Caffeinated Clint
By Clint Morris
Somewhat a spoof of ”The Bourne Identity” (and half-a-dozen other films that take the piss out of the bumbling secret-agent genre), TV hit ”Chuck” tells of a lowly computer geek (Zachary Levi) who becomes the CIA’s most important agent when he accidentally opens a top-secret email full of government secrets, which somehow downloads into his brain. Now, whether he wants to or not, Chuck, who works at an electronics & computer store, has to team up with Agent Sarah Kent (played by Australia’s Yvonne Strahovski) to solve crimes on a daily basis.
”Firefly” favourite Adam Baldwin plays career killer Major John Casey, who initially is sent to retrieve the “data†from Chuck’s brain any way he can, but ultimately agrees to simply mentor Chuck.
To protect our reluctant hero (or the data more like it), the agents get jobs at the computer store and “Weinerlicious” (a hot dog stand) as cover. Sarah also becomes Chuck’s “fake” girlfriend at the merriment of Chuck’s sister (Sarah Lancaster, of “What about Brian” fame).
I enjoy “Chuck”. I think it has a terrific premise (Even if has been done a few times before), a great cast (Levi and Strahovski’s stars will rise considerably in the coming years), and obviously, enough of a budget to see it looks punchy and pretty. It’s not, unlike say “Entourage”, the kind of show where I’d want to sit down and watch back-to-back episodes, one after the other, but one-or-two in a row is a fun, tolerable time-passer.
Extras
Accompanying the first 13 episodes of the first season, is a rather thin set of extras including, deleted scenes, sit-down chat with Jachary Levi, Joshua Gomez, and the show’s creators Josh Schwartz and Chris Fedak, and interview clips with the core cast and crew.
