He’s the secret, she’s the agent
NBC’s Chuck is one of the most underrated shows on television. It ran from 2007 to 2012 and consists of five seasons, with a total of 91 episodes. The series ran a full story arc with a satisfying finale, but over the course of five years, it was put into jeopardy due to low viewership.
Although holding an extremely loyal fanbase, Chuck never really caught the attention of the mainstream viewer, and as viewership began to decline after its second season, NBC decided to cancel the show. The fans were livid. An online campaign was created to save Chuck. Instead of going after the network, the fans decided to approach the main sponsor, Subway, in their attempts at saving the show. Eventually, the fans were successful, and NBC confirmed a third season. Despite continually low viewership, the show continued with a fourth and fifth season, as well.
Chuck follows the story of Chuck Bartowski (Zachery Levi). Having been expelled from Stanford five years prior, Chuck is forced to move in with his older sister, Ellie (Sarah Lancaster), and her boyfriend, Devon a.k.a. Captain Awesome (Ryan McPartlin), in Burbank, California. He spends his days working at a fictional electronic store called The Buy More, playing video games with his childhood friend, Morgan (Joshua Gomez), and reading comic books. This all changes when his former college roommate, Bryce Larkin (Matt Bomer), a CIA operative, sends him an encrypted email containing all of the CIA database. When Chuck opens the email, all the information and secrets are downloaded into his brain.
Once the CIA and NSA discover that an average citizen holds all the secrets of the government, they send their two bests agents, Sarah Walker (Yvonne Strahovshi) and John Casey (Adam Baldwin), to protect and watch over him. The show revolves around this unlikely trio as they work together to bring down terrorists and corrupt officials, all the while trying to find a way to extract the data from Chuck’s brain so he can return to his ordinary life.
This show contains so many genres that it is very difficult to narrow it down to just one. At its core, Chuck is a comedy. It also contains a lot of action, spy and government conspiracies, drama, and romance. That being said, the romantic relationship between the two main characters, Chuck and Sarah, will drive any person who watches the show completely mad. As cheesy as this sounds, Chuck and Sarah are a match made in heaven. Never before have I been taken on such an emotional rollercoaster ride in terms of a fictional relationship, eventually realizing that I had invested myself fully in the character of Chuck, and that his disappointments and successes were my own.
Television shows that evoke emotion in their audience are the ones worth watching, and these shows really justify sitting down and spending 45 minutes in front of a TV. Ladies and gentlemen, I have never cried during a movie or television show. Never. However, the closest I have ever came to shedding a tear was the series finale of this very show. That is beautiful television in my mind. Chuck is beyond Overview approved. Get watching.