Chuck

I recently finished watching Chuck, the action-drama-comedy TV show that aired from 2007 to 2012 on NBC.

It was only 4-1/2 seasons long as the fifth season ended with only 13 episodes. For some reason, it never really garnered ratings strong enough to keep going.

I watched it on Amazon Prime and somewhere in mid-fourth season, Prime started requiring payment for the show. Prior to that, it was part of the Prime package and free to watch.

My wife decided she didn't want to watch any further, so I ended up doing it by myself. And I'm glad I did.

Like many TV shows, it started off with an interesting premise. Chuck Bartowski, a computer nerd, worked for the Nerd Herd at big-box store, Buy More. This was modeled after real-life Best Buy's Geek Squad.

Chuck received an email from an old college friend that had an attachment which downloaded the CIA's database into Chuck's brain. This database was called the Intersect.

Two agents, Sarah Walker from the CIA and John Casey from NSA, were assigned to Chuck. Sarah was a gorgeous blond  and Casey a no-nonsense, sharpshooting, rough-and-tumble guy.  Both were tops in their fields with assassin and close quarters combat training under their belts. It was their job to be handlers and protect Chuck as an invaluable asset to national security.

The first couple seasons, Chuck fumbled and bumbled his way through missions relying on flashes from the Intersect to recognize villains and even perform kung-fu in hand-to-hand combat situations. His background as a tech nerd came in handy many times for hacking computers and disabling bombs.

As was expected, a romance developed between Chuck and Sarah. It was rocky at first as both resisted their feelings though Chuck more readily admitted to his. Dalliances with other people were something of an issue, but eventually their relationship flourished and they married at the end of the fourth season.

Other characters included Morgan Grimes, Chuck's best friend and colleague at the Buy More, Ellie Bartowski, Chuck's sister, who ended up marrying Devin Woodcomb (Captain Awesome), Jeff Barnes and Lester Patel, a pair of loser doofuses who also worked at Buy More but played an incredibly redeeming role in preventing a bomb from going off in the finale, General Diane Beckman, NSA director who handed out assignments to the team and Big Mike, originally manager of the Buy More, but later assistant manager.

As the series progressed, Chuck became a capable agent and used the alias of Charles Carmichael when out in the field. Early on, there was a touch of Michael Scott to him, but he outgrew it quickly.

In the fifth season, Sarah downloads a corrupt version of the Intersect which caused her to forget she's married to Chuck and is instructed to kill him. With her amnesia, she is led to believe that her whole relationship with Chuck was just a deep-cover assignment by rogue agent Nicholas Quinn who wanted the Intersect all for himself.

In the end, Quinn is defeated and Chuck is left to try and get Sarah to fall in love with him again. The final scene where they are sitting on a beach and he tells her their story of which she had no memory and no feelings attached to it, leads to a kiss as music plays and the screen goes black. The producers wanted to leave it to the audience's imagination as to whether or not they rekindled what they had. I tend to think they did. But, apparently, a lot of watchers were miffed that it was left open-ended like that.

The finale tied up everyone's storylines with Ellie and Devin moving to Chicago to work as department heads in a hospital there, Morgan moving in with Alex (John Casey's daughter), Casey heading off to Germany to find the woman he loves and Jeffster (Jeff and Lester) getting a recording contract from a German record producer.  

Of course, the two main characters' ending wasn't conclusive, but I prefer to think of it as Chuck and Sarah starting over and building their relationship again from scratch with all the excitement and magic that implies. It's a sweet ending despite what the naysayers complain.

I found the cast to be likeable as the characters they portrayed were all very well rounded with their own quirks and nuances.

As for eye candy, there was Sarah, Ellie, and Alex to appeal to men and Devin for the women. Perhaps other male characters had some appeal to women, but I'd have to ask one to find out. I'm talking strictly looks here.

It's no surprise that Hollywood uses attractive females in television and movies. After all, they offer a lust factor that keeps men coming back to watch the show. Or, at least, keeps their attention long enough to hook them on the storyline.

But I prefer to view them as a mental exercise in choosing a mate. Which character would I want to spend the rest of my life with?

Of all the television I have watched over the years, I can certainly say that Elliot Reid, Pam Beasley, Temperance Brennan, Angela Montenegro, Kate Austen, Claire Littleton,  Lisa Braeden, April Ludgate, Ann Perkins, Juliet O'Hara, Elizabeth Keen, Liv Moore, Elaine Benes, Daphne Moon, Dana Scully, Maggie Greene, Audrey Horne, Deanna Troi, Diane Chambers, and so on, ad infinitum, all had a hotness factor.

But Sarah Walker is the only one I could envision spending my life with. The character portrayed by Yvonne Strahovski had an immeasurable sweetness and kindness (not to mention toughness) to her that few, if any, of the others generated. Maybe it's just the nature of the show and casting, but Strahovski, whom I had never seen act before, captured an essence not usually seen.

Anyway, that last bit is neither here nor there in real life but just some musings I had.

I would watch Chuck again if it was available on Netflix or Hulu. But I most likely won't buy the entire run of it. The last 20 or so episodes I bought is enough. Besides, it's probably available on Peacock streaming as NBC has been pulling in all their content for its service and I won't subscribe to it.

Give Chuck a look if you're so inclined. I think it's far better than the ratings made it out to be.