It All Started with the Big... Bang!

At this point all most all nerds have at some point heard about the popular television show Big Bang Theory and the antics of its principal characters. I don’t imagine it’ll come as any surprise to you that I’m a BIG fan of the show.

Premise

Penny speaks to Sheldon through his
 Mobile Virtual Presenence Device

The story line follows the misadventures and daily lives of four physicists working at Caltech in Pasadena, California; Leonard Hofstadter (Johnny Galecki), Sheldon Cooper (Jim Parsons), Raj Koothrappali (Kunal Nayyar), and Howard Wolowitz (Simon Helberg). While it may seem like such a show would offer little entertainment value, the social interactions between these four characters and those they interact with outside their circle provide the “comic fodder” that drives the show’s success. Things are spiced up with the introduction of unique traits for each character contributing to their nerd personas (obsessive compulsive disorder, lactose intolerance, poor eyesight, pathological shyness, etc.).

The show kicks off with the introduction of the 5^th character Penny (Kaley Cuoco) who’s just moving into the building across the hall from Leonard and Sheldon’s apartment. You can almost sense the plot unfold as Leonard quickly falls head over heels for the aspiring actress/waitress and makes faltering attempts to win over her affections.

This particular plot line was so popular that two additional female characters were added as romantic interests for Howard and Sheldon; Bernadette Rostenkowski (Melissa Rauch) and Amy Farrah Fowler (Mayim Bialik).

Positives

What about this show isn’t awesome? It’s filled with nerd culture references that are sure to grab the attention of any nerd watching for even a few minutes and it offers a hilarious take on what it’s like to immerse yourself in that culture. Not only does each of the characters have their friends, but some (Sheldon in particular) have their enemies leading to conflicts that are sure to make you laugh and may even bring back some old memories. Overall it’s hard to find any fault with the show.

Negatives

While it’s next to impossible to find anything about the show that just isn’t amazing, there is one episode that, for whatever reason, I just can’t stand. Perhaps it’s just me, but the episode Loobenfeld Decay just holds no appeal for me whatsoever. Perhaps it’s the actor chosen for Cousin Leo or the lines for his character, but I just cannot stand him. Needless to say I skip this episode every time it comes up on the DVD (as I find it necessary to re-watch the show from time to time). Otherwise I can’t find anything about the show that I don’t like and frankly one episode out of several seasons is a stellar ratio that few shows can even come close to.

Conclusions

Big Bang Theory is just a great show all around that is definitely worth checking out whether you’re a nerd or not. In fact I have yet to find a single person who doesn’t at least enjoy the show, if they’re not totally into it. With such broad appeal it’s no surprise that the show keeps running and the fans keep coming back for more. I hope, as I imagine many like me do, that the show keeps running for years to come. Even should it go on forever, I’ll find the room for the DVDs here in my N3rd C0rn3r.