It’s something you don’t find so often these days—an intelligent sitcom. Far removed from its peers who so often depict, say, a kid playing a “Game Boy” (which is in fact a Nintendo DS), complete with its bleeps and blips supposedly representative of all videogames, The Big Bang Theory knows its geek chic and it shows. Rather than casually glossing over the intricacies of anything deemed too sophisticated for Joe Schmo (like nearly every other show out there), TBBT embraces its techie foundation by striving to get all of the details right, whether or not its viewers are aware of it. It’s the first sitcom that can actually joke about modern science and technology without inciting the rolling eyes of so many young academics.
Massive Vector Bozos
Leonard (Johnny Galecki of Roseanne) and Sheldon (Jim Parsons) are roommates and longtime friends with a common quality: they’re both huge geeks. Both of them work in different divisions of experimental science in various laboratories drawing seemingly foreign symbols on whiteboards. They’re also both obsessed with all manner of nerdy subject matter—hardcore MMORPGs and FPS games, Star Trek and Planet of the Apes, 3-D chess, et al. They’re socially awkward, completely out of touch with modern styles and norms, and tragically unhip. And they’re also hilarious together, as well as with their two best buddies, Howard (Simon Helberg) and Rajnesh (“Raj” – Kunal Nayyar).
Leonard is generally tolerant, pensive, and is definitely the most well-balanced of the group. He’s still unusual, yes, but he’s at least on the verge of sociality. The most pronounced example of this borderline normalcy is his fragile relationship with the girl that just moved in across the hall; Penny is her name. Penny (Kaley Cuoco) is, for all intents and purposes, a dream catch. She’s gorgeous, sociable, caring, and thoroughly normal. But she doesn’t share even the most remote semblance of intellectual supremacy that her soon-to-be-Nobel-prize-laureates across the hall exhibit. And the biggest problem is that she isn’t single—and her boyfriend’s brains:brawn ratio is precisely reciprocal to Leonard’s.
Sheldon is as eccentric as they come, and he’s extremely pretentious, to boot. He’s also brilliant; the smartest of the group almost certainly, as he frequently rattles off random factoids and scientific corollaries to supplement the conversation in his own unique way. He carries monstrous aspirations for himself and he’s completely unwilling to budge from his position on practically anything. His utter disinterest in everything related to sexual relationships and Penny is hilarious to behold alongside Leonard’s outright swooning over her. He’s also highly particular about everything that he does, from labeling all of the dishes in the household according to their use (the “Urine Cup” tag on the bottom of the measuring cup is perhaps the most disturbing) to cooking omelets and ordering sandwiches (“the cheese provides a natural barrier between the lettuce and the bread”). Leonard is slow to anger and does a wonderful job enduring Sheldon’s arrogance (probably due to their history), but Howard and Raj are not so tolerant—and he drives Penny absolutely nuts.
Howard thinks he’s smooth and likes to view himself as a ladies’ man who just so happens to dabble in remote international space station repair and the like. He’s always wearing an amusing smug grin around the women, and he never hesitates to employ a completely embarrassing pick-up line. His obtuseness in social scenarios makes for plenty of laughs as he talks himself into awkward situations. Raj, on the other hand, is perfectly competent (while foreign and constantly reminded of the fact)… except around women. In fact, he’s gynophobic; he is completely unable to speak to women one-on-one, and instead he simply suffers in discomfited silence until someone else is able to explain his plight to the offending female.
The Copenhagen Interpretation of Penny’s Role
What Penny brings to this is a sense of sanity and a connection to the “real” world outside of the intense geekdom permeating the script. She’s wholly unimpressive—and completely normal—in comparison to any of the four geeks. While she’s perfectly content with herself, her brainpower is completely unremarkable. Instead, what makes her special is her ability to tolerate the idiosyncrasies of Leonard and the gang; in spite of their peculiar tendencies, she still visits them on a regular basis and even seeks an active friendship (perhaps more?) with Leonard. She casually ignores their rampant intellectualism and rolls her eyes at their quirks without giving it much thought—and it’s this aspect of her character that makes her such a valuable contrasting element of the show.
In this first season, you get 17 episodes of the half-hour-long show (it was originally slated for 22 episodes, but the writers’ strike cut that number back). While nearly all of them are wonderfully entertaining and packed with quotable (if you can manage such a mouthful) moments, here are a few that I found particularly enjoyable (brief spoilers follow):
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The Pancake Batter Anomaly – Sheldon comes down with something after Penny shows up on the trailing edge of influenza. Leonard, fully aware of the circumstances surrounding a sick and whiny Sheldon (trust me—it’s bad), fabricates a lie to rescue himself from having to return home—and thus leaves Penny to do the dirty work.
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The Nerdvana Annihilation – Leonard wins an $800 auction on eBay for a life-sized prop of the time machine from H.G. Wells’ The Time Machine… but he didn’t plan on it being life-sized. While they’re muscling (heh) it up the stairs of the apartment building, Penny’s path to work is blocked, provoking her to condemn Leonard’s obsession with such senseless toys.
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The Middle Earth Paradigm – The guys are invited to Penny’s Halloween party which, other than them, is packed with normal people. But that doesn’t stop them from wearing dorky costumes: Leonard is a hobbit, and Sheldon is the Doppler Effect (his costume is a riot).
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The Tangerine Factor – Leonard finally asks Penny out. When she seeks Sheldon’s advice, he sagaciously offers the following analogy: “Have you ever heard of Schrödinger’s cat?”
Special (Relativity) Features
Here’s where TBBT falters; beyond the 17 episodes in this set, there’s hardly anything else to behold. What’s included is just two extra features, Quantum Mechanics of The Big Bang Theory (a behind the scenes look into geek chic) and a Gag Reel (a newcomer to the Blu-ray version of the release). The former is 17 minutes and 13 seconds of some pretty insightful entertainment. Hosted primarily by Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady, it includes interviews with several other key cast members as well. The featurette examines each of the show’s characters in detail, with frequent comments about how wonderful it is working together. It seems like there’s quite a lot of synergy on the project.
There’s also a considerable amount of discussion about how important the show’s creators felt it was to ensure that everything was as scientifically accurate as possible. Chuck cites that they actually have a physicist on staff to check their work and provide relevant material. They even traverse a few examples of their meticulous fact-checking: for instance, the formulas written on each character’s scratch pad are actually scientifically accurate. The creators seem quite enthused about the hidden complexities of the show, and it seems that such “inside jokes” are going to continue to be a staple of the series moving forward (which I love).
The gag reel, meanwhile, is pretty funny stuff, though it’s admittedly a bit awkward to behold canned laughter tacked onto the outtakes as well as the show itself. Nevertheless, it’s in beautiful HD, and is a healthy seven minutes long.
