Chuck Official Site
The Time: Mondays, 8:00 PM, NBC
The Show:
Chuck
Bartowski is just an average guy who works at the local Burbank,
California Buy More (think Best Buy) store and lives with his sister,
Ellie and her fiance, Captain Awesome. Chuck’s life has
stagnated since his best friend Bryce Larkin framed him for cheating,
resulting in his getting kicked out of Stanford. However,
Chuck’s life changes when Bryce, who’s actually a rogue CIA agent,
chooses Chuck into which to download the only copy of the CIA / NSA
computer database called The Intersect. Now, until the
government can find a way to get the Intersect out of his head, Chuck
is an unwilling secret agent, able to access the data whenever he sees
or hears something that causes a mnemonic “flash” of the Intersect in
his mind. Chuck is protected by CIA Agent Sarah Walker, a hot
and lethal CIA agent on whom he has a crush, and NSA Agent John Casey,
of whom he’s constantly afraid.
The Stars:
• Zachary Levi – Chuck Bartowski
• Yvonne Strahovski – CIA Agent Sarah Walker
• Adam Baldwin – NSA Agent John Casey
• Joshua Gomez – Morgan Grimes
• Sarah Lancaster – Ellie Bartowski
• Ryan McPartlin – Captain Awesome
• Vik Sahay – Lester Patel
• Mark Christopher Lawrence – Big Mike
• Julia Ling – Anna Wu
• Scott Krinsky – Jeff
The Episode: “Chuck vs. The Fat lady”
Chuck, Sarah and Casey get an assignment to secure a listing of Fulcrum agents – government agents that are part of a secret cabal – that Chuck’s ex-girlfriend, Jill’s (Jordana Brewster) boss had in his possession when he was killed. Jill is brought into the assignment and proves useful in helping decipher her boss’ puzzle clues that ultimately lead to the encrypted list. However, Jill is kidnapped and held for the ransom of the list and a desperate Chuck has to break protocol to get the list and save her. Meanwhile, at the Buy More, the new efficiency expert is looking to nail Chuck for his many suspicious “service calls” and Morgan has to cover for him.
The Lowdown:
This was another solid episode in a season of them so far. The show runners actually threw in a little Rambaldi-type of treasure hunt as Chuck and company had to work through some ancient puzzles that Jill’s boss had set up that took me right back to Alias. We see that Chuck is really falling for Jill again and, considering his past relationships on the show, know that something is going to happen to disrupt that eventually. There aren’t any really big laughs this episode, except for when the efficiency expert joins Morgan, Jeff and Lester for their weekly poker game and gets wasted on two wine coolers.
We again see that Chuck thinks quickly on his feet when he has a plan to get both Jill and the Fulcrum list back from the assassin that kidnaps her. I’m of the mindset that if the show runs long enough, Chuck is going to be more fully inducted into the spy world because they’re going to see that he’s a natural for it. We get reminded that also Casey can frequently be funny, he’s still a deadly serious agent / killer when he needs to be when he thinks Chuck betrays the good ole USA. Finally, there’s also a surprise at the end of the episode that is telegraphed well before, especially if you watch the show religiously, but especially when Casey and Sarah are wrapping up the mission in their “spy bunker.” Nevertheless, solid work by all involved as usual.