Chuck—1-1

The season premiere of another show with Adam Baldwin fills me with both happiness and trepidation. Happiness because hey, Adam Baldwin. Trepidation because dammit his last three shows have been canceled prematurely. And this makes me sad.

Anyway, we'll see how Chuck goes.

The titular character of this new NBC series is not Adam Baldwin, but some nerdy type who's much younger than Mr. Baldwin and not nearly as hot. While he's crashing and burning at a party, some rather hotter, blood-covered chap engages in nefarious operations at what appears to be a government facility. So what does Blood-Covered Boy have to do with Nerdy Man? Well, with what appears to be his dying breath, after being shot by Mr. Baldwin--who is, yes, still hot--he sends a text message to Chuck. Appears they were old gaming buddies back in the text RPG days. Though honestly neither of them looks old enough to have kicked it quite that old school. Chuck's response to the text message puts a bunch of top-secret info into Chuck's head. Which helps him avoid cops but makes him a target of both the CIA and the NSA, who seem not to like each other very much. Of course, with all that supr-sekrit stuff in his head, Chuck is of value to both organizations, and so in the end they opt to leave him alive and use his brain and all the stuff inside it to their own advantage.

Directed by McG, of Supernatural fame (and I think he had something to do with Charlie's Angels or something), the pilot proceeds at a nice pace, more comedy than drama. Chuck is endearing, and the NSA/CIA folk are just campy enough to fit the overall tone without being too over-the-top. Well, at least not any more over-the-top than any of the rest of the show. Overall, an engaging and well-executed pilot.