The Big Bang Theory?

[George_Harvey_Bone]

The first few series of Big Bang Theory were genuinely excellent. Lots of really well-crafted, well-delivered gags and, though there are plenty of science and geek culture references, I never thought they were the heart of the show. It was all about the way the differing libidos of four guys reacted to a girl they had no chance of getting into bed.

Like every American comedy series (except Seinfeld), it broke down and lost itself because of franchise obsession. Rather than ending it once they ran out of ideas, they expanded the cast (and the writing team I imagine), trying to appeal to a wider audience and trying to milk something that had run dry. The laughter track descended into typical American too, with high-pitched "woos" being emitted at celebrity cameos or characters kissing.

I can understand people not liking the way it treats cultural references that they love, but the show itself is just a comsummately produced sitcom. Or it was before it went all Yankee Doodle...

 

[bluepilot]

I enjoyed the first series but then all the jokes began to get a little stretched and the shows got boring.

Sheldon's mother has the best part and I'd by far the most intelligent character im the series

 

[Woodsey]

I dunno, there's only one thing worth watching on that programme, and it's this:

Spoiler

Yes.

 

[Secret world leader (shhh)]

What's the lowest quality a sitcom can possibly be while still being classed as "above average"? That's where TBBT is for me.

 

[Kavok]

I really don't go for any show with a laugh track. But my parents are in love with it.

Personally my favorite description of the show is by a friend of mine who called it "Nerd Black Face".

Nerd Black Face....perfect summary right there. I'll have to remember that one, thanks for the post!

 

[Daverson]

Counter-intellectualism: the TV show.

Presumably this exists because someone realized that actually putting so-called "Nerds" in a Zoo was illegal.

 

[DionysusSnoopy]

I enjoy the show immensely. I still laugh when it is always repeated on E4.

I've heard many fans also tell me you need to be intelligent to enjoy the show, but I think they are confused (and assholes).

I know right? My friends all love it, and I can't stand it. I had a friend say that you have to be smart to get the jokes. Pretty much saying I wasn't smart enough to understand why it was good. That's the closest I've ever come to punching him in the head.

i agree, you don't need to be smart to get the jokes but some of the jokes do require scientific knowledge or rely on pop culture references to be funny. If you haven't learned or don't know the science/reference then you probably won't find the joke funny. Part of the reason why i think i enjoy it a lot is because science interests me, my best subjects at school and i studied it at uni.

 

[Nazulu]

I've heard many fans also tell me you need to be intelligent to enjoy the show, but I think they are confused (and assholes).

I know right? My friends all love it, and I can't stand it. I had a friend say that you have to be smart to get the jokes. Pretty much saying I wasn't smart enough to understand why it was good. That's the closest I've ever come to punching him in the head.

Every aspect of the show infuriates me. It has, literally, one joke: "nerds are a thing!" The characters are grating and unlikable stereotypes- and not even real stereotypes, the sort of stereotypes dreamt up by someone who has only ever heard about nerds from what they've read in the news paper. The people who come into my work hunting for merchandise from the show seem to have even less brains than the show itself.

Another thing I don't get is why this is the first show that I don't understand why it's popular and the fans tell me I need to be intelligent to understand?

I reckon Seinfield and Friends are pretty average but at the time when it was popular there wasn't any stupid fans telling me that I lack the intelligence to enjoy them. What is it about Big Bang Theory that turns idiots (not everyone of course) into elitists? They aren't even good at being an elitist for fuck sake!

 

[phantasmalWordsmith]

We only recently got the show here in the UK, that or I only just noticed it because I don't watch it much.

I really like it. Got a lot of nerd culture jokes, science jokes (unfortunately I only get the string theory ones, story for another time) and then there's the drawing of comparisons between my own behaviour and Sheldon's which can sometimes be a little discomforting

 

[bobmus]

As I said to @SmashLovesTitanQuest in another thread, there's a reason Jim Parsons (Sheldon) wins Emmys for his acting - it's a well-acted (particularly for comedy) piece of characterisation that went above and beyond what the producers had intended.

And as I said before, fuck the Emmys and fuck Jim Parsons.

I mean this in the nicest way possible: if you consider TBBT brilliant at anything in any way you have missed out on A LOT of good television over the years, and I strongly recommend doing some catching up.

I don't even hate TBBT like some people here - its actually funny from time to time, which is more than you can say about most sitcoms out there - but calling it brilliant... Nah dude. Nah.

I fixed that one word so it didn't bug you.
I watch a lot of TV, especially comedy, and respect how well Parsons is able to change his entire way of movement as if it were natural.
Actually, I must stress that - it's good acting for a comedy show. The skilled actors are typically not to be found in your 20-minute comedy episode, so I like that he's actually decent at it.

 

[PureChaos]

i love it. only found out about it a year or so ago and didn't realise it had been going for so long. it's hilarious.

 

[Wushu Panda]

I think people over criticize the show. Yes, its Chuck Lore, the asshole responsible for Two and a Half Men. But Big Bang isn't THAT terrible.

The show is cute, funny things happen and it pleases me to watch what happens. It could be better without a laugh track, but its well cast and the comedy is there.

Additionally, they actually check to make sure all the science they talk about is 100% accurate. The actress who plays Amy, Mayim Bialik, has a PhD in Neuroscience.

The show is quirky and they give effort to making sure they don't make BS claims to what they say is possible...i like that. You dont have to like it, but you have to admit as far as sitcoms go it's pretty good.

 

[George_Harvey_Bone]

As I said to @SmashLovesTitanQuest in another thread, there's a reason Jim Parsons (Sheldon) wins Emmys for his acting - it's a brilliant piece of characterisation that went above and beyond what the producers had intended.

And as I said before, fuck the Emmys and fuck Jim Parsons.

I mean this in the nicest way possible: if you consider TBBT brilliant at anything in any way you have missed out on A LOT of good television over the years, and I strongly recommend doing some catching up.

I don't even hate TBBT like some people here - its actually funny from time to time, which is more than you can say about most sitcoms out there - but calling it brilliant... Nah dude. Nah.

As someone who thinks the early series were brilliant, and also hates most attempts at sitcoms and comedy shows in general, I'd be interested to know what good television I've missed out on.

I'm not setting up an attack - just genuinely interested in what you think people like me should catch up on.

 

[Orange12345]

I think the show is okay. By that I mean not great but not terrible either, it's watchable there are some funny parts but the show isn't very good because all the characters are just stereotypes, the jokes just play on saying some "nerdy" thing and waiting for laughs. The way a friend of mine described it was "It's a show about nerds, not a show for nerds" which I think sums it up nicely

 

[Yopaz]

The Bing Bang Theory is simple and dumb comedy. It acts smart by taking up complicated themes, but it's not very intellectual. I enjoy watching it since it takes little thought to keep up with it. It's relaxing and suits me just fine. If I want to be intellectually challenged I'll read a book.

 

[Relish in Chaos]

The only thing I even remotely like about The Big Bang Theory is Sheldon Cooper, and even then, I don?t know why. He?s a horrible exaggeration of Aspergers? Syndrome sufferers and his ?Bazinga!? catchphrase is annoying. But at least, with him, the entire point of his character is that he's an insufferable and pretentious douchebag that constantly shits on his spineless and equally insufferable friends. The others don't get to skip off scot-free like that. Leonard is the closest of the series' "everyman" or main character, yet everything about him is grating.

Wolowitz still lives with his mother, how freakin' original lololol! *rolls eyes* Koothrappali is...the token Asian who occasionally spouts off random Asian references. Penny's the hot girl who only the hormonal loser who never grew up out of his teens had a chance with and is willing to screw everyone else over for. There's some other guy who's got a stupid and entirely unnecessary lisp. The characters are all lifeless stereotypes.

I literally don?t find the show funny at all, and I'm fed up of when my friends quote lines from it that I don't care for, and try to tell me how funny it is when it's actually fucking not. I think I must?ve genuinely chuckled about two times whenever I?ve watched out of boredom and there?s nothing else on TV, or my friend forces me to watch with him at his house. The characters are just so unrelatable and unlikeable?and I, a self-proclaimed nerd myself, am meant to be the target audience for this tripe.

Worse than Two and a Half Man, and that?s saying something. Better than some other sitcoms, but that isn?t saying much either.

 

[Nazulu]

I think people over criticize the show. Yes, its Chuck Lore, the asshole responsible for Two and a Half Men. But Big Bang isn't THAT terrible.

The show is cute, funny things happen and it pleases me to watch what happens. It could be better without a laugh track, but its well cast and the comedy is there.

Additionally, they actually check to make sure all the science they talk about is 100% accurate. The actress who plays Amy, Mayim Bialik, has a PhD in Neuroscience.

The show is quirky and they give effort to making sure they don't make BS claims to what they say is possible...i like that. You dont have to like it, but you have to admit as far as sitcoms go it's pretty good.

The only thing I have to admit about TBBT is the laugh track and script is unbearable. Don't get me wrong, I reckon it's great they put all the effort in to get the facts straight, but I can't even go one minute in the show with out rolling my eyes.

I find Two and a Half men decent at least. A lot of the jokes are stupid, and some I remember from The Simpsons and other comedies, but at least it had it's clever joke and come back moments occasionally. Not the newer series though, yuk.

 

[The Artificially Prolonged]

Why this happened? Because Chuck Lorre. The master of making stupid comedy for stupid people. The scary thing is half the time the shows are actually pretty decent...

Anyway, it didn't really drop off the face of the Earth for me. Its one of those shows that have been running on German TV in the early mornings for ages now. Just something you watch and smile when you are still to sleepy to really think and grasp how stupid the whole show is.

I loathe Chuck Lorre, I always felt dirty whenever I found something funny in Two and Half Men. Admittedly I find Big Bang theory ok from what I seen but nothing in the show has made me want to sit down and watch it regularly.

 

[chimeracreator]

I think it's pretty fun. The science jokes are pretty much always spot on and well researched, at this point they managed to have almost every major physicist on the show at some point (including Hawkings) which is pretty solid, and the geek jokes are almost mostly accurate. As for the relationship bits that's standard sitcom fun. They just took the four major science nerd stereotypes, ran with it and it worked. You see lots of more functional individuals elsewhere so it's not like they're claiming that functional geeks don't exist. It's just that they aren't as fun.

 

[JayElleBee]

I'm watching it right now.

I like the show, though there are things that bother me (specifically that the only girl in the show who is genuinely nerdy got stuffed into an entirely sexless relationship - because everyone knows that if a girl isn't model-attractive, she can't have sex).

I don't laugh at the jokes so much any more, but I still enjoy watching the show. I guess I know the characters so well that it's like hanging out with friends. <3 It just has that warm, cuddly, colourful feel to it.