TV Show Review

The Big Bang Theory

Sitcoms are a pivotal part of the television experience. They are built on the foundations of comedic timing and fresh jokes every episode to keep the audience engaged. Ultimately, entertaining the audience is the main purpose. 

Which brings me to question why The Big Bang Theory, a popular show that has recently aired its final episode, is so highly regarded in the sitcom genre. The actors share strong chemistry and are not untalented, but despite this I was unable to get past the corny laugh track and repetitive humour. 

Don’t get me wrong: it must be hard to script a show to bring something new to the table these days, when everything has been done to death. But if the final product is something as simplistic as socially inept nerds struggling to get women, why not just go back to the drawing board? 

Essentially, the show follows a group of four intelligent scientists who bond over their love of video games, comic books and Star Trek. It’s not a horrific idea, all things considered, but the character tropes are so stereotypical that it’s impossible to enjoy. Leonard (Johnny Galecki), Sheldon (Jim Parsons), Howard (Simon Helberg) and Raj (Kunal Nayyar) are all extremely smart, which is great. But their intelligence is merely included as a cause of their geekiness, lack of social skills and inability to attract women. Because everyone with a high IQ is a total weirdo, right?  

Then, of course, there’s the clichéd dumb blonde girl who always has a boyfriend. Penny (Kaley Cuoco) moves in next door to Leonard and Sheldon, and together with Howard and Raj, they form a makeshift family. It’s a cute idea, but it’s also wildly overdone and monotonously formulaic. 

Let me save you some time here – if you’ve seen Friends, Seinfeld,Two and a Half Men or basically any other sitcom ever, you’ve already seen The Big Bang Theory. 

Now let’s discuss the laugh track. I don’t mind the use of canned laughter every now and then, but after the hundredth play in one episode, it gets exhausting. Why should audiences be directed to laugh? Do they think we require a not-so-subtle nudge to recognise a simple joke? “Hey, this is funny! Laugh now!” And what really irks me is that there are few laugh-out-loud moments in The Big Bang Theory anyway. There’s plenty of slapstick and mocking jokes (usually about Raj’s fear of speaking to women or Sheldon’s obsessive-compulsive tendencies – I know, right? Comedic genius!), but it lacks the edge and originality to consistently make me chuckle.  

Obviously, some people found value in this “comedy”, as it has been internationally recognised with a significant run of 12 seasons. This should really be reduced to six seasons, because it was at this point that the plot went completely stale and old storylines were simply regurgitated. Maybe people kept watching because they wanted to recreate the magic offered by shows like Friends and Brooklyn 99, or maybe we’re all just steadily losing our grasp on quality humour. 

I understand that everyone has different tastes, and if you enjoy The Big Bang Theory then that’s your prerogative. But personally, I’d rather read the dictionary from front to back than watch Penny and Leonard have another couples’ spat, Sheldon be unable to enter a room unless he has knocked three times and Howard and Raj be rejected by pretty girls at a bar (aka a standard episode). No disrespect to the actors, because as I said – they weren’t bad. I just fail to understand what kept people engaged in this bland show for so long aside from the catchy theme song. 

So maybe you don’t need to get the popcorn ready.

Couch Potato