This was a comment to Strong Hands Blog: chuck vs captain awesome which grew into its own post.

The plot of the Chuck is kinda predictable, and the characters are one dimensional. While some people might like them, I really don’t find them very likable – except for chuck. The entire cast and premise is just one big contrast of him; a world of black to make him stand as white.

I think this contrast is huge, and his weaknesses show how much he relies on good traits to get him out. Superman had a lot of these personality weaknesses too, except they aren’t given much attention aside from weird moments with women, or when villains make him save some girl to stall him. I still like that character in both lois&clark and smallville, but they don’t bring his personality to life as well or place importance on them, and therefore they aren’t as entertaining or interesting from that standpoint.

I also compare him to Ironman, who is an anti-hero with alcohol issues, women issues, violent tendencies, and a big ego. I find all of this interesting because of the contrast to superman type (well really he contrasts Captain America, if you are a true comic book stickler). Ironman is very intelligent, wealthy, classy, a quick thinker, very confident, very smooth, seeks justice, and demonstrates other strong traits that are generally positive… although often his flaws make them negative (confidence + immorality = egotistical jerk)

Fumbling timid weak guy is not something to aspire to, but the qualities Chuck puts on the pedestal are to be admired … morality uniqueness compassion. The reason I, and my friend Meera, think Chuck is so great, would be that his good qualities are more important than confidence, eloquence, physical skills, and intelligence.