Reviewer's Bias*
Loves: Spy spoofs, Kick-ass action, spy gadgets
Likes: Conservative cinematography, Adam Baldwin
Dislikes: Geeky sidekicks
Hates: This year's crop of short DVD sets

The Show
A high-concept TV show is frequently a hit-or-miss proposition. Part of the problem is a truly unique concept can be too hard to maintain as the basis for an ongoing series, as it can limit how much a show can grow and change. Changes frequently take a series away from its raison d'etre, and if not handled deftly, will alienate viewers attracted to the original premise.

"Chuck" has a pretty interesting story at its core, as Chuck Bartowski (Zachary Levi), a computer repairman at a big-box retailer, gets an e-mail from an old college friend and accidentally "downloads" all of America's top-secret security info into his mind. As a living, breathing database, he's invaluable to the government, and thus is assigned a pair of babysitters, CIA agent Sarah Walker (Yvonne Strahovski) and NSA agent John Casey (Adam Baldwin). The trio, led by flashes of secure data from Chuck's computer-enhanced brain, complete missions for the United States between Chuck's shifts at the Buy More.

The super-secret spy action, which accentuates just what a self-conscious geek Chuck is, and the story behind his involvement with the government isn't the entire story though, as part of his cover story is he is dating Sarah, which becomes more real with time for both of them. Being part of a spy operation complicates his personal life, as he has to keep secrets from his sister Ellie (Sarah Lancaster) and her boyfriend Captain Awesome (Ryan McPartlin), with whom he lives, and his pal Morgan (Joshua Gomez) whom he works with. What's nice about the series is the amount of time devoted to Chuck's non-spy activities and the civilians in his life, which gives the show a nice sense of balance and realism, when it's not providing handfuls of cheesecake sexiness, mostly from Strahovski, who frequently isn't wearing a lot of clothing (love the Slave Girl Leia outfit.)

As the titular Chuck, Levi, who pulls a bit from the John Krasinski Everyguy school, and does a nice job of making his character feel honest as a loser, yet charming enough to believe that Sarah could possibly find feelings for him. Whenever an actor plays a character whose defining feature is geekiness, they run the risk of taking it too far, but Levi turns it into quirkiness instead, and makes Chuck a nice guy with some social issues. As his co-stars, Strahovski and Baldwin are an excellent pair, with Baldwin portraying a by-the-book bad-ass who doesn't like putting up with Chuck's wimpy nature, and Strahovski mixing an ability to sell a sexy confidence with the steely grit a secret agent needs.

As enjoyable as the lead trio is, Chuck's personal life features more comical performances that at times overshadow the cloak-and-dagger stuff. As Chuck's sister, Lawrence puts out the sweetness needed to ground their relationship, while McPartlin is an excellent comic counterpoint 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, especially Morgan, who feels like a Seth Green creation in Gomez' hands. Morgan, workplace nightmare Harry Tang ("Dexter"'s great C.S. Lee) 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 the show is ambitious in its storytelling, establishing Chuck's importance to the government and the forces he faces, while setting up the potential of a Sarah/Chuck relationship and fleshing out his friends and world. Smartly, in your reviewer's opinion, the show avoided the pitfalls of a serial drama by keeping the main plots limited mostly to the episode at hand, and letting the spy and relationship subplots develop across the season. This lets episodes like "Chuck vs. The Imported Hard Salami," with Rachel Bilson guest starring as a deli owner interested in Chuck, and "Chuck vs. The Nemesis," a perfectly balanced episode that might be the first TV show ever focused on the phenomenon of Black Friday, stand on their own, really tell a solid story and showcase an impressive supporting cast. The only negative is the artificially shortened season, thanks to the writers' strike, which left the season ending on less than a high note.

The DVDs
The 13 episodes in the first season of "Chuck" are spread over four DVDs, which are packed in a single-width clear keepcase with a double-sided cover, four-page insert of episode descriptions, and two two-disc trays, all of which is wrapped in an embossed slipcover. (On a side note, is this Warner Brothers' plan for TV packaging now? I'm had three straight sets from them with this exact same style.) The discs have static anamorphic widescreen menus with options to watch all the episodes, select shows, adjust languages and check out special features. 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.

The Quality
The anamorphic widescreen transfers on these episodes are just about flawless, with vivd, almost candy-like color that sells the show's amped-up sense of reality and a clear image that's free of any dirt or damage and no real noticeable issues with digital artifacts. The level of detail feels like it could be a touch higher, as parts of the image could be sharper.

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.

The Extras
Up first are a selection of "declassified" scenes, known in other sets as the more pedestrian deleted scenes. These 10 scenes (nine minutes in all) are spread over the four DVDs and feature content that was cut for time mainly, revealing unneeded detail mostly, but it does fill in some gaps if you're paying attention to the episodes.

"Chuck on Chuck" seems like part of a new trend for Warner Brothers' bonus material, as Levi, Gomez and creators Josh Schwartz and Chris Fedak sit down to talk about their favorite scenes from the show, creating what's essential mini-video commentaries. The piece runs for 27 minutes and provides some decent insight into the show, but is more entertaining because of how Levi and Gomez take over, showing they are funny guys on their own. You get even more of that on "Chuck vs. the Chuckles," a traditional wrap-party gag reel, with screw-ups, goofing-off, nose-picking and dancing. It's a fun time, and incredibly makes Lancaster even more adorable than usual.

"Chuck's World" is a set of six clips (two to three minutes each) on the development of the main characters, with footage from their audition tapes. It's a bit fluffy, but there's some good info about the creation of the show and a surprise for anyone who doesn't know much about Strahovski. There's more mini-clips in "Chuck's Online World," which is a selection of four bits from NBC's "Chuck" Web site, about four minutes in all. Oddly, the second one, which was supposed to be an entry from Morgan's Vlog, just repeated the "Chuck's World" entry on him, which isn't even on the same disc.

The final extra is a demo of "Madden 09" for the XBOX 360, for some reason.

The Bottom Line
"Chuck" took a bit of time to really get going, hitting its stride about halfway through the season, but when it found its voice, it became addictive viewing, thanks as much for the workplace comedy and personal romance as it did for its spytastic action. The DVDs look and sound very nice, and feature a decent amount of extras, though hopefully audio commentaries can make a comeback in the world of Warner Brothers. If you're on DVDTalk.com, there's a good chance you've checked this show out already, so your reasons for getting the DVDs are somewhat limited, but if not, this is a good time and a chance to catch up before season two.

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*The Reviewer's Bias section is an attempt to help readers use the review to its best effect. By knowing where the reviewer's biases lie on the film's subject matter, one can read the review with the right mindset.