"Chuck" experiences a sophomore surprise in Season 2
No Drama For Obama
Sophomore surprise? Whatever you want to call it, "Chuck" is
experiencing it -- big-time. An amusing enough diversion during a
brief pre-strike run last fall, it's found a higher gear at the start
of season two. All the entertaining pieces that didn't quite click
with one another are now working in harmony, and there may not be a
show on television that makes me happier right now.
Since it's been nine months since the last original episode aired (and
nearly 11 since the last episode to air in the show's usual timeslot),
a refresher course is in order, and the season premiere does that
speedily. We find our nervous titular hero (Zachary Levi) dangling
upside down out a window, kept from being street pizza only by the
hulking arms of guest villain Michael Clarke Duncan. Duncan demands to
know who Chuck is, and so he reminds us that he's an underachievering
geek who does tech support at a big box electronics store -- and that,
since his brain accidentally downloaded the contents of our
government's most comprehensive intelligence database, he reluctantly
moonlights as a spy.
"That is the single dumbest story I have ever heard," Duncan bellows,
reminding us of one of the show's best qualities: it rarely takes
itself seriously. (It's especially a relief compared to the solemn,
pretentious mess that follows "Chuck." You may know it as "Heroes.")
The first season had a number of things going for it. Chief among them
was Levi, charming and versatile enough to handle the show's rapid
shifts of tone and style between Chuck's mundane and silly real life
in the Nerd Herd and his exciting and often terrifying life as the
world's worst James Bond imitator. It also had the same self-aware,
pop culture-savvy sense of humor that co-creator Josh Schwartz brought
to "The O.C.," plus able supporting work by Adam Baldwin and Yvonne
Strahovski as Chuck's two government handlers (he's the brawn, she's
the beauty, and Chuck's the one who cries like a girl when there's
danger about).
What it didn't have was consistency or cohesion. Other than Chuck
himself, there was no real connection between nerd world and spy
world, and the espionage missions often felt obligatory or, worse,
forgettable.
The one advantage of all the time off from the writers strike is that
it gave Schwartz and co-creator Chris Fedak time to figure out how to
make everything fit together. Based on the season's first three
episodes, they've succeeded.
There's now usually some kind of thematic link between events at the
Buy More and whatever terrorist happens to be wandering around Los
Angeles that week. In the third episode, for instance, Chuck and best
friend Morgan (Josh Gomez) each struggle with being beta males in an
alpha world, Chuck when he has to team up with dashing ex-roommate --
and Sarah's ex-boyfriend -- Bryce Larkin (Matthew Bomer), Morgan when
he has to stand up to a bully from the sporting goods store next
door.
The bully happens to be played by a gap-toothed former defensive
lineman who might be familiar around these parts by the name of
Michael Strahan. He's one of a large roster of recognizable guest
stars the show has rounded up for the new season, also including
Duncan, John Larroquette as a spy who was once the world's greatest
lover and is now the world's biggest drunk, Melinda Clarke as a
Russian black widow, Nicole Richie as the former high school tormentor
of Strahovski's Sarah, and Jordana Brewster as the college girlfriend
who dumped Chuck for Bryce.
While stunt-casting has killed many a show, it works wonders for
"Chuck." With such a large ensemble cast and so many different parts
of Chuck's life -- including his sister Ellie (Sarah Lancaster), and
her boyfriend, the appropriately-nicknamed Captain Awesome (Ryan
McPartlin) -- to service, there's never been much time left over to
establish the one-shot characters. Having a Larroquette or a Duncan or
a Clarke (who played rabid cougar Julie Cooper on "The O.C.") helps
fill in a lot of blanks and makes the stakes seem higher.
(The guests are so well-used in the first three episodes, in fact,
that I'm actually looking forward to the Nicole Richie episode, when
initially her casting sounded like a bad joke.)
The writers have also, ever-so-slightly, allowed Chuck to get better
at the spy thing. It would kill the joke if he ever turned into Bryce,
but they've found ways to show him doing the job well while still
retaining his innate Chuck-ness. In one episode, he has to seduce the
Russian black widow; when told that she gets turned on by discussion
of anything French, he dazzles her with an oral history of the
croissant. In another, he helps save the day with his knowledge of the
video game "Call of Duty."
Meanwhile, the parts of the show that worked before continue to do so,
particularly the humor. Chuck, upon seeing how much booze the
Larroquette character consumes, says, "His liver must look like
camouflage!" And when Baldwin's agent Casey enters a shoot-out with a
cheesey kiss-off line, Chuck berates him, "Did you think that up as
you were racing over to save us? 'Hey, maybe I'll say this!'"
Even Chuck's crush on Sarah plays out far more interestingly than your
average Unresolved Sexual Tension trope. In most will-they-or-won't-
they scenarios, death or the destabilization of governments aren't at
stake, and Levi and Strahovski continue their fine chemistry.
There are shows on television that are smarter than "Chuck," deeper,
more ambitious, whatever. At the moment, I can't think of one that's
more fun.
"Chuck" (Tonight at 8 on Channel 4) Chuck (Zachary Levi) tries to beat
a rogue spy (Michael Clarke Duncan) to a computer chip and asks Sarah
(Yvonne Strahovski) out on their first real date in the action
comedy's second season premiere.
Alan Sepinwall may be reached at asepi...@starledger.com, or by
writing him at 1 Star-Ledger Plaza, Newark, N.J. 07102-1200. Please
include your full name and hometown.