DVD Review: Chuck - The Complete First Season

Zachary Levi as Chuck.
(c) 2007 Warner Brothers Entertainment Inc.

Because Chuck experiences flashes of information from the database activated by certain subliminal triggers, he must use the knowledge he now possesses to help the government thwart assassins and international terrorists -- ending his previously uneventful life. Chuck's decision to keep his new job a secret from his family and friends and to live his life as normally as possible, causes certain logistical issues. Casey and Walker are forced to create a thorny alliance and secret identities. Walker takes the role of Chuck's girlfriend and takes a job at a restaurant near the Buy More, while Casey becomes one of Chuck's co-workers at the Buy More.

While the story of Chuck's involvement in super secret, high level spy stuff is cool, that's not all this series has to offer. As mentioned earlier, as part of his cover, Chuck is dating Sarah, which becomes more real to them as time goes on. It also interesting to watch how Chuck struggles with keeping secrets from his family and friends; for a guy who was once socially awkward and didn't have much of a life outside work, he now has the weight of the world on his shoulders. He now has to keep secrets from his sister Ellie, her boyfriend Captain Awesome (Ryan McPartlin), with whom he lives, and his best friend Morgan. Having Chuck struggle with these issues gives the character a kind of everyman quality, instead of trying to make him into a superhero.

That works well in part because Zachary Levi has a real "average guy" quality about him. He's cute, but not to good looking, charming, bit not over the top. As Chuck, he exhibits just enough humility and charm to make it believable that Sarah could really fall for him. Whenever there's a particularly geeky character in a starring role of a series, there's always the risk that the producers, writers or the actor take things too far and turn the character into a buffoon. Thus far, Levi has avoided those pitfalls and created a geek mixed with heart and some moments of humor.

While Levi doesn't provide the bulk of Chuck's comical moments, the rest of the cast is up to the task. As Chuck's sister, Lawrence puts out the sweetness needed to ground their relationship, while McPartlin is an excellent comic counter as a positive-thinking, good-natured Mr. Perfect. Their relative stability and maturity as a couple serve to point out how immature Chuck's co-workers are Morgan, workplace nightmare Harry Tang and the rest of Chuck's Nerd Herd repair crew, serve to remind the viewer who the lead is at his core and make both sides of the story work.

The first season of Chuck did a lot in only thirteen episodes. The series established Chuck's importance to the government and the issues he faces, set up the potential for a Chuck/Sarah relationship, and introduced us to the family and friends that inhabit Chuck's world. I found chuck to be and engaging series that has strong writing and interesting plots. Smartly, the series writers and producers appear to be letting the Chuck/Sarah relationship continue as a subplot and allowing each episode to stand as its own idea.

The anamorphic widescreen transfers on these episodes are almost flawless, with vivid, color and a clear image that's free of any dirt or damage and no real noticeable issues with digital artifacts.

The Dolby Digital 5.1 is lower in volume than most recent releases, but it is clear and free of distortion. The dialogue is right down the middle, using the side and rear speakers to enhance the music and present the occasional surround sound effect, mainly explosions and whizzing bullets. The bass effects again are mostly with the big bangs, but even then they aren't going to be that powerful. Audio options include English Dolby Digital 5.1 and Portuguese Dolby Digital 2.0, while subtitles are available in English SDH, French, Spanish, Chinese, Portuguese and Thai. There is no closed captioning.

Chuck - The Complete First Season does have some notable special features.

• Declassified Scenes (9:00) - More commonly known as deleted scenes, these ten scenes are spread throughout the four disc set.
• Chuck on Chuck (27:00) - Zachary Levi, Joshua Gomez and series creators Josh Schwartz and Chris Fedak discuss their favorite scenes from the series.
• Gag Reel (7:08) - This is one of the few gag reels I've seen that's actually funny.