Chuck is over. Done. History. But for millions of people around the world, it will be the greatest show ever made. Me, I've criticized it multiple times, especially in this last season, mainly because of the problems with continuity, the bad choices in selecting the plots and the awfulness of Sarah, whom I never got to warm up to, but a lot of its problems have come from not knowing if there is going to be a next season and the changes in the writers' room, something that has happened almost every summer.
But there are a lot, and I mean a lot of reasons why I loved Chuck and why it's a show that has never been made before. And if there's something hard to do in the TV world, it's coming up with something original.First and foremost, Chuck brought the underdog in the spotlight and showed that every nerd, every underachiever can become, if given the chance, great. And can get the girl. Of course, the question of wanting a plastic blonde barbie is debatable, but there have been others, like the sweet salami-girl Lou, the dangerous but gorgeous spy Jill and the sexy nerd herder Hannah.Chuck's originality didn't come, though, from the mere fact that it's a show about nerds. It's not the only one and definitely not the best. It came from the ability to mix action a la Alias with great comedy, generated mostly by its amazing supporting cast, and with a lot of heart. Saying it invented a new genre may be a little bit much, but what is important - and new - is that all the three elements got equal focus, so you really can't define this series as an action one or a comedy one or a romantic one.Speaking about the cast, it was so perfectly selected that I don't really have complaints. OK, I do, I don't think Yvonne Strahovski could act if she were held at gun point, but all the others were so great, that unless she did something really annoying, I could simply ignore her entirely. Zachary Levi was simply amazing and he got to be, towards the end, the perfect combination of nerd and hunk (which is why it also made my list of sexiest crime fighters), so adorable that I can even forgive his love of Star Wars. And, of course, we had Joshua Gomez as the sometimes annoying, but never boring Morgan, Vik Sahay and Scott Krinsky as the world's greatest and weirdest two-man band, Jeffster, and the always entertaining Adam Baldwin, who took being a ruthless spy to a whole new level.The show gave us great guest cast as well, including some very entertaining villains, from Brandon Routh's Daniel Shaw, the bad guy any girl would want to have in her bedroom, to Timothy Dalton's Alexei Volkoff and Chevy Chase's Ted Roark. Plus Matt Bomer, Scott Bakula, Carrie-Anne Moss, Kristin Kreuk, Linda Hamilton, Morgan Fairchild, Rachel Bilson, Armand Assante, Angus Macfadyen, John Larroquette, Richard Chamberlain... the list is so long that I will never finish it if I don't stop here.The story was captivating, keeping us on out toes with great action, especially when you got to see a guy move from being the king of the nerds to the most dangerous spy in the world in just a flash. We never got bored and that's a big thing to say about a show that could have easily become predictable. I may not have liked every arc and every turn of events, but at least I was always caught by surprise.Some other great stuff:
- the constant references to nerdy stuff like Indiana Jones
- the original opening credits
- great music
- the footlongs
- great finales and cliffhangers
Of course, there are things I hated about the show, but I won't go into those any more. Let us just be grateful that we were given such an amazing series and keep watching the reruns and enjoy all the fun stuff about it.
