It has been said that television is a mirror of our society, but in some ways it works more like a barometer or a heart monitor than a mirror. Our television shows are more than a reflection of our society; they are a forecast, a forecast with its finger on the pulse and beat of out ever expanding and changing culture. When we view television we aren’t looking at other people’s stories we are looking at our stories, we are looking at the story of our society; where we are, where we’ve been, and where we are going.
Television in many ways is like a crystal ball, you can look into it and see people and places that are far removed from yourself, but they look and feel to you as if they are in the very same room as you, or as if you are with them, wherever it is that they are. You can also click to the news and get an idea of what the weather will be like for the coming day or even week. But what if there was a channel for predicting the course of our culture? I say that there is, and I say that that channel is every channel that carries a popular mainstream television show. To illustrate this phenomenon I have chosen one of my personal all time favorite television shows: Chuck.
Chuck is the story of a lowly nerd (aptly named Chuck) employed at a local Buy More (a fictional appliance and electronics store), but all that changes when Chuck’s old college buddy Bryce sends him an email containing all of the CIA and NSA’s intelligence information and other assorted government secrets. When Chuck opens the email all those secrets are downloaded directly into his brain. Two of the government’s top agents Sarah Walker of the CIA and John Casey of the NSA are dispatched to recover these secrets, and just like that Chuck Bartowski goes from being a nobody nerd to being the most valuable intelligence asset in the world, and begins his journey to become a super spy.
While this show may sound fantastic and like an extraordinary situation that none of us is likely to ever find ourselves in, it is still, believe it or not, an accurate reflection of our society. With our societies’ growing dependence on computers, PDA’s, cell phones, and other such gadgets, these coming years are the age of geek. No longer will the traditionally successful and popular people dominate the majority of our focus. Nerds are the new rulers of this, the digital age. You want proof? Look at Bill Gates(Microsoft), Steve Jobs(Apple), Sergey Brin(Google), Larry Page(Google), Mark Zuckerberg(Facebook), and Jack Dorsey(Twitter) just to name a few. These are the nerds. These are the pioneers of our new digital world. But they are just the famous ones. Most nerds you’ll never even hear about. They are the countless code monkeys, tirelessly (thanks to Skittles and Mountain Dew) laboring in the digital trenches. Thanklessly creating everything we now take for granted.
Chuck was one of these nerds; having attended Stanford University he was vastly overqualified for his job in the Buy More Nerd Herd. But it was a job, and he needed the money, so he took it and he got stuck in the daily grind. We are like Chuck. Many Americans are overqualified for the job they now have, but with the tough place the economy is in right now many of those Americans are just happy that they have a job.
My father worked with IGT (International Gaming Technology) for over ten years, until they decided to pack up all their outside branches including the one in Corvallis (and excepting the one in China) and move everything back to the main office in Vegas. They offered him his same position in Vegas, if he went to china for several months to train the new team there, and then he would have to move his family to Vegas in order to keep his job. In the end he decided stay here and tuff it out, and luckily he was able to get a job at HP. But now he’s stuck again, working the nine to five, emails, spreadsheets meeting after meeting, life seems menial and bland. If only he was given the chance he could change the world. Make it better. Save the day.
And THAT is what Chuck is about. Chuck is about an ordinary person placed in extraordinary circumstances that require extreme bravery and heroism to overcome. That is what our society is about. The average person can make a difference. It may not be stopping bombs, or capturing terrorists, like Chuck does. But the world is a better place because of people who you never even hear about.
Be wary of those that you call "nerds"; you'll be calling them "boss" in 20 years. – Bill Gates
Chuck’s own Wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuck_Bartowski
TV Tropes page glorifying geeks: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ProudToBeAGeek
(There is also a great quote on this page by Bill Gates that was just too great not to put in here.)
The TV show’s page on Hulu: http://www.hulu.com/chuck
(I highly recommend you watch it. It’s fantastic.)
