The Big Bang Theory – Season 1

Archived review

A live-audience sitcom about a bunch of nerdy physicists being nerdy physicists has a number of dangerous factors that could make it an embarrassing failure. There's a danger that the jokes revert to making fun of one-dimensional stereotypes unaware of how ridiculous they are as they whine about the Star Wars prequels or argue incessantly about Kirk-vs-Picard (pointless, by the way. It's obviously Picard.). There's a danger that the dialogue is so highly esoteric that only Stephen Hawking and his mum would find any appreciation in it. And there's also a danger that, being an American show, it would feature a stupidly good-looking cast and thus seem completely unrealistic. The Big Bang Theory actually succumbs to all these faults, in varying degrees…Yet somehow, it still works. Why? Because.

Firstly, because they're not all completely unaware. Whilst Sheldon, a socially-retarded genius with probably about 15 behavioural conditions (and perhaps the greatest such ridiculous comic creation since Niles Crane), thinks that he is right and the rest of the world is not only wrong but irrelevant, protagonist Leonard provides a welcome counterpoint. When Leonard falls in love with outrageously-hot-in-a-wholesome-American-way literal-girl-next-door Penny (Kaley Cuoco from 8 Simple Rules and Charmed), he tries his best, admittedly failing most of the time, to lessen his nerdish tendencies and become the kind of man he thinks she might like. He's extremely sweet but undeniably inexperienced, and when asked by Penny after a particular display of kindness why all guys can't be like him, his knowingly bittersweet response is that if all guys were like him, the human race would become extinct. Their expected first date happens unexpectedly quickly, by the end of the strike-shortened first season. It'll be interesting to see how, or even if, their relationship progresses next year.

And yes, some of the show's more physics-y based jokes are incomprehensible to the average viewer, but that's often the point. It's the comic delivery of the lines that are accessible to everyone; Even if you can't understand what they're talking about, it's the way they get heated up and aggressive that makes the show easy to enjoy by everyone. Recommended for anyone with an inner nerd, and clearly anyone with an outer nerd such as myself.