Plot
Chuck Bartowski (Zachary Levi) is in his late twenties, working at a dead end job as a computer service expert at the Burbank, California Buy More (a large retail consumer-electronics chain comparable to Best Buy) with his best friend, Morgan Grimes (Joshua Gomez). Chuck is intelligent, but lacks ambition. His sister Ellie (Sarah Lancaster) and her boyfriend Devon "Captain Awesome" Woodcomb (Ryan McPartlin) are doctors who are constantly encouraging Chuck to make progress in his professional and romantic life.
Bryce Larkin (Matthew Bomer), Chuck's former Stanford University roommate and now Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) agent, steals the Intersect, the entire merged database of the CIA and National Security Agency (NSA), and destroys the computer storing it. The sole surviving copy becomes subliminally embedded in Chuck's brain via encoded images when he opens an email from Bryce. The NSA's Major John Casey (Adam Baldwin) and CIA Agent Sarah Walker (Yvonne Strahovski) are dispatched to investigate.
Chuck is recruited to use the knowledge he now possesses to help thwart assassins and international terrorists, upending his previously mundane life. The Intersect causes Chuck to receive involuntary "flashes" of information from the database, activated by triggers such as faces, voices, objects, and keywords. In order to protect his family and friends, Chuck must keep his second occupation a secret. Casey and Walker are assigned to watch over Chuck. They are forced to establish an uneasy alliance and cover identities; Walker poses as Chuck's girlfriend and takes a job at a fast food restaurant near the Buy More, while Casey reluctantly becomes part of the Buy More sales team.
The main antagonists driving the plot are a series of rogue spy cabals, first internal to the United States intelligence community and then global in scope, and a core part of the threat is the danger of the Intersect being either captured, making Chuck as much a liability as an asset to the government, or replicated, making Chuck obsolete or outmatched by less scrupulous spies.
Chuck, Sarah and Casey all face professional conflicts as they grow to respect each other, and a genuine romantic interest develops between Chuck and Sarah. Chuck's desire to maintain his close relationships and eventually return to a normal life is challenged by the dangers and growing responsibilities of his secret life, and he gradually becomes a more competent, confident and willing spy.
In the course of events, Chuck unravels mysteries from his life before the series, often dealing with the Intersect: why his parents left, why Bryce got him kicked out of Stanford, and why he's unusually suited for the Intersect. Meanwhile, Casey and Sarah confront unresolved issues from their lives before the series, including their families, Sarah's history with Bryce, and the spies they previously worked with. And as Chuck grows more comfortable with his own role, those closest to him are gradually drawn into his spy life.
Read more about this topic: Chuck (TV Series)
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