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.

The government agents' characters are much too serious regardless of their high authoritative roles. The agents are very stern and tough talking all the way through the premiere episode. Therefore the humor seen in Chuck's character is hardly reflected in the characters of the agents that he comes in contact with. It's as though the agents have suddenly walked in from a totally different series of a totally different genre. Take for instance, NSA agent Major John Casey (Adam Baldwin). He is one of the agents that pursues Chuck for having gotten a hold of the top secret information and then later, along with his rival CIA Agent Sara Walker (Yvonne Strahovski) forces Chuck into their mission of chasing down enemy spies. During the entire episode, Casey holds a very stern and tough character even in the face of Chuck's humor. Characters such as Casey continue their stern behavior through both the action as well as non-action or mellowed down scenes, even when in front of Chuck and his zany reactions and wise cracking jokes. Nothing funny happens with the agents, not even as inevitable reactions to Chuck's zaniness.

The exception to this is Walker's character. A very small exception. Chuck's involvement with the agents' mission begins when the beautiful Walker seduces him posing as a common customer in the store that he works at. This is the typical female element in the typical spy drama, yet it works in a series such as this since the series emphasizes so much humor. In fact, Walker's seductive acts do carry some humor. However, her small amount of humor is only acted out for purposes of the seduction and her posed attraction to Chuck and therefore hardly adds to the zaniness of the show overall. Therefore on the level of Chuck, Morgan, their co-workers and boss the zaniness is really high and does work. However, on the level of the outside world where most of the dramatic action occurs it does not mix well. Characters that come from that outside world look like they should not be in the show because of their all too realistic stern behavior. It's almost as though Chuck were acting in front of a giant IMAX® movie screen with a spy flick going. Therefore the show comes across as simply a comedy superimposed onto an action drama or vice versa even. The humor and the action just don't mix well.

Even though the humor in Chuck and the suspense of the action scenes are both worked out well, they are only done so within themselves. They are not integrative with each other nor do they complement each other well. The zaniness is confined too much to Chuck and the other nerd characters, hardly seeping into those of the agents'. The reverse is also true. So the agents' characters are either far too stern or Chuck's character is far too comical. Such overdone elements make this new series too much like the Hollywood blockbuster action-comedies that's formulaic elements go as far back as the '80s. These elements have caused movies and, in Chuck's case, even a TV series to come across as the producers' inability to make up their minds what genre they want to create the movie or series in, comedy or action drama. Of course, any humor that would be in the agents' characters must be in proportion to that of the geek characters such as Chuck's so as not to take away the believability of their roles as high government officials. Either developing the agents' humor a little more or toning down a bit on the geeks' zaniness in upcoming episodes may make this series a more balanced out action-comedy.