The series premiere of “Chuck” featured a fun, funny, and high-octane 40+ minutes of action. What’s to be seen is if the show can maintain narrative momentum going forth. “Chuck” has one of those concepts that seems better-suited for film than television: geek gets the nation’s government secrets downloaded into his brain, must figure out what’s going on while maneuvering between sexy CIA spy and badass NSA man. Enough fun for an hour’s worth of television, but will they sustain it for an entire season (nevermind multiple years)?

For now, the show seems content to rely on the charm and wit of its lead, played by Zachary Levi. If Seth Cohen and Tom Cavanaugh went gay, manipulated biology, and had a baby, it would be Levi. Adam Baldwin plays the badass agent, and I love me some Adam Baldwin, thanks to his iconic turn as Jayne on the short-lived “Firefly”. Yvonne Strahovski is the weakest of the primary characters, playing a spy with an interest in Chuck tainted by her past relationship with his college roommate (the man who emailed Chuck the secrets in the first place).

The show would do well to focus on character work (there’s already strong chemistry between Chuck and his sister, and the Buy More employees are nicely drawn as well) more so than some season-long, overarching, twisty and turny plot. Just not sure this show could deal with a Rimbaldi-esque central mystery when it could just let these characters be themselves week in and week out. Perhaps the show will surprise me and layer in enough narrative levels to justify the show’s high concept, but here’s hoping this is a character-driven dramedy versus a high concept spy show. There’s too much life in these characters to constrict them to a “national security of the week” plot construction.