A Goof With the Secrets
Chuck stars Zachary Levi, Yvonne Strahovski, Joshua Gomez, Adam Baldwin, and Sarah Lancaster. Levi plays Chuck, the manager of the Nerd Herd at the local Buy More store. His coworker and very dependent friend Morgan Grimes, is played by Joshua Gomez. Yvonne plays the CIA agent Sarah Walker, Adam Baldwin plays the NSA agent, and Sarah Lancaster plays Chuck’s sister whom he lives with.
Chuck’s ordinary, mundane life is transformed when he receives and email from a college acquaintance that he hasn’t spoken to in years, and wasn’t exactly friends with either. This friend, Bryce, stole Chuck’s girlfriend in college, something that Chuck still hasn’t completely gotten over. So, when Chuck receives an email from Bryce one evening, it’s a surprise. After he puts in the response to a challenge code Bryce put in that only Chuck would know, Chuck is exposed to thousands of images that essentially burn themselves into his mind.
Bryce was able to get this information by breaking into a government controlled data facility as a rogue CIA operative. He not only stole all of the information from this massive super computer and sent it to Chuck, but he also destroyed the computer; apparently, there were no off site backups made of the data, and with Bryce having been killed upon escape, or so we think, Chuck is now the only source for all of that government collected information.
As such, Adam Baldwin’s character and Yvonne’s character come from Washington to keep close tabs on Chuck and as he remembers things, they work together to foil plots of terrorism and other nefarious activities. Meanwhile, a love story comes and goes between Chuck and Sarah, and to a much lesser degree between Chuck’s sister and best friend, Morgan. Each episode is primarily composed of comedy and action, however, in a fairly unique and largely successful blend.
This complete first season release contains all thirteen episodes. Each episode is entitled “Chuck Vs…,” kind of like the old Tick cartoon. Anyway, Chuck will face a government doctor sent to remove the data from his head, an arms dealer, spies, management troubles at Buy More, relationship trouble, and the return of Bryce throughout these thirteen shows.
The Blu-ray Release
This blu-ray release comes packaged in typical form with a removable cardboard cover and then a three disc keep case. The case contains not only the discs but also a small booklet with a few pictures of the cast and brief episode summaries. Each disc contains some episodes with third disc containing more extras than the first two. The extras are:
Disc 1 – Declassified Scenes – Five minutes of deleted scenes are presented in SD.
Disc 2 – Declassified Scenes – Two minutes of deleted scenes in SD.
Disc 2 – Chuck’s World: Character Development and Original Casting Sessions – This fifteen minute SD feature includes the actors and creators talking about the show, casting, the characters, etc., and also includes original audition footage.
Disc 3 – Chuck On Chuck – This twenty-six minute feature is presented in HD. The show’s creators, Zachary Levi, and Joshua Gomez sit down for a lighthearted chat of their favorite scenes from the first season.
Disc 3 – Chuck Vs Chuckles – A seven minute gag reel of miscues in production during the first season, presented in SD.
Disc 3 – Declassified Scenes – Another two minutes of deleted scenes from the episodes on the disc, in SD.
Disc 3 – Chuck’s Online World – Four mini features totaling just over five minutes. These very short features originated on the Internet and are completely useless; they weren’t funny or informative.
Each episode is presented in 1080p, 16:9 format. The episodes didn’t blow me away by any means, but they looked just fine for Blu-ray. The audio track is Dolby Digital 5.1 for English, and 2.0 for French and German.
Fans of the show deciding whether or not this Blu-ray release is worth the purchase may find some direction in knowing that the Blu-ray version is just about seven dollars more than the DVD version online.