A comedy show about physicists? Really? How can a comedy about geeks be funny, unless there is someone being mean to them/about them? Well that's where The Big Bang Theory comes in, smart and funny with highly intelligent characters; this show has succeeded at making a comedy with geeks for main characters work. So much so that it is already set to run for at least 4 seasons.
---------------------------------------
What Is The Big Bang Theory About?
The Big Bang Theory is about a group of four very smart guys who work at the local university, CalTech. Their lives consist of video games, comic books and sci-fi until the beautiful Penny (Who is of normal intellect) moves in next door. What follows is attempts to flirt, date and generally interact socially with Penny and others in the world with varied results. Every episode is different to the last, with the only real thread through them all being Leonard's love for Penny. Plus there is the addiction of fun titles for each episode, made by a blend of scientific theories and something from the episode itself.
---------------------------------------
Who Is In It?
Leonard Hofstadter, PhD (Johnny Galecki): With an IQ of 173, Leonard is one of our lead characters. He got his PhD when he was 24 (Which his room-mate believes makes him inferior) and works as a physicist at the university. He collects action figures (otherwise known as collectables to sound more grown up), loves Battlestar Galactica and occasionally listens to emo soft rock. He desperately wants to be with next door neighbour Penny but finds it hard to make his feelings known. In the series he is the source of a lot of sarcastic and dry jokes and is the voice of reason in the madness.
Sheldon Cooper, PhD (Jim Parsons): Leonard's room-mate Sheldon has an IQ of 187 and was a child prodigy. College started when he was 11 and he has 2 PhD's and a Masters, which makes him feel immensely superior to his friends. His mother, a devote Christian, claims that god gave him his brains and often dismays at his odd behaviour. Sheldon has many social problems, from an obsessive need for things to be in a certain routine to a complete lack of understanding when it comes to things such as modesty, irony or sarcasm. He is a huge fan of Doctor Who - specifically getting up early to watch it on BBC America. He's one hell of an oddball but is absolutely hysterical to watch; he truly doesn't fit into the human race and doesn't want to.
Penny (Kaley Cuoco): Blonde and beautiful, Penny is Leonard and Sheldon's next door neighbour in their apartment block. Far from being the dumb blond that could have been written, Penny is your average person - and to be fair when it comes to social skills and pop culture she has got every smart guy in this show beat. Originally from Nebraska, she aspires to be an actress but whilst she waits for that dream to come true she is a waitress/bartender at the Cheesecake Factory. She thinks Leonard and Raj are sweet, that Howard is creepy and that Sheldon is a complete loon. All fair assumptions!
Rajesh Koothrappali, PhD (Kunal Nayyar): Raj is from New Delhi and works as a particle astrophysicist at Caltech with the rest of the guys. Raj has his own problems, other than often wanting to kill Sheldon. He cannot speak around women, his shyness renders him mute - except when he has found temporary cures in drinks and drugs (Though he does once speak with Penny in the room without aids like these). Due to his muteness he is often forgotten about in the group - once everyone went to bed and turned the lights out whilst he was still sitting there.
Howard Wolowitz, M. Eng (Simon Helberg): Howard, generally known by his last name, is a Jewish engineer who still lives with his mother - a woman we never see but boy do we hear a lot of her. He doesn't have a PhD, which Sheldon likes to point out often, but he does has a Master's degree in engineering from MIT and builds things that go into space - something he tends to point out a lot too. Wolowitz believes himself to be a ladies man, but he's cheesy and offensive pick up lines tend to upset women rather than attract them - including Penny who has on occasion called him a creepy little man. Think Austin Powers with worse lines, worse dress sense and much worse hair! (Deep down he is a good guy though).
---------------------------------------
Episodes
This first season consists of 17 episodes that run for 20 minutes each (Yes really, they are short - apparently American TV channels love advertisements even more than UK ones!
Pilot: The two brilliant but socially inept physicists have a new neighbour to deal with when the beautiful (and single) Penny moves into the apartment across the hall from them. After an awkward first meeting it's clear that Leonard has fallen for her, but Sheldon points out some flaws in his plan. Of course Leonard doesn't listen and the pair end up going to Penny's rather large ex-boyfriends place to pick up the TV he refuses to give back, ending in embarrassment and Leonard owing a call to Sheldon's mother!
The Big Bran Hypothesis: Sheldon's OCD tendencies get the better of him (No change from usual there) when he and Leonard bring over a package for Penny and sees her home. In a Monica from Friends-type scenario Sheldon uses the spare key to her home to tidy her home, prompting outrage from Leonard who eventually gives in. Penny isn't so pleased when she wakes up, in fact she wants blood. Leonard does too once he is told how she knew it was them. After a "talk" with Raj (More like a talk at Raj really) Penny sees things differently and there is some very strange cuddling and sniffing between Raj and Wolowitz because of her.
The Fuzzy Boots Corollary: After seeing Penny with a date outside her place, Leonard becomes melancholy and emo over matter, which involves sighing a lot, singing badly to soft rock and contemplating buying a cat. Sheldon, in desperation to not have a cat points out to the emo physicist that he never asked Penny out so he hasn't be rejected. This leads to an awkward dinner where not only does Leonard make excuses over why the other guys haven't turned up, but ends up with Leonard bleeding after a table gets in his way.
The Luminous Fish Effect: The ever tactful Sheldon gets fired after he insults his new boss. Refusing to apologise and ask for his job back, Sheldon's unemployment and boredom leads him into further madness than usual - deciding to create glow in the dark fish, driving Penny nuts by tagging along on shopping trips and making experiments out of breakfast foods. This prompts Leonard to call Sheldon's mother as a last resort and the devoutly Christian lady has to solve it all.
The Hamburger Postulate: The gang are driven barmy by Sheldon's complaining when they switch from their usual burger place to the Cheesecake Factory where Penny works. Respite comes in the form of Leslie Winkle, a female scientist who needs a new cellist for her quartet. But after practice things heat up and Sheldon rushes to Penny's door to find out what a neck-tie on a doorknob means, though after hearing a comment from outside Leonard's door no explanation is really necessary.
The Middle Earth Paradigm: It's the group's first real social outing when Penny invites the boys to her Halloween party, though costume choices cause problems more than once. Wolowitz, Leonard and Sheldon attempt to talk to Penny's friends whilst Raj hides out on the couch terrified. The ex from the first episode turns up rather scantily clad and after a confrontation Leonard and penny end up back at his place with her lamenting why can't all men be like Leonard - to which he replies sadly "Because the human race wouldn't survive".
The Dumpling Paradox: A friend of Penny's from back home turns up and somehow is seduced by Wolowitz - it's his lucky day! Whilst they are busy doing lord knows what Penny sleeps at Leonard and Sheldon's, disrupting his inane early morning routine and making him miss the first 25 minutes of Doctor Who! With Wolowitz "otherwise engaged" Penny joins the rest of the gang for Halo night with hilarious results. Sheldon is not pleased with this new arrangement but is more concerned by what will be done with the extra dumpling on Chinese food night.
The Grasshopper Experiment: Raj is distraught when his parents arrange a blind date for him, even though they must know that he cannot speak in front of women. A saviour arrives in the form of Penny who is bartending to earn extra cash and tests out her skills on the guys, with a surprising result. Unfortunately the date isn't fantastic and she leaves with someone astounding after all that happens, upsetting Raj and his parents (especially when they talk to him whilst he's still a bit drunk).
The Cooper-Hofstadter Polarization: There are fights a plenty in an episode where Leonard finds a letter inviting him and Sheldon to do a presentation in the bin. Sheldon has decided that if he doesn't want to do the presentation then no one will be doing it, infuriating Leonard and spurring him on to go and do it by himself. Penny gives fashion advice and tries to fix things between the warring physicists but manages to strain things further, culminating in an all out fight at the conference.
The Loobenfeld Decay: Don't ever ask Sheldon to lie for you. Leonard is about to learn this the hard way when in making up a little white lie to get out of seeing Penny's awful singing performance in Rent it turns into a multi-faceted Oscar worthy performance involving a hired actor. Sheldon's paranoia that Penny will find out the original lie by logging onto the University's website is truly laughable. But will this lie work out any better than the first one?
The Pancake Batter Anomaly: Penny comes back from a visit home and mentions in passing that her family was sick, putting super sensitive Sheldon onto red alert for germs. Too little too late as Sheldon does get sick and due to previous illness the guys run and hide in the local cinema because of "Code Milky Green" - clearly this has happened before and they aren't willing to be anywhere near the even more irritating than usual Sheldon. Penny gets dragged into the mess when he turns up at the Cheesecake Factory exclaiming to customers that they're all doomed and somehow ends up with her putting him to bed and singing "Soft Kitty" to him. When Penny finds out that the guys ditched him and left her to do everything she is understandably mad, but the way she finds out is rather funny.
The Jerusalem Duality: Jealousy ahoy when Sheldon meets a teenage prodigy who is smarter than him. To make himself feel better he decides to "help" his friends by going to their labs and criticising everything they do before flipping out and deciding to aim for the Noble Peace Prize with his latest idea designed to bring peace to the Middle East in the maddest way possible. The guys have a plan to restore whatever sanity Sheldon used to have and succeed somehow, but their plan makes them question themselves in relation to the teenager's social skills.
The Bat Jar Conjecture: The gang plan to compete in the annual Physics Bowl but when Sheldon takes over and gets too big for his boots they decide to kick him off the team, replacing him with one of his foes. Sheldon builds his own team from a more unlikely source and compete, but Sheldon's ego deals a huge blow. Penny, increasingly fed up with arguments over who is smarter, ends the show with her own test of who is smartest but due to some serious difference between her and the boys, the quiz is a lot tougher than the Physics Bowl ever was.
The Nerdvana Annihilation: Before bidding on eBay you should read through the listing carefully - something that Leonard fails to do and so ends up as part owner of a life-sized actual prop from the film The Time Machine. But after blocking the stairwell when Penny is late for work, harsh words are said leading Leonard to start packing away his collectable action figures to sell off. Whilst Raj and Wolowitz argue over who will get ownership of some of Leonard's rarer figures, Sheldon does the right thing and talks to Penny to fix things with his room-mate.
The Pork Chop Indeterminacy: Did you know that Sheldon has a twin sister? No, wait, don't run and hide - she is NOTHING like Sheldon. So much so that all the guys are fighting over her with Sheldon having no clue what is going on and Penny rescuing the poor girl. After some sneaky shenanigans and a punch to the crotch Sheldon decides to let his sister date whoever she wants, with each of the guys attempting to woo the lady. In the meantime Raj has been trying something new to help his crippling shyness, he's in a drug trial that is supposed to help with these sorts of anxiety - perhaps it'll be just the thing for his turn to woo.
The Peanut Reaction: After finding out that Leonard never had a birthday party, Penny decides to throw him a surprise one and enlists the help of Sheldon, Raj and Wolowitz to help. But Sheldon complicates thing further by not buying a gift and after much persuasion from Wolowitz and Penny he winds up at an electrical store and gets distracted by others. Wolowitz makes a big sacrifice for Leonard (well, more for information on Penny's more easy friends) in order to keep him distracted but when it overruns due to the time spent in hospital Leonard gets the greatest gift of all.
The Tangerine Factor: Penny's latest boyfriend gets dumped after she finds very private details about their sex-life on his blog, prompting Wolowitz to scour the entire web searching for it to feed his obsession with Penny. Leonard tries to help Penny but his advice backfires and gets him into trouble leading to the big question of a date from Leonard. Both worry in the days leading up to the date and for some reason decide to ask Sheldon for dating advice (The man who prefers Klingon Boggle to women!) that involves Schrödinger's cat. To stop the episode getting too mushy and romantic, there is also the side-story where Sheldon asks to be taught Mandarin because he's certain that the tangerine chicken he orders from their usual restaurant is in fact being made with oranges - he should have practiced more because his insistent ramblings about tangerine bicycles could get him locked up.
---------------------------------------
Why Should You Watch This?
You should watch this because it is a quirky little comedy that deserved more fanfare on release than it got. It is funny without being cruel and doesn't talk down to the audience when it comes to the science talk - they even have a science consultant on the show to make sure what they are saying is correct (even if it isn't always entirely understandable).
The characters in the show are all very different, but oddly all also manage to be funny. Sheldon and Leonard are basically the modern day geeky Odd Couple, with Leonard being pretty laid back and sensible (Though he has a tendency to overanalyse tiny little moments) and Sheldon as the neurotic and obsessive compulsive guy who would honestly be happier if the entire world's population disappeared and left him all alone.
There isn't a huge important story arc to this show, which though important with many means that you can dip in and out of this show if you want and not miss too much. The main stories throughout are the guys trying to learn how to be more sociable (Well, everyone but Sheldon), and Leonard's love of Penny from afar. Of course not having any huge complicated story arcs could mean that this won't hold the viewers interest but it really manages too because you can't help but wonder what these crazy guys are going to do next. And most importantly, when will they finally kill Sheldon? (As funny as he is he is also completely infuriating)
If you like American sitcoms and are bored with the repeats on TV at the moment, try watching The Big Bang Theory. It's a funny show with a lot of big words and some weirdly endearing characters that you'll root for.
---------------------------------------
Final Verdict
I came across The Big Bang Theory by chance whilst channel hopping when it was first shown on E4 and thought I'd give it a try as I was fed up of watching repeats of Friends, this turned out to be a great decision as the show is very funny and compelling viewing.
I can't claim to understand everything the characters say when it comes to the science talk, but on a few occasions the show has prompted me to Google something - especially when it came to the mention of String Theory. The dialogue, though complex and fast paced, is still put in a way that seems kind of understandable on a basic level.
I love all of the characters, which is a rarity because usually there's one character I just do not like that much. But they are all so varied and flawed it was hard not to fall in love with them - even creepy Wolowitz and screwball Sheldon. They also have some great reoccurring characters and since they started the show they have managed to get some great guest stars in (I wait impatiently for the third season featuring the legendary Lewis Black - youtube search him if you haven't a clue who I'm on about, any Bill Hicks fan will LOVE him).
Even the theme tune is great in this show; it references the changes in the universe since the Big Bang (so yes, it's geeky). It's done by the Barenakedladies - think back boys and girls and you should be able to remember them! It is catchy, clever and just doesn't get old. It was even voted as one of the five most effective TV theme tunes and the extended full version has also been released as a single. (For those curious about why I love the theme song, here it is on youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBAjIgjPebg )
In conclusion The Big Bang Theory is one of my favourite comedies and this DVD didn't disappoint. I've been able to watch episodes several times and still notice something I hadn't before. I would recommend this to anyone bored with stale repeats or feeling that lately there has been little comedic gold on the TV, and especially to geeks of any kind. It's funny to see some of their madness in yourself and to be able to laugh along without feeling like they are saying it's wrong to be this way.
The show is essentially a lesson in being yourself, they are all fine the way they are so long as they open up to others and new experiences. So sit back, watch this, and embrace your inner geek.
---------------------------------------
DVD Information & Extras
This is 17 episodes long as previously mentioned and it is spread across 3 disks. It features English, Danish, Dutch, Norwegian, Swedish, Polish and Finnish subtitles so caters to a wide selection of Europe.
It's rated as a 12 certificate and is a nice comedy that isn't overly uncomfortable to watch, with little bad language, no nudity but mentions of sex often (presumably because the gang generally aren't getting any!). If you're bored of watching repeats of Scrubs and the never-ending recycling of Friends this is a show to try - the comedy isn't shocking but is still very funny, and the characters are loveable but different to those in other comedy shows. It will appeal to teens and adults alike and is perfect family viewing unless you're prudish on the subject of sex - though if that's the case you probably aren't letting your kids watch Friends or Scrubs either as the level of talk about sex is very similar. There are no overly mean characters in this show and jokes are not made cruelly at the expense of other characters - even though Sheldon does come in for a lot of ribbing with his obsessive ways. Sarcasm is a main comedic feature as is wacky situations.
Extra's-wise (having found that there were some when I finally peeled off the barcode label the store had stuck on the back) it's not exactly plentiful but it is a nice addition:
Quantum Mechanics Of The Big Bang Theory: A Behind-The-Scenes look into geek chic. This is a 17 minute feature with cast and crew over the huge risk they took in making a comedy focussing on physicists, why they did it and why it is so funny.
So if you haven't already seen this, where the hell have you been?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment