Reviewed by Kevin Anderson
Stars Zachary Levi, Matthew Bomer, Joshua Gomez, Yvonne Strahovski, Adam Baldwin, Sarah Lancaster, Ryan McPartlin, Julia Ling | Written by Chris Fedak & Josh Schwartz
UK certification 15 | UK RRP £29.99 | DVD Region 2 | Runtime 562 minutes
Directed by Robert Duncan McNeill
The story of Chuck is the fantasy of every wage slave working retail in strip mall America. Chuck Bartowski (Levi) was booted from prestigious Stanford University after his best friend Bryce Larkin (Bomer) framed him for cheating, and Chuck went from dreaming of becoming the next Silicon Valley software mogul to tech support with the Nerd Herd at electronics big box store Buy More. Suddenly when his best friend turned nemesis sends him the crown jewels of US intelligence in a specicially encoded e-mail, his life is turned upside down. But in a good way. He goes from playing video games with his best friend Morgan Grimes (Gomez) to living Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell, complete with hot CIA agent Sarah Walker (Strahovski).
As if that wasn't enough, Sarah's cover is Chuck's girlfriend, working just across the mall at hot dog shop Winerlicious. Sarah plays her cover to a tee so much so that Chuck struggles during almost every episode with does-she, doesn't-she questions. Just to keep things interesting, throw in Major John Casey of the NSA (Baldwin, whom you may know as mercenary Jayne Cobb from Firefly). Casey enjoys his job, possibly too much, and his job mostly entails beating people up and/or shooting them. Casey also has the most complete and theatrically successful repertoire of macho grunts, steely stares and devilishly cryptic sadistic far off looks of any character in recent memory. With all the USA's state secrets crammed into his brain, Chuck now "flashes" when he sees bad guys, bombs, bugs or counterfeit cash, and he has become the most important strategic asset in the United States' arsenal.
Tense national security crises play out against the backdrop of strip-mall suburban Los Angeles, and Chuck struggles to keep his cover while living with his sister Ellie Bartowski (Lancaster) and her beefcake boyfriend Devon (McPartlin), a stereotypical frat boy that Chuck and Morgan refer to as Captain Awesome because everything with him is so awesome. Casey takes a job at Buy More to keep a close eye on Chuck, and they turn the theatre room of the store into a secure video uplink where they go over assignments with their superiors at the NSA and CIA. This show manages to walk the fine line between quirky and self-parody. Instead of relying on spy cliches, creators Josh Schwartz and Chris Fedak keep the plot lines interesting and unexpected while adding some complexity to the characters.
EXTRAS *** The DVD has all that is expected and not much more from a series set including deleted scenes, bloopers, interviews with the creators and character bios. Do however look for when Anna Wu (Ling) shows off her martial arts skills and swordmanship.