Chuck and Journeyman

Well I got to see the pilot episodes of two shows I have been looking forward to seeing in the new television season. While I enjoyed both one was better then the other and both made me think that NBC was trying to get back their glory days of old.

First up is Chuck. The Executive Producer is McG who directed the Charlie's Angels film. Chuck is a former engineering student who had his girlfriend stolen from him by his old roommate Bryce. This took away almost all of his confidence. Now he works for Buy More as part of their Nerd Herd. Bryce went on to become a government agent and is killed while protecting government secrets. Before he dies he sends the sceret in an e-mail to Chuck. Chuck gets in on his birthday and thinks it is a greeting and opens it. It transfixes him and all night long the images download into his brain. Later two government agents find him and battle over who has the right to the information that he holds. One of them is the beautiful ex-girlfriend of Bryce. Not the one from college they broke up earlier. Chuck helps them stop an assination and since he holds the information they want he tells he will help them on his terms.

This show is suppose to be an action comedy. McG did the action very well. While I did see some comedy it wasn't there as often. For this to be a hit as an action comedy the comedy needs as much time as the action. Hopefully they will be on an even level as the series goes on.

When Chuck and the female agent were together I could only think of Don Adams and Barbara Feldon of Get Smart and the other half of the plot reminded me of the Disney movie the Computer Wore Tennis Shoes. As NBC aired the Wonderful World of Disney the first airing of that movie was on NBC in two parts on that show.

Next is the show Journeyman. It stars Kevin McKidd as Dan Vasser a reporter who on his wedding anniversary finds that he can travel back in time. However, it happens at random and he doesn't know how it happens. Dan goes back and finds his fiancé who he was engaged to before he dated his wife. His first fiancé died on 9/11 but he finds that she too can travel through time and she disappeared right before the plane crash. Dan's wife doesn't believe that he is a time traveler and that he is either having an affair or has a drug problem. His marriage is about to end but on one trip Dan burys his wedding anniversary gift to his wife. When he comes back he digs it up and his wife believes him. There is another story that shows Dan trying to save a man who he keeps meeting when he travels back in time but that has a surprise ending. So I will leave that for those to enjoy if they have not seen the show yet.

This time travel show was my favorite between the two. It reminded me of Quantum Leap only the star gets to see his wife more often and there is no holographic friend following him around.

I don't know if they did it on purpose, if so NBC has two pretty good shows to celebrate their wonder years