks Fish out of Water Guys named Chuck
Fandom Factor	Warm
Do Not Adjust Your Set:	Wait a minute... nerdy hero stuck in boring, go-nowhere job... Sucked into a world of intrigue and adventure by forces beyond his control... Semi-annoying sidekick. I thought "Reaper" was on Tuesday nights.
Why It Will Be First To Go:	Target audience of geeks will be too pre-occupied playing World of Warcraft, masturbating furiously to online porn to tune in regularly.
Why It Won't:	For all our gentle kidding about nerds and "Reaper" and masturbation, this is actually one of the better new shows of the season.
Odds of Failure:	10-1
Show's official web site

(A TeeVee/TV Barn top 10 notable show.)

Full Review

If you think it's unlikely that anyone would name a TV show "Chuck," you'll find the show's title character equally unlikely. Played by Zachary Levi, Chuck is a smart, funny guy who's more than a bit of an underachiever. He lives with his beautiful, successful sister and her husband (who Chuck derisively calls "Captain Awesome"), and in the series' very first scene she's throwing her brother a birthday party in hopes of setting him up with one of her beautiful, successful colleagues. Chuck's reaction is pretty much what you'd expect from a guy with Chuck's aim-lower life philosophy: he tries to climb out his bedroom window.

Turns out Chuck's single in large part because he's still stuck on his former girlfriend from years ago in college. His roommate Bryce stole her away, but it turns out Bryce (now a rogue government operative) has one final surprise for Chuck: a top-secret delivery of CIA and NSA decrets directly into his brain via a particularly spunky e-mail attachment. Now the last person in possession of all the accumulated classified knowledge of the United States, Chuck's wanted by everybody, including a beautiful CIA agent (Yvonne Strahovski) and a tough as nails NSA agent (Adam Baldwin of "Firefly").

If the premise sounds ridiculous, it is. But that's okay. Because "Chuck" succeeds by being consistently laugh-out-loud funny, by emphasizing the comedic over the dramatic at every possible turn without veering into eye-winking self-parody. It's a hybrid of a slacker-geek comedy and a spy movie, not surprising coming from creator Josh Schwartz, who succeeded with "The O.C.," a bizarre mixture of geek comedy and "Melrose Place"-style soap opera.

In "Chuck," the genre switching comes fast and furious, but it never really feels forced. The show starts with a "40 Year-Old Virgin" vibe, rapidly becomes "Mission Impossible," and segues briefly into "Office Space" before becoming a crazy combination of "Austin Powers" and "The Italian Job." And while many of the situations feel slightly derivative, Chuck -- an average, likeable guy who wasn't living up to his potential even before he became the most valuable repository of classified intelligence on Earth -- smooths out the bumps with a positive attitude and a smile.

By the way, you may have noticed that two fall series, "Chuck" and the CW's "Reaper," share a very similar premise. Both of them are quite good, but as always, when it's time to break a tie you've got to go to the second bananas. Chuck's sidekick is his geeky pal Morgan (Joshua Gomez), his co-worker at the Buy More electronics store, and he's pretty standard as far as geeky comedic foils go. The sidekick on "Reaper," on the other hand, is an excruciating Jack Black knock off that should have the "School of Rock" filing for a restraining order as soon as humanly possible. Plus, Yvonne Strahovski is gorgeous. "Chuck" gets the square.

NBC has slotted "Chuck" on Mondays at 8 ET/PT, in a sci-fi block that also features "Heroes" at 9 ET/PT and "Journeyman" at 10 ET/PT. I'm a little skeptical of the addition of the super-serious "Journeyman" to the line-up ("Bionic Woman" would have been a better match), but "Chuck" is a perfect lead-in for "Heroes." Both of them mix comedy in with their drama, and cover geek themes while not digging so deep down into geekdom that they never find a broad audience. "Chuck" is an action comedy with a lot of heart, and it's the best hourlong pilot I saw this year.--JASON SNELL

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