The Hylton Memoirs

NBC can’t make up its damn mind, so all us “Chuck” enthusiasts get to agonize over the show’s future for a couple more weeks.
Some reports are saying that “Chuck’s” renewal deal is a certainty, but I think I’ll delay dropping trow and taking a naked victory lap around the block until the official word is out (and the temperature kicks up a few degrees).
NBC has plenty of logical reasons to renew “Chuck,” which I talked about last blog, but none of them really explains why I want so badly for the show to get a third season.
Above all else, I want more “Chuck” because I am a nerd (Non-Magic: The Gathering/World of Warcraft Denomination).
I may not have a “Tron” movie poster hanging on my wall and I haven’t read a comic book since I was eight, but I do own a replica sword from The Lord of the Rings, I openly engage in fantasy sport-related discussions on public forums, and I update my Zombie Epidemic Survival Tactics (ZEST) Guide whenever I move.
I also felt butterflies waiting in line to see “Transformers,” I miss pogs, I listen to bands like Blitzen Trapper and Vampire Weekend, and I know what a mogwai is (and, more importantly, that you can’t get one wet or feed it after midnight).
In a way, I am Chuck, or, rather, Chuck is me.
Like Chuck, I’m struggling to find my place in a world that seems to want to choke all of my creativity and goofiness.
I understand what it’s like to be the best friend of the perfect girl (or guys, nerdiness knows no gender boundaries) who, despite knowing better, always ends up watching helplessly while somebody or something else swoops in and occupies her attention.
So I don’t work in an electronics store and I definitely don’t save the world on a weekly basis, but Chuck’s journey and mine are one in the same.
The thing is, I’m not alone in this. All of us are a little nerdy. All of us struggle the same way Chuck does (minus the gun fights and explosions, of course) to make life work.
Chuck is a rarity in a world filled with perfectly sculpted doctors, hard-nosed cops and witty, ball-breaking lawyers.
Sure, there are a few other nerds on TV, but none of them have the same mass-appeal. George from “Grey’s Anatomy” isn’t manly enough, Landry from “Friday Night Lights” is a bit too into the Christian metal scene and the boys from “The Big Bang Theory” are, well, too nerdy.
“Chuck” is the only place on television where we can all be vicarious heroes.
As a result, the “Save Chuck” movement has been pretty extensive over the last month or so. It includes prominent movie critics, weeks of ferocious Tweeting, and an army of fans willing to go out and buy $5 footlongs.
But I suspect the fight has little to do with Zachary Levi’s goofy humor, Yvonne Stahovski’s hotness or the show’s impeccable mix of laughs, explosions and tears, although those things all help the cause.
“Chuck” fans are fighting for the show because it means something personal, and that’s something few television shows manage to accomplish.
We want to see Chuck’s mission continue because, in a way, it is our mission, too.
We need Landry to end up with Tyra.
We need George to find a smokin’ hot doctor lady of his own.
Mostly, though, we want to see Chuck and Sarah together.
We need to know the nerd can win.