I'm both nervous and excited by the premiere of Chuck season 3. Excited because on all levels, Chuck is bonafide geek programming. It features everyman nerd Chuck (zachary levi) having amazing adventures and cuddling with awesome babes, all without sacrificing the Tron poster on his bedroom wall; and nervous because Chuck's second season ended with a major game-changer: the intersect 2.0 has infused Chuck with authentic super spy abilities, including some pretty impressive kung fu.
The worst thing that could happen to Chuck would be taking the show in a darker direction, but these two promos released by NBC this morning put my mind completely at ease. It is clear you can put the spy in Chuck, but you can't take the - um - Chuck out of Chuck.
Chuck 2.0 seems every bit the lovable geek we have come to know, just better. In fact, maybe giving Chuck a few of the physical spy attributes - he was always on the curve in the noggin department - might tempt in a few non-nerds to Chuck's viewership. I don't think it would be insulting to the Chuck crew at all to suggest that expanding the audience was at least part of the motivation behind this 'game changer.' While those of us who fly our geek-flag freely marveled at how Chuck employed Call of Duty 2 multiplayer strategies to save the day, more mainstream TV watchers may have found it too 'dorky.'
