The show itself is about a geek who somehow ends up with all of the CIA and NSA secrets downloaded into his brain. More importantly, the government computer which initially housed those secrets has been destroyed so the only recourse for the government is to recruit Chuck (the aforementioned geek) as a secret agent. Episodes generally revolve around Chuck undertaking various missions with his two handlers and ultimately saving the day, despite initially bungling things due to lack of experience and training.
If the setup seems fantastical, then don't worry about it as the show is an action-comedy as opposed to a straight up drama.
Which in itself is an interesting approach. Unlike other American comedy shows, Chuck doesn't have a lot of LOL moments (although they are there). The humour in Chuck tends to be a lot more subtle and in the form of parody or nods to other popular culture. To be fair, I don't have a lot of exposure to American comedy but the impression I have is that American comedy tends to be much more "in your face".
I guess the premise for the show is one which really fits my interest profile. The basic idea of geek gone good is one which really works (although I tend to think of myself as more of a nerd than a geek - not really cool enough to be a geek) and instantly adds easy relatability to the show. Then there's the fact that I've always loved Bond movies and Chuck certainly takes a few parody pot shots at Bond as well as other spy cliches.
Anyway, if you watch the show, its worth sticking with it past the first season which, in my opinion, was a bit slow as there wasn't much of an overarching plot or storyline. However, things pick up in the second season when a bit more continuity is added without sacrificing the shows mission of the week approach. Personally, I prefer serialised TV shows which have that ongoing story arc (I also loved Battlestar Galactica) as the story is ultimately richer for it.
Oh, one last thing - Yvonne Strahovski as the eye candy? Nice!!
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You know that she was used as the char model for Miranda in ME2 right?
Yup - BioWare managed to get an incredible group of voice actors for this game. I guess its an indicator of how mainstream gaming is becoming when you see the number of big names involved in VA work for ME2.
Anyway, I think she did a decent job (not great but decent). You can actually recognise her face in the game which is kinda cool although the resemblance doesn't last once the animation kicks in (uncanny valley?).
What makes her appearance in ME2 hilarious though is the gratuitous ass shots. I was keeping myself spoiler free before I played so I didn't know about this at first. However, after a while, you start thinking - "hey, is it just me or ...". Eventually, after I did my first playthrough and jumped on the forums, I noted all the references to the "dat ass" videos on YouTube (hilarious!).
This actually segues into a great example of how BioWare connect with their fans. Did you know that the characters in ME and ME2 actually have twitter profiles and make tweets in the style of that character? There was a really funny series of tweets about Miranda's ass a while back between some of the characters. I'm probably overusing this word but hilarious really is the perfect descriptor.
Oh, and by the way re: your comments about nerd vs geek - remember that Chuck is part of the Nerd Herd at Buy More.... :)
Yeah, but that is only because the name Geek Squad has already been taken. There is no doubt that Chuck is a geek (although I will concede the other nerd herders qualify as nerds).
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