I’m quite late to the scene when it comes to Chuck, can someone please point me to some kind of episode or even season summary so I have an idea what’s going on each Monday? Maybe a character synopsis?
I’m sure eventually I’ll watch everything but right now I’m stuck on a Buffy the Vampire Slayer addiction 
and can’t seem to spare the time. :rolleyes:
Thanks!
What level of detail are you looking for? Everything up to this point or just a who’s who?
You know, if you have to put off watching the first 2 seasons, the best way is just to watch the pilot episode of Chuck. It really explains everything, even if you don’t watch the rest of season 1 and 2.
I’ll give it a shot, while try not to spoil any fun when you do watch the first 2 seasons:
Thread that binds them all
Intersect - The intersect is a super computer that stores top secret information in embedded images. It was under development for years, but after 911 the government decided to bring it online, to allow CIA/NSA and other national security agencies to share intel.
General Beckman - She is in charge of retrieving and protecting the intersect.
The big three
Chuck - Chuck was a brilliant student at Stanford, expecting a bright career after school. It all come crashing down when his close friend/roommate accused him of cheating. Chuck was kicked out of school, and his girlfriend left him for his roommate.
Devastated, Chuck lost the drive to better his situation, and worked at the Buymore while living with his sister ever since. Until one day he received a geek coded message from his roommate in college, he cracked it and had the intersect dumped into his head. He then find himself under protection by the girl of his dreams, Sarah. And a brooding grunt named John Casey.
Sarah - Sarah Walker was raised by her con-man father. She was recruited by the CIA by the agent that finally caught her father. Since then she became one of the top agents for the CIA. Her partner and lover went missing when he went solo to work on the intersect case. She was then assigned to find and protect the intersect, which led her to Chuck.
John Casey - John Casey is a career military. He was one of the top NSA agents. John was tracking down the insider who tried to steal the intersect and couldn’t stop the traitor from delivering the intersect before killing him. He was then assigned to find and protect the intersect. This led him in an uncomfortable position of having to work with a partner and protecting a flailing geek.
Family
Ellie Bartowski - Chuck’s older sister. She is an achieved medical doctor. Since their parents left them when they were young, Ellie couldn’t help but assumed a very protective role of Chuck. Chuck and Ellie are very close because of this. And Chuck used to confide in Ellie. She knows Chuck is full of potential. She wants to see those potential realized and her brother happy. Lately Ellie finds her brother has gotten increasingly secretive and unpredictable, but at least he finally has a new girl friend who seems really nice.
Captain Awesome - a.k.a. Devon Woodcomb. He is a adventure seeking cardiac surgeon. Ellie’s boyfriend since med school. He is called Captain Awesome because he keeps saying Awesome, and the fact that he is pretty awesome at everything that he does.
Morgan Grimes - Chuck’s best friend since 5th grade. He also has a health crush on Ellie ever since 5th grade. Chuck considers Morgan his family. They pretty much do everything together. Morgan is an awkward geek who lacks Chuck’s school smarts. Morgan works at the Buymore with Chuck.
Buymorons/Nerd Herder
Buymore is a Electronic superstore. Think Best Buy or Fry’s. Nerd Herd is a mobile electronics trouble shoot/set up crew similar to Geek Squad.
Big Mike - The boss at the Buymore. He is in a relationship with Morgan’s mom, which drives Morgan crazy.
Jeff Barnes - the creepy dude with balding long hair. He is so creepy, he owns a stalk van. A van full of spy equipments just so he can stalk people. Best friends with Lester.
Lester Patel - Half Indian and maybe half Jewish. He and Jester are best friends. Lester thinks highly of himself, and he can’t stand Chuck getting all the attention. But when situation suits him, he and Lester can be very friendly with Chuck. He and Jeff are like vultures at the buymore and prey for the injured animals.
Jeffster - A band formed by Jeff and Lester. Their first gig was at Ellie’s wedding. They have since gotten increasingly better.
Anna Wu - Anna is the daughter of a Taiwanese diplomat. Anna used to work at the Buymore. She was Morgan’s girlfriend, until Morgan took her to Hawaii seeking to become a Benihana chef. Instead, Anna left Morgan for Morgan’s trainer at Benihana. Jeff used to have a very unhealthy crush on Anna.
I think that’s about it…
Also, Chevy Chase is evil.
Both.
Wow, thank you SO MUCH hansioux, that was great. I appreciate you putting the time into this. So John Casey is Baldwin’s character, correct?
I think that’s SO creative, taking an high-achieving geek-turned-slacker and forcing him into a situation where he HAS to perform. I saw an episode a few weeks ago in which Chuck turned (briefly) into a fighting MACHINE, that explanation should be very interesting considering what I now know about his roots.
I will check out the first episode this weekend.
Chevy Chase may be evil but Bill Murray is a zombie. 
Thanks again hansioux. +1 to your storytelling ability.
Chuck only gained the fighting abilities at the end of season 2. how that came about is a lot of fun. Hope you will get around to it.
here, check out this podcast : Chuck vs the Podcast for all your Chuck needs.
The crew is pretty gum with the actual Chuck cast & crew. They’re like the equivalent of what Gateworld and Skynext podcasts are to the Stargate and Terminator:TSCC franchises respectively, in that they’re plugged in to what’s going on within the show.
In fact, the Chuckpodcast is a total spoiler, if you’re totally way behind like me. 
[spoiler]This is a tiny acting-method riff, but i like how Chuck was fighting as though the memory of it was implanted into his brain, but his body didn’t have that kind of athletic muscle memory to do it perfectly clean.
Which was what happened.[/spoiler]
I didnt give him that much credit, I just assumed it was because he was klutzy and long limbed, which he is.
i am just too lazy to turn it off before the spoiler section. that is why i stopped listening to the most current podcast. I’ll only listen to podcasts a week older, that way i would have already seen the episode that they talk about in the spoiler section.
Thank you very much, I’ll add it to my list of podcasts! I really don’t mind spoilers.
And thank you to everyone for being so helpful.