Chuck

Our Review

The nerd-empowerment spy fantasy that ran on charm alone. Chuck Bartowski, a Buy More electronics clerk, accidentally downloads the entire CIA/NSA database into his brain (the Intersect) and becomes the government’s most valuable intelligence asset — with no training, no field skills, and a sister who thinks he’s wasting his life. Zachary Levi’s everyman warmth is the engine; Yvonne Strahovski’s Sarah Walker, the CIA agent assigned to protect him, is the dream-cast romantic lead; and Adam Baldwin’s Colonel Casey, a grunting NSA hardcase, is the comedy secret weapon.

Five seasons track Chuck’s growth from asset to agent to the man who chooses his own missions, and the show balances case-of-the-week with serialization deftly. The Buy More crew (Jeffster!) gives it a sitcom’s bigness. Season 5’s memory-loss ending divided fans — but the show earned its sentimentality the hard way, over 91 episodes of genuine growth.

Verdict: Watch it. The spy-show equivalent of a grilled cheese.