CHUCK 1.2 – "Chuck Versus The Helicopter"

Writers: Josh Schwartz & Chris Fedak
Director: Robert Duncan McNeill

Cast: Zachary Levi (Chuck Bartowski), Sarah Lancaster (Ellie Bartowski), Adam Baldwin (Major John Casey), Joshua Gomez (Morgan Pace), Yvonne Strahovski (Sarah Walker), C.S. Lee (Harry Tang), Bonita Friedericy (General Beckman), Tony Todd (CIA Director Graham), Ryan McPartlin (Captain Awesome), Julia Ling (Anna Wu), Vik Sahay (Lester), Mark Christopher Lawrence (Big Mike), Scott Krinsky (Jeff) & John Fleck (Dr. Jonas Zarnow)

After a doctor with a potential "cure" for Chuck's condition is murdered, Chuck finds himself caught in a dangerous fight for his life...

Sarah: I'm sorry I yelled at you.

Chuck: It was our first fight. You know it's a big step
if our relationship were remotely real.

I reviewed the Pilot episode of Chuck a long time ago, and it didn't inspire me to follow the US airings. It was intermittently fun, but the prospect of more episodes didn't excite me. The show has just started on Virgin1 here in the UK, so I thought I'd check out the second episode. Sadly, Chuck Versus The Helicopter was worse than the introductory episode, stretching a thin story to breaking point... and forgetting to include any jokes.

Chuck (Zachary Levi) is our hero geek, whose mind is now crammed with the sum total of the US government's secrets – Johnny Mnemonic style. Consequently, as a mind-vault of sensitive data and target for international espionage, Chuck is protected by beautiful CIA agent Sarah Walker (Yvonne Strahovski) and bitter NSA macho-man Major John Casey (Adam Baldwin). The rival agents have gone undercover to keep Chuck safe; Casey posing as a co-worker at the store Chuck is employed as an IT nerd (very bad), and Sarah opening a "Wienerlicious" food restaurant that demands she put pigtails in her hair and wear a tiny skirt, posing as Chuck's girlfriend (very, very good). The things that girl does for her country...

To be brutally frank, if it wasn't for the gorgeous Yvonne Strahovski (with the writers finding ways to ensure her character plays dress-up), I'd have turned off after 20 minutes. Chuck overstays its welcome as an hour-long comedy drama. It needs to be brief wham-bam fun, but it hangs around trying to make its 30-minute plot last 60. Consequently, there's an abundance of knockaround japes, running around for little reason, a few unnecessary martial arts (badly filmed), and a languid subplot about Chuck's sister Ellie (lovely Sarah Lancaster) cooking a meal for her brother and his friends.

Still, Zachary Levi is very likeable as Chuck (deinitely the best "TV nerd" of late), Baldwin's bad attitude as Casey raises some smiles, and Strahovski is cuteness personified as Sarah. The rest of the cast have less to do here, so I'm not feeling the chemistry between Levi and best-friend character Morgan (Joshua Gomez). This episode was more interested in the Chuck/Sarah/Casey triangle of distrust, which is fine.

The story has Chuck undergoing "therapy" to have the government secrets extracted from his mind. But, after a cursory examination by Dr Zarnow (John Fleck) in front of a home cinema screen (that includes a wonderful in-joke for Lost fans), Zarnow is killed in a car bomb soon after leaving. And the doc's murder soon has Chuck pulled in two directions over who to blame: hard-ass Casey or hot-ass Sarah.

But I just wasn't gripped by anything. I like Levi, Baldwin and Strahowski, but the storyline didn't develop succinctly, or justify its 43-minutes (excluding ads). It would have been tolerable if Chuck Versus The Helicopter was funny, but the Pilot was a masterclass in comedy compared to this. I don't remember laughing once. The best it earned was a few wry smiles, and a giggle at a tablecloth gag towards the end. Chuck should be like Get Smart with a Malcolm In The Middle-style joke quotient, but it's bone dry.

And there's also a broader problem with the concept; as Chuck's "brain dumps" (where info locked in his head bubbles to the surface to assist him) could quickly become a crutch for the writers. And it could become monotonous having Chuck pulled from pillar to post by Casey and Sarah.

Overall, I was disappointed with this episode: not enough jokes, not enough pace, not enough plot. It was difficult to care about the death of a creepy-looking doctor who only had one scene before he croaked. There were only two things that kept me watching: trying to guess when/how the titular helicopter would appear, and if events would conspire to get Yvonne Strahowski into her knickers again. To save yourself the bother of watching, the answers are: right near the end, and not this week.


14 April 2008
Virgin1, 10.00 pm