Nathan Fillion, Adam Baldwin, and Alan Tudyk will all be lending their voices to Halo 3 in what appears to be a large portion of the game. you will play the main character of the game, a character called “The Rookie”, who has very little to say. However, the three whedonverse actors will make up the other members of your team. In the case of Nathan Fillion, you will not only hear the actor, but also see him. When the character removes his helmet, he has a striking resemblance to Nathan.

If you are looking for a sample of what the characters will sound like in the game, look no further than the recently released HALO ODST ViDoc. The “trailer” is narrated by Nathan Fillion’s character, and introduces each member of the team. It gives you a good opportunity to hear each of the other actors in turn. Check it out:

Not Shaken . . . Just Nerd.

I am gonna go out on a limb here and say it: Chuck is the most fun show on TV today. That being said, I can see how some people who want a little more depth to their story or more serialized television might not have been a big fan of Chuck in its early days. But to you I say: It’s time to play catch up.

Chuck started out with a rather simple premise. Chuck Bartowski (Zachary Levi), leader of the Nerd Herd (i.e. Geek Squad) at his local Buy More (i.e. Best Buy) is pretty much a college drop-out slacker-type who lives with his sister. He has a best friend, Morgan Grimes (Joshua Gomez), who is his childhood friend, gaming buddy and all around hanger-on. Then he opens an e-mail from his former college buddy, Bryce Larkin.

And Chuck becomes the most valuable secret the U.S. Government has.

Chuck has downloaded all of the Nation’s most classified and Top Secret projects and personnel into his head. He is now guarded around the clock by his cover girlfriend, the beautiful but deadly Sarah Walker (Yvonne Strahovski), and his cover co-worker and neighbor, the stoic and gruff John Casey (Adam Baldwin).

Admittedly, I watched this show in the beginning for two reasons: 1)It looked to be a fun show and 2) It had Adam Baldwin in it. And I have made a solemn vow to try watch everything Firefly alumni get a role in (Thank you SciFi channel for making me watch some truly craptastic movies). But I digress.

For the first half of the season or so, it was a pretty formulaic and episodic show. But after they came back from the writer’s strike, the show really took off. It is still formulaic, but there is a serious heart to the show now that wasn’t there previously.

I think that charm comes from two things. First of all Chuck has some of the most amazing stunt casting seen today: Melinda Clarke as a deadly seductress (Hey, it’s Nandi – more Firefly!), Michael Clarke Duncan as dangerous villain (The Green Mile), John Laroquette as a former spy and ladies’ man (Night Court), Bruce Boxleitner as Chuck’s sister’s soon to be father-in-law (Scarecrow & Mrs. King) and probably my favorite: Reginald VelJohnson as a doughnut munching cop outside a hostage situation at the Buy More (Die Hard, as a doughnut munching cop outside Nakatomi towers). Each actor and actress just adds a little something to the series as a whole.

The second though, is Yvonne Strahovski. Yes, she wears ridiculous outfits and has fight scenes that make fanboys everywhere melt. But the heart she puts into Sarah makes her more than your average two-dimensional cover girl. We watch Sarah slowly fall for Chuck, and watch her heart break when she realizes that nothing can possibly ever work between them. In a recent episode where she thought Chuck had been killed was some of her best work to date. The utter shock, disbelief, horror and grief that struck her in those few seconds were absolutely overwhelming. She, like so many other genre actresses, ranks among the most underrated in television.

While the show has been a little stale over the last few episodes, news from Chuck’s creator, Josh Schwartz has me more psyched for the show than ever. They have a game-changing ending for this season of Chuck which will lead to one of two things. If Chuck doesn’t get picked up for a third season, this ending will send the show out with a bang. If they are renewed, the show will go a whole new direction next season. I, for one, am good to go either way. I’ve enjoyed the show from the beginning, and am pretty sure I’ll continue to enjoy it through its conclusion, now, or hopefully a few more years down the road.

Things still aren’t perfect. Sometimes the comedy falls flat on it’s face. And as I mentioned before, it seems as though they have to force a fight into every episode, even if it could go without one. However, I appreciate that they’ve moves away from the parody style humor that plagued the pilot episode for me.

The characters are really starting to come into their own in these episodes. I’m starting to enjoy Zachary Levi’s presentation of normal guy Chuck, quite a bit. When your show features such a stereotype, it can be hard to not go way too far. Take the geekiness or the wimpering too far and it becomes annoying. But in the episodes I’ve seen so far, they’ve pulled it all off pretty well. Except for that weirdly akward, "Why are all these people sleeping" comment. Was that supposed to be a joke, or is he that big of an idiot? Either way, generally they deserve Kudos.

So at this point, I’m wondering how long it will take for Chuck and Bryce’s Stanford girlfriend to make an appearance. Jill, right? She’s gotten enough mentions to this point that I’m totally expecting her to make an appearance at some point. It might not happen, but it’s just a hunch I’ve gotten so far.

To continue to improve, I’d like to see the series take more of an arcing story as opposed to episodic approach it’s taken so far. It might not happen, as it may inherit the general network tradition and remain episodic. But still, I’d like to see it happen. Also, I’d like to see Adam Baldwin’s role step up. I imagine as she show gets closer to the looming "6-month" deadline that will happen. I look forward to it.

I have to say, now that a lot of cheesier humor has departed, I’m enjoying the show quite a bit more. None of the characters really bother me right now, but I still find Sarah Lancaster’s character, and her boyfriend, to be some of the weak links. I’m eager to keep going to see what happens.

Alright, so before I go into my thoughts on the episode itself, let’s discuss my opinions on various aspects of the show post-pilot. Josh Schwartz? Love him. Adam Baldwin? Oh so talented. Yvonne Strahovski? I’m taking a liking to her. Zachary Levi? He could grow on me. I definitely see that bit of Adam Brody in his character. He’s no Adam Brody. So I’ll let the character evolve a bit before I make a judgement on him? Sarah Lancaster? I didn’t love her in Everwood. I don’t dislike her here, but I’d be ok with her scenes being a bit rare.

How do I feel about the episode? Well, you better keep on reading to find out…

There was a lot to love about this pilot. But there was a lot to hold back that love as well. When I imagined Chuck, I imagined it being two steps off from a sitcom. That’s not exactly right. It looks like it’s about five steps off. That’s what keeps this episode from being "special" to me. You take super serious plots involving the CIA and NSA and mix it with a sometimes goofy comedy style. Maybe I can learn to get over that, or maybe the slapstick humor (Ninja burglar, anyone?) will be toned down a bit. But in this case, it really bugged me.

The beauty of The O.C. was that it was a mostly serious and charming serious which at times took ordinary humor to special places. But at the heart of the series, it was still a very real series. With Chuck, it seems to take the opposite approach. Let’s stick a stereotypical nerd in a spoofed out job that seems straight out of 40 Year Old Virgin, have him become the target of a serious plot, and then wash it out with a spy spoof action show.

Ok, ok. Let me be fair. Besides the Best Buy/Geek Squad pun damage, occasionally goofy action scene, there is probably very litte over-the-top humor going on in the episode. It’s just that everytime I got to enjoying the episode, I had to grown a bit to myself and be pulled back out of the show. A nut shot from a candle deflecting ninja? Seriously?

But I digress. Hidden under what I arguably consider too much of the wrong type of humor is a very interesting story. The characters compel me, the acting is surprisingly strong for a pilot episode, and honestly, I often found myself laughing. Laughing at the dialog, that is. Very nice dialog, I might add. I suggest they rely on it a bit more.

*ahem* Pilots are generally some of the weaker episodes in a series. And for the most part, this wasn’t bad. I just hope they decide what type of show they want sometime soon, so I can decide if it’s for me. Do you remember the gore fest that was the first few episodes of Heroes? Remember how people were worried it was going to remain over-the-top gross you out action with a Cheerleader that could heal herself and a villian that could slice your head open? That’s me right now. Except silly humor has taken the place of gross special effects.

The good news is, I actually think I could enjoy a show like this, even if it does remain fickle with it’s tone. But it’s not the show I want, nor would it be one of my favorites. I’ve heard Scott say repeatedly the Gossip Girl and Chuck are two halves of a whole. I agree. One is mean-spirited and serious, the other is light-hearted and slapstick. Maybe I should watch them both at the same time.

So, does anyone want to re-assure me? Perhaps I’m insane. That happens often enough.