Chuck: The Zany Versus the Stern

The new Monday night NBC series, Chuck, has a great character who all nerds such as myself can identify with and has some really great neo-psychedelic, cyberpunkish scenes in the uncovering of top secret data. However, there is too much of a schism between the comical aspect and the dramatic aspect of this computer nerd/spy series making it nothing much newer than a television version of the typical Hollywood action-comedy.

The humor in Chuck is great. Within itself that is. The starring nerd (played by Zachary Smith) who the show is named after is zany and his best friend and co-worker, Morgan (Joshua Gomez), is zanier yet. The zaniness is also characteristic of the other workers in the computer ware department of the warehouse store that the two 20-something men work at, their job positions adding to their typical nerdy characters. These workers include the two men's boss who is the typical down criticizing supervisor who's down criticism gets just to the point of campiness. However, the zaniness is too confined to these nerdy common citizen characters. The characters who bring in the action, specifically the government agents are (almost literally) a different story.