Chuck --- Action and Comedy Meet in the New NBC Dramedy

Chuck is a graduate of Stanford University, and a current employee for The Nerd Herd. Basically he is the fictional representation of someone in the Geek Squad at Best Buy, and this gives him the chance to show off his skills with technology in the work-place. He makes $11.00 an hour at this job, and spends most of his free time playing video games with his best friend. While home one day he receives an e-mail from his old college roommate, one which he did not get along with, and one which he does not think about fondly. The e-mail comes as a surprise, but when he opens it, he is faced with thousands of images that immediately become part of his memory. Embedded within those images are codes and secrets of the U.S. Government, and suddenly Chuck now knows everything about the CIA and NSA. Unbeknownst to him, this has drawn him into a world of intrigue that could eat him alive if not for the help of his supporting cast.

NBC has brought Chuck to Monday nights at 8pm this Fall, and hopes that people will tune into this show and stay tuned in for Heroes at the 9pm slot. The trick with this show, is that they are not trying to focus entirely on the action orientation that is obvious to readers of the plot, but on the comedic aspect of a computer game nerd being drawn into a "game" that is way over his head. Watching the pilot through my On Demand service, I quickly drew correlations between this character and the computer hacker in the new Die Hard film. He is really good at what he does, but when given the right tools, he can go above and beyond what he even thought to be possible. Having all of this knowledge in his brain, he can quickly draw on it in the right situations, and suddenly he has access to the entire book of secrets for the United States Government. This simultaneously makes him an asset and a target to the people in power, and as the season progresses, the viewers are sure to find out which way this story is going to swing.