I absolutely adore Chuck. I ...
Zachary Levi, Chuck
Question: I absolutely adore
Chuck. I think it's phenomenally funny and has bags of charm. It also resonates with me on a personal level. (No, I'm not a spy.) It seems to handle twentysomething life situations in a very realistic way (like not really moving on since college, having partially realized romantic feelings and not fitting in). I think it has the potential to be to people in their twenties and thirties what
Buffy was to so many a while back: meaningful
and entertaining! But the ratings worry me — a lot. How strange that it seemed to gain a million viewers last week then lost them again. Do you have the inside scoop on how the show is faring at NBC? Considering its slot and that it often beats the well-established
Prison Break, are the ratings all that bad? How do DVR stats factor in? Should we start a campaign to save the show now? This might just be the new show with the most devoted Internet fans — I'd hate to think it was time to mobilize already!
Answer: Take a breath. I'm a big
Chuck fan, too, and I wish it were doing better, but given the generally positive press it's been getting amid the up-and-down ratings, I'm expecting NBC to be patient with this one. Not that it ever hurts to take a proactive stance and send the network kudos for airing it, I suppose. I'm not sure I'd put it up there with
Buffy, or challenge the passion of other shows' online fandom, but of all the new shows that have premiered this fall,
Chuck has been one of the few that has consistently delivered on its early promise. There's so much to like in the clever and heartfelt writing, as well as in the ensemble — in addition to the adorable
Zachary Levi, I get a kick every week out of
Joshua Gomez (Morgan) and
Adam Baldwin (Casey). And the action stuff isn't too shabby, either. This is a show I recommend for sheer entertainment, and I'd love to see NBC experiment with it in a different and later time period (and one that doesn't force it to go head-to-head with a phenom like
Dancing with the Stars).
