Chuck - TV-PG
Fun spy show is more about comedy than danger.
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- TV Rating: TV-PG
- Network: NBC
- Cast: Zachary Levi, Yvonne Strahovski, Joshua Gomez
- Genre: Comedy
- >Available On: DVD,Download
Parents need to know
Families can talk about how the media portrays spies and espionage. Do you think TV shows and movies romanticize what it's really like? How do the agents in this show compare to spies in other TV shows and movies? Do you think that real spies are more like these James Bond-like agents or more like Chuck, an average guy who tries to make sense from seemingly unconnected bits of data?
Message
Social Behavior:
Chuck is a reluctant spy who becomes a pawn in a turf battle between the CIA and the NSA, and the real spies sometimes suggest that the easiest way to deal with their internal conflict is to make him disappear.
Consumerism:
Some video games/platforms are mentioned by name, including Xbox and Call of Duty. Chuck works at an electronics superstore that has the very unsubtle name "Buy More."
Drugs/Alcohol/Tobacco:
Some social drinking.
Violence
Frequent martial arts fistfights and stylized hand-to-hand combat featuring knives and other weapons, but there's little blood or gore. Other fights involve guns and are more graphic. The spies carry guns and sometimes use them, but Chuck is a self-defined nerd who handles conflicts without weapons. Some explosions, car chases, and the like during missions. Some dead bodies shown, but the camera doesn't linger, and there's not too much blood.
Sex
No sex or nudity, though there's plenty of flirting and kissing, and some scenes show scantily clad women (who are ogled a fair amount). Chuck has to access a porn Web site to disable a bomb (nothing graphic shown). Some innuendo/discussion of sex, but it's generally light, with little shown.
Language
Fairly infrequent use of words like "damn," "hell," "crap," "oh my God," "idiot," etc.
Common Sense says
What's the story?
Reviewed by Will Wade
A secret agent breaks into a top-secret government facility to steal an enormous trove of data gathered by all of the U.S. intelligence agencies, but is shot making his getaway. As his dying act, the spy emails the entire file to an old friend, now a tech-support worker at an electronics store. When Chuck (Zachary Levi) opens the message, every seemingly unrelated scrap of data about global espionage is subliminally implanted into his brain. The CIA and the NSA track the email to him, but they can't decide whether to take advantage of his newfound knowledge or try to scrub his mind clean. But as he slowly starts to connect the dots, Chuck's ability to spot dangerous plots as they unfold makes him an invaluable asset, and they recruit him to join the war on terror.
Is it any good?
Believable? Absolutely not. Fun? Most definitely. CHUCK is a completely improbable but highly entertaining romp through two worlds that rarely meet in the media: secret agents and high-tech nerds. And there's good reason to keep the worlds separate. Chuck's biggest concerns are playing video games and finding a date, preferably with his new CIA handler, Sarah (Yvonne Strahovski). But Sarah has other things on her mind, including protecting the world and mourning her late boyfriend, the same spy who emailed the secret data to Chuck in the first place.
It's the contradictions between these agendas that make the show fun, as Chuck pursues his extracurricular activities while maintaining his cover as a tech-support nerd. His geek skills also prove useful in his new job, such as when he intentionally accesses a virus-infected porn Web site to disable a laptop that is controlling a ticking time bomb. Though Chuck's spy life is obviously a farce, the interactions between Chuck and his tech-support pals ring true and are often quite funny, especially his relationship with best friend Morgan (Joshua Gomez), who is, if anything, a bigger nerd than Chuck.
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