Amazon and NBC are furthering their union today by offering up the NBC’s soon to be cancelled hour long drama pilots up as free rentals off the Amazon Unbox service. You can rent these titles at no cos and watch them online, on your Tivo, or on compatible portable devices.

Of course, you’ll only have limited amount of time to watch them…as they are rentals. God forbid you be allowed to view them at your leisure.

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And just to be clear, I’m not Anti-NBC. My Thursday Nights revolve around the network, but from what I’ve seen from these pilots, there isn’t much to write home about. Honestly, I don’t know if making these available so early is a good idea.

While most shows grow and get better after their pilot episodes, I’m afraid that if NBC lets too many people watch them too early, that most people will have forgotten about these mostly forgettable shows before the first episode even airs…much less the second.

In this new dramedy from the creative minds of Josh Schwartz and McG, the title character, Chuck Bartowski, played by Zachary Levi, is geek extraordinaire.  He works for the Nerd Herd, a subsidiary of Buy More (kind of like Geek Squad is to Best Buy).  His walls are adorned with Star Wars posters, he plays Gears of War, he’s even tried his hand at programing RPG’s.

Unbeknownst to Chuck, his former college roommate who he hasn’t seen in years has joined the CIA, and that unassuming email from him that pops up on Chuck’s computer contains an experimental program that contains the collective knowledge of the CIA and the NSA.  When Chuck opens it, the entire server is downloaded into his brain, granting him incredible knowledge and pattern- and problem-solving.

As you can imagine, the two agencies are none too happy with this, and they dispatch two of their best agents, Sarah Walker (the frakkin’ hot Yvonne Strahovski) and John Casey (Firefly’s Adam Baldwin) to recover or neutralize him.  Their priorities begin to shift, though, when Chuck manages to stop an assasination attempt on a top U.S. General.

I enjoyed the heck out of this pilot.  The comedy was fast, sharp, and witty.  Chuck and his bud Morgan (Joshua Gomez) play off each other perfectly, and I found myself laughing outloud several times during the course of the episode.  ‘Chuck’ is filled with something for everybody…tech humor for the geekly, spy action for the ‘Alias’ fans, and a gratuitous underpants scene featuring Strahovski for…well…any guy.

While the humor isn’t ‘Office’ quality by any means, the show definitely pops.  As a lead-in for ‘Heroes’, I think it’s got some great potential.  It’s on my list of shows to watch this fall.

B+

‘Chuck’ premieres Monday, September 24 at 8/7c on NBC.