NBC airs Chuck, in which a nerdy man is trying to be a spy.  It’s a fairly simple premise and they define his nerd factor by making him work at a Best Buy clone for the nerd herd.  They further the stereotype by making him incompetent at any activity the real spies can do.  In reality that makes him a wimp but being a wimp and a nerd are not mutually inclusive.  It pisses me off to watch this show because in reality no one would put up with this.  They’ve actually started threatening the character that they would stop his training if he didn’t man up.  I know the show wouldn’t exist if he wasn’t such a wimp but his character should lift some weights or train harder because he complains about wanting to be an actual spy.  I don’t see why his character has to be a nerd to be such a bad spy.

The Big Bang Theory (TBBT) on CBS is a much friendlier stereotypical show.  The characters are real nerds and they have real nerdy issues (one can’t speak in front of women).  Even with these issues the characters are perfectly happy being themselves and having their downfalls.  Sheldon wanted to make friends so he went to buy a book about it, thus improving himself.  They aren’t making excuses or feeling bad, they just live and happen to be in funny nerdy situational comedy.

I obviously favor TBBT over Chuck and I’m not even sure why I still watch Chuck. It was almost cancelled last season and I can understand why the numbers are so low going up against How I Met Your Mother.  Sure it has explosions but don’t get caught up watching a dweeb bitch about being a real spy when your time can be better spent watching real nerds have fun with real nerdy situations.