Surviving Black Monday

Not the best day ever today, not by any means. I mean, come on. The Dow Jones dropped 777 points today, the Asian markets are going down as well, and all because the proposed economic bailout was rejected by the House. People are calling it Black Monday, and that it could be a precursor to another depression. What's my take on it?

Well, to be honest, I was never that into wallowing. Why go into it when everyone else is going to be sharing their opinion on it. I choose to sink my thoughts into something diverting. Something fun. Something...like Chuck.

Chuck (Zachary Levi) and John Casey (Adam Baldwin)

Chuck is the forgotten child of Josh Schwartz of the OC fame. Sure, it isn't a tawdry prime time soap like Gossip Girl or the OC, but it may be the single most entertaining hour on television on a week to week basis. People say last years broken season (due to the writer's strike) was one with no great rookie programs, but those people must have missed this show.

It's a strange premise that somehow feels very natural - Chuck (Zachary Levi) is a twenty something who is wasting his life away at a Best Buy style workplace until he gets an email containing an intelligence document called "the Intersect." The flash of images contained in this document is witnessed by Chuck and burned into his memory, and when the CIA and NSA (the creators of this Intersect) find out, they assign two agents to cover him as they try to redevelop the original.

On a week to week basis, Chuck and the two agents that cover him - John Casey (my boy Jayne - Firefly's Adam Baldwin) and Sarah Walker ( the unfathomably gorgeous Yvonne Strahovski) - get involved with ridiculous secret agent plots that are often action packed, intense, and always entertaining. Plus, there is the ongoing romance between Chuck and Sarah, Casey's continuous development of actual human emotions, the cast of characters and hijinks related to them at Chuck's day job, plus Chuck's roommates - his sister and her fiance (fiance's name = Captain Awesome - best. name. ever) - helping him figure out his life.

Really, it all works because Zachary Levi is such an engaging lead star. He pulls off the secret agent stuff with a mix of believable suaveness and goofy energy, comes across as he is hardly acting when he discusses video games and computers with coworkers, and pulls off the romance stuff as well. He seems like a guy everyone would want to hang out with, even if he is really dorky at times. I relate to parts of his character I'd say.

Plus, what other show could you possibly get the Thermals best song, Flight of the Conchords, Cake, and Phantom Planet played in one episode? I mean come on. That's musical gold right there.

When the times are dark and full of all kinds of questions, why go with something depressing or massively dramatic? You could go with Chuck and get a ray of sunshine injected straight into your brain. It's an hour of pure entertainment, and while it may not be the best show on television, I'd be hard pressed to find something that is more fun.

Oh yeah, and the fact that they somehow always find a way to put Yvonne Strahovski in her underwear every episode isn't so bad either.