First Impressions: Chuck

In a story I broke this weekend, tonight sees the debut of two nerd oriented shows. Of the two, The Big Bang Theory (see my First Impressions) by far handled the nerd culture better than tonight’s other debut, Chuck. But if we want to get technical, the guys from The Big Bang Theory are actual nerds while Chuck and his co-workers, despite working for something called the Nerd Herd, definitely fall under the label of nerds. And if you have to ask what is the difference between a nerd and a geek, you are definitely not either.

What’s worse Chuck even calls himself a nerd in the pilot. Seriously whoever is Chuck’s nerd advisor needs to fired (or possibly they need to find one if they don’t already have one) because Chuck and his best buddy Morgan are completely one note and clichéd and it was almost like the writers got the inspiration for their jokes out of a Nerds for Dummies guidebook. And while they are firing people, the cinematographer and all his uber-close up shots need to go. It is not often I am thankful for not having a high definition television, but this would be one of those cases because I bet anyone who does could count the number of nose hairs the actors had in those shots. I also have to question the musical adviser too, yeah Jet’s Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is was a great choice for the seen with the Token Hot Chick getting dressed, but they didn’t even feature the best line in the song, “You’ll be the sinner and I’ll be the sin.” Then the big emotional scene at the end features a song by The Shins; how Zach Braff of them.

But all that is knick picking, my biggest problem with the first episode has to do with the main plot. So Chuck is e-mailed sensitive government information which is downloaded to his brain. That isn’t as close to being as farfetched to how they portray our government employees so ruthlessly. We have in one episode we witness an NSA agent kill an unarmed CIA agent (albeit a rouge one), then give the okay to kill another CIA agent, which he almost does with his car, who is just following order from the superior. Then we have a CIA agent stabbing multiple NSA agents. Really, if I wanted to hear how inept and corrupt our government is I’d listen to Air America.

That is not to say the whole show is flawed. The two saving graces are the two government agents sent to look after Chuck. First for the NSA there is Adam Baldwin (My Bodyguard) who steals every movie or television show he has ever been in and the plot twist with his character at the end shows that the series has much potential after the Pilot. But more importantly the show could possible feature the hottest Token Hot Chick ever in the history of television in the form of a CIA agent. Her dance sequence could be the sexiest thing you will ever see on network television. Her twist at the end can also put a major monkey wretch in the future of the show.

Even though Morris is extremely annoying, the background geeks of the Nerd Herd could prove to be more entertaining, led by archenemies Harry, who was also a great source of comic relief as horny forensic guy on Dexter. Surprisingly even though the easiest scene stealer to write, the geek, turned out extremely annoying in the form of Morris, the breakout scene steal is token perfect dude (who typically is the most annoying character), Chuck’s sister’s boyfriend Captain Awesome.

Verdict: A pretty lackluster Pilot but they do set up things nicely for the show to improve considering the two twists at the end. But I still a little worried because for something labeled a dramady, the laughs were not all that funny. Really the only thing that got more than a chuckle out of me was Chuck’s choice of ringtones. So they may want to add a comedy writer to the already long list of people I said they need to bring on. Chuck airs Mondays at 8:00 on NBC. You can also download the Pilot for free on Amazon Unbox.


Also I would like to mention with premiere week in full swing for the credible networks, the good people over at Tapeworthy and The TV Addict round up a group television blogger and myself to rate this year’s new shows and you can find a grid of all our responses here. For those that find graphs too complicated, below I took the averages of all the show and put them in order below as well as the rubric and the list of who participated:

1. Pushing Daisies: 5.00
2. Chuck: 4.67
3. Dirty Sexy Money: 4.56
4. Reaper: 4.31
5. Gossip Girl: 3.92
6. Aliens in America: 3.75
7. Journeyman: 3.67
8. Bionic Woman: 3.54
9. Private Practice: 3.33
10. Cane: 3.20
11. Samantha Who?: 3.17
12. Sarah Connor Chronicles: 3.00
New Amsterdam: 3.00
K-Ville: 3.00
15. Life Is Wild: 2.75
Life: 2.75
17. Back to You: 2.70
18. Women's Murder Club: 2.50
Big Bang Theory: 2.50
20. Carpoolers: 2.43
21. Viva Laughlin: 2.00
Big Shots: 2.00
23. Cavemen: 1.63

1 - Don't waste your time unless you find ACCORDING TO JIM 'funny'
2 - Not great but at least doesn't offend me.
3 - Fun to watch if nothing else is on.
4 - Has potential. Worth a second look.
5 - Set your TiVo to Season's Pass!
N/A - Haven't watched yet.

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I was a little surprised of how high people ranked Reaper and I am beginning to think either everyone else saw something different than I did or I am the only one not on the CW payroll. It weird that everyone “in the know” thinks the show is great yet not actually saying what is so great about it yet every normal person I talk to say it would be kind to call it mediocre. The best description I have heard about the show was that it was in a word underwhelming. My only other theory is that everyone else is grading on a curve because lets face it, if you take Pushing Daisies out of the equation, none of the other shows would have even ranked in the top five of last year’s list.

Now if happened upon the 9th Green from one other other TV blogs, you may want to check out my contest where I am giving away the fourth season of Nip/Tuck on DVD. Click the banner on the top of the sidebar for details.

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