First of all I’d like to say how pissed I am at Steven Seagal. After giving him, last week, probably the most approving review I’m going to write all year for his Steven Seagal: Lawman series, it turns out the series has been indefinitely suspended because of accusations made against Seagal by a woman who claims he demanded sexual favours from her and some other, er, “personal assistants”. I mean, what? Come on Stevie, not very Zen now is it? On the other hand, as lawman reminds us weekly, everyone is innocent until proven guilty. On the other hand, mud sticks, etc. I just don’t know what to think any more.

Anyhow, on to this week. Ladies and gentlemen, meet Chuck. Chuck is a geek, or a nerd as he prefers to be called. He works for a big home appliance store at the computer help desk, also known as the Nerd Herd, with his best friend, Morgan. Chuck’s sister and her boyfriend, Captain Awesome, are constantly nagging him to: a) get a girlfriend, but he’s a nerd and a loser and can’t get over the one relationship he had at college; and b) get a proper job, but he can’t do anything except computer stuff.

One day, Chuck gets an email from his former university roommate, a man who ended up getting shot while stealing for/against the CIA. Opening the email, the entire database of US government secrets previously stored on a neural supercomputer gets subliminally embedded in his brain. This makes Chuck a prime target for both the CIA and NSA, who send agents to try to kill him, at first, and later to protect the clandestine information hidden in his noggin. Exactly how the information came to be transplanted into his head, I’m not too sure about. Admittedly, as plot hooks go, it’s one of the more obtruse.

As can be supposed, this happenstance changes Chuck’s life completely. He is forever shadowed by two secret agents for a start, although luckily one of them is really really hot, so that helps a little bit. The other one looks like there’s nothing he’d like more than strangling Chuck with his bare hands and dismembering his carcass, but y’know, swings and roundabouts and all that. While attempting to maintain some semblance of normality – by sticking with his nerd job for example – Chuck becomes embroiled in assassination attempts, acts of terrorism and real-life spy games.

Initially unwilling to enter the world of cloak-and-dagger he has unwittingly been thrust into, Chuck soon starts to like it, in large part because he reckons he’s got a chance with the aforementioned super-hot CIA agent. You’ll be able to meet Chuck on Sub starting Tuesday 8 June at 22:00 (why are all these good shows on so late in the evening? I need my beauty sleep.) He reminds me a bit of Ed Stevens from early-2000s comedy drama Ed, but Chuck is more comedy-action than drama. Not too bad at all, even if it is yet another imported US series which is about to enter its fourth season only as it starts the first in this country, the result of which is that anyone with half a brain might be tempted to, shall we say, obtain the whole thing via the internet before the first episode is broadcast.

Nick Barlow