The Big Bang Theory - General Review

Though the picture is of the first season DVD, this is less of a review of the 1st season (for example i'm not going episode by episode) but just my thoughts on the show as a whole.

The Big Bang Theory was a great suprise. I had tried to watch some of the new'ish shows that were comming out and none hit with me. I found The Class to be very annoying and not even the spin-off from friends (one of my fave shows) "Joey" was good enough (though miles better than The Class). Then one day i was at my mate Luke's house, we were waiting for Hellboy to start on TV, and the show on before that was The Big Bang Theory. I couldn't contain my laughter, i'd never paid attention to the show before and i sat there thinking "how did this pass me by!?".

The ensemble cast work very well together. It's seriously gold when you get all the guys together, halo night comes to mind. You're central characters are Leonard Hofstadter, by far the most down to earth of the guys in the group. He is the most wellcoming to branching out socially beyond his core social group. Sheldon Cooper has the highest IQ of the group and doesn't let them forget it. Clever and calculating, everything has to be logical for him. Then you have Penny, their neighbour in their apartment building. She is out going, sociable a great contrast to our geek squad. Then to finish the characters off we have sex obsessed Howard Wolowitz, he's just not getting it as much as he'd like. Then we have Rajesh Koothrappali, who has a problem talking to women, in that he can't. So theres a very simple character breakdown.

Ok, so how do they contribute to the series as a whole? well, Leonard i find to be one of the best written characters in a long time. In a series where you have these guys who are so socially disconnected, you need someone who is in some level relatable within the core group and the character of Leonard provides that. I also like where they have taken his attempts at a relationship with penny. They had the two have a date by the end of the 1st season, much like ross and rachel in friends, if they have them have a relationship early it allows for changes in the characters, break ups, getting back together, instead of holding off to long and having the whole narrative of Leonard going after penny become stale. So i really enjoyed that aspect of the show, and in fact their whole relationship has been one of the high points of the show. The two actors work very well together and it all blends very well.

Now on to my first complaint, Sheldon Cooper. Now i would like to state that he IS a very funny character. When they get the writing for the character right, its awesome. It's never also a matter of Jim Parsons', who plays sheldon, delivery. He always gets the tone right. However, though his one liners are fine, when they have him go on some sort of rant about the logic of a situation or how something someone else said isn't correct, they go to far. He becomes to seem robotic (something referenced in the show, to their credit). I just find myself thinking, when i can tell that such a rant is starting , i'm thinking "oh no" to me to slows the pace of the show down, and i hope they tone this down in later seasons. I think its also a problem in that they seem to think Sheldon has to carry the brunt of the comedy. As if they don't have enough in the other characters/actors. It's like "wow sheldon is like the poster boy character, lets push him to overdirve" and i hope this does not continue. However so it is not all negative, i will state that as i said its only the rants i dislike, the smaller moments of his character traits are fine, such as the cinema scene in Season 2.

Howard Wolowitz & Rajesh Koothrappali could be described as one-dimensional. However, that might only be down to the fact that they are supporting roles when compared to the rest and because we're so early in the shows run, their characters haven't been explored as much. Saying that Rajesh has hod an episode pretty much dedicated to his character (The Grasshopper Experiment). Though its not to say these characters can't knock it out of the park, Rajesh's line while getting a hug "turn your pelvis" comes to mind. Howard Wolowitz can have some of the funniest stuff in the show, his are often broad and OTT, but it works for his character.

So to finish, The Big Bang theory is a very promising show, if they can iron over some of the issues mentioned, this will be a series to remember in my book, it's got the right stuff, just needs a few more years of refining