Chuck Review

One of my favorite new shows last year was Chuck. Sparing many details, the show’s lead character is a computer geek suddenly pulled into a fast-paced world of spies and criminal activity — basically, it’s a “fish out of water” story.

Throwing a character into a new situation is always a good way to get easy laughs and make lots of unbelievable things happen, and this show takes advantage of that to the point of absurdity. It works, however, because the dialog is fun and real (well, as real as it can be). The best dialog — and some of the best jokes — come from conversations between Chuck and Morgan who have lots of geeky conversations about computers and video games.

In this new season Chuck has realized just how much he is capable of, and wants to become a real spy and not just a tagalong with the others. I think this is a good and natural evolution for the character and storyline, but some details have been left out somewhere: not only has he somehow gained the necessary skills, but he’s now free to join in the danger of such expeditions despite his special status as “the intersect.” The first season of the show required suspension of disbelief towards the whole concept but we were rewarded with true-to-life geeky conversations. This season seems to ask for more suspension of disbelief without giving any additional backing to make me accept it.