 Starring: Zachary Levi, Yvonne Strahovski, Adam Baldwin, Sarah Lancaster, Ryan McPartlin, Joshua Gomez
Director: Various
Year Of Release: 2007-2008
Plot: Just before he’s killed (or is he?), Bryce Larkin sends a secret government file to his old college roommate, Chuck. The geek is surprised to be contacted by Bryce as they parted on bad terms, however when he opens the file it downloads all the US’ biggest secrets into his brain, and he becomes the intersect, the only way to access info on the world’s baddest people. The CIA and NSA send in Sarah and Casey to protect him, which leads to a strange existence where Chuck’s a geeky computer nerd working in a shop by day, and a spy at night. |
Chuck is a very entertaining show, even if it is immensely stupid. I don’t mean the sci-fi trappings, where all the US’ biggest secrets are downloaded into one man’s brain and he’s the only person who then has access to them, it’s the idea that if that happened those in charge of national security would just leave Chuck in his normal life, and hope that all the baddest people in the world happen to travel to LA at some point so he can flash on them (which if you haven’t seen the show, isn’t as rude as it sounds).
It’s a fantasy of a normal geeky chap who suddenly gets to save the world, but it’s very daft. Fortunately it’s also a lot of fun.
It also fits into what I term geek-cheat, aka geek chic, which is where people who are actually cool like to call themselves geeks just because they like Star Wars. It’s become cool to be a geek, but not a real geek. Now I’ve known nerds/geeks, as none of them look like Zachary Levi, who’s basically a jock with messy hair. Genuine geeks couldn’t be cool even with years of training, as they just don’t get it. They dress like they only just discovered what clothes were that morning and can barely converse with normal people because there’s so little common ground. Those are the proper geeks and nerds, and it seems almost insulting to have the modern geek chic, where people pose as if they’re the real thing. Now I would never claim to be a proper geek, and I bow down their other-worldliness.
However what I also find rather odd about Chuck are the people behind it. The show was co-created by Josh Schwartz, best known for bringing The OC and Gossip Girl to TV. How do you go from those angsty teen shows to something like Chuck? There’s nothing else on his CV even vaguely like the geek chic show, or anything that’s a little bit action or sci-fi, so it’s certainly a bit of a departure. The show’s other creator, Chris Fedak, has no other screen credits, and apparently spent much of his time before Chuck working in the Academy Film Archive. However he went to college with Schwartz and after he pitched the initial idea for Chuck to Josh, they became the co-creators of the show.
However they’re not the only unusual additions to the production team. There’s also McG, director of Charlie’s Angels and Terminator: Salvation. He’s there largely because his Wonderland Sounds and Vision company produces the show. Wonderland was also behind The OC and Supernatural, which means that unfortunately for McG, his TV work’s actually been better than what he’s done in film, even though he’s far less hands on with his television stuff than his movies.
 Robert Duncan McNeill As Tom Paris In Voyager and on the set of Chuck |
Another Chuck producer is Alison Adler, the partner of actress Sara Gilbert, best known as Darlene in Roseanne. However, perhaps most interesting is the presence of Robert Duncan McNeill. Other than Schwartz and Fedak, he seems to be the most active in actually steering the show as supervising producer of all three seasons (so far), as well as the director of 12 episodes.
If the name is familiar that’s because he used to be an actor, and is probably best known for playing Tom Paris on Star Trek: Voyager (and we shouldn’t forget his sterling work in the masterpiece that was Masters Of The Universe, where he and Courtney Cox played the token earthlings). However, not long after Star Trek: Voyager ended, he gave up acting and has since become a very successful TV director.
He started out making episodes of Voyager, and has since worked on Dawson’s Creek, One Tree Hill, returned to Trek with Enterprise, Dead Like Me, Supernatural, Desperate Housewives, Medium, The OC, Las Vegas and Samantha Who?, amongst other. He’s certainly done pretty well for himself and proved that there is life after acting (although he’s still a regular at Trek conventions).
At the moment it’s looking like Chuck will be cancelled at the end of this season. It only survived after Season 2 because of a massive fan campaign in the States involving fan buying Subway sandwiches (Subway is one of the show’s advertisers, and fans wanted to show both their dedication to the show and those who support it financially). It certainly worked as Subway announced a major sponsorship deal which helped ensure a third season. Unfortunately it hasn’t done any better in the ratings this year and still ranks in the bottom third of primetime shows. To be honest, it does seem like the end is nigh for Chuck, but hopefully it’ll go out strong, because it is fun even if it is very silly.
TIM ISAAC
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