Chuck Versus the Third Dimension

This week saw Virgin 1 broadcast ‘Chuck Versus the Third Dimension’, a 3-d episode of their spy-based comedy-drama, Chuck.  I said in a previous post, Chuck 3-D, that I’d discuss it once it had been on, so here am I.

The basic premise for the series is this; Chuck Bartowski is an intelligent twenty-something, who, following false allegations of cheating during university (and subsequent expulsion), finds himself working in an electronics store, the Buy More, as an ‘IT geek’.  His mundane life is disrupted when his old college room-mate, now a spy, implants the only copy of a critical CIA computer\database in to his brain.  With Chuck now the only way that the US Government can access this information, he is deemed an ‘asset’, and is assigned two handlers; CIA babe, Sarah Walker, and NSA nutcase, John Casey.  With Casey undercover at the Buy More, and Sarah posing as his girlfriend, Chuck is drawn in to mission after dangerous mission and hilarity ensues.

Chuck Versus the Third Dimension was the twelfth episode of the second season, and with the series only just escaping cancellation, a 3-d episode could be seen as something of a desperate gimmick.  As I stated in Chuck 3-D, I’ve never seen any 3d films using the old style red/blue glasses before, and so I was definitely intrigued.  The result, I felt, was something of a mixed bag.  Some of the effects really popped, and looked great; others, in particular anything flying ‘out’ of the screen, were incredibly lame.  The most noticeable thing about the whole experience was the terrible headache that it induced, and the fact that I felt like an absolute idiot wearing the glasses (with one of my cats totally obsessed by them).  That said, it has left me wondering how good the new 3d cinema experience is, especially with James Cameron’s Avatar threatening to blow everything else out of the water.  I probably wouldn’t have bothered going to the cinema to see it, but after getting a taste of what 3d can do, I’m much more likely to go.

While I’m here, I might as well tell you my general feelings on Chuck as a series.  Overall, it’s quite a fun show, with Zachary Levi giving a great central performance as Chuck.  Levi’s portrayal hits all the right notes, you believe in Chuck’s lack of self esteem that has led him to settle for the Buy More, while at the same time, his inherent capability and intelligence shine through without being overplayed.  There is a subtle hero worship of Chuck by the other Buy More employees that really rings true.  Levi is also a very expressive actor and comically displays Chuck’s struggle with spy-work to perfection.

He is ably supported by Yvonne Strahovski as Sarah Walker, Chuck’s will-they-won’t-they love interest, and Adam Baldwin as John Casey, always annoyed with Chuck, but still somehow really likeable.  I’m slightly less enamoured with the other Buy More staff, who aren’t bad as such, I just find their ‘hilarious’ sub-plots really tedious and a waste of airtime.   The cast is rounded out by Chuck’s sister, Ellie (Sarah Lancaster), and future brother-in-law ‘Captain Awesome’ (Ryan McPartlin), both doctors, and a ‘perfect’ couple, who Chuck lives with.  It’s to the show’s credit that both these characters come across as essentially nice, it would have been much easier to go a different direction with them (especially with someone with the nickname ‘Captain Awesome’).

Overall, I do like Chuck, but hand on heart, I don’t think I’d miss it if it was to be cancelled.  It’s a fun show, a good light-hearted romp, but despite all the positive qualities that I’ve listed, it somehow misses something.  The Buy More sub-plots don’t help, the characters there are a bit one-dimensional, and the wacky storylines usually aren’t funny.  The will-they-won’t-they romance between Chuck and Sarah is not always handled great; a recent storyline saw Chuck meet up with and fall for an ex-girlfriend, and he didn’t give a moments hesitation about Sarah, despite supposedly being madly in love with her.  How do you come back from that?

I think that the main problem is that, as an audience, we’ve become spoiled by series that have an ongoing plot running throughout a season, and so when you watch a show that’s largely episodic, there feels to be something missing.  That said, if you want to kill an hour with some light hearted action and comedy, you could do a lot worse than watch Chuck.