I don’t usually like many sitcoms. I think that the writing, by nature, has to be cliché, that the characters tend to be shallow, that the plot is limited to one, maybe two episode story arcs, and that laugh tracks are the most annoying things ever. Every now and then, however, there’s a sitcom that breaks all the rules and proceeds to rule my heart above all others. (“How I Met Your Mother,” I’m looking at you, even with your inconsistent writing. And your annoying but necessary laugh track.)
This leads me to “The Big Bang Theory,” which while not quite taking over a portion of my soul, is a lot closer than is probably comfortable for my cardiologist. Take two physics geeks working at a university, a young hot thing arrived in LA to become an actress, geek-tastic jokes, sci-fi references like whoa, stir well and you have a little taste of “The Big Bang Theory.” It’s a show where those on the fringes take center stage and people like us (you, me and to a certain extent Penny) get to sit back and watch them in their ‘natural habitat.’ It’s a hilarious if slightly corny show, with good actors (in the case of Jim Parsons in his role, even great ones) and a love story bound to keep us entertained for quite some time… But that doesn’t mean that there aren’t flaws.
My biggest concern is that there has been little if any actual development within the show itself. Neither the characters nor the situations in which they inhabit have changed in any meaningful way, and although we are certainly getting to know the characters better, that alone isn’t enough to excuse how long we’ve been languishing on the sidelines. It’s a safe move in a lot of ways – not fixin’ what ain’t broke and all of that – but it also gets old fast and frankly, isn’t really all that impressive. While the writers can pull off no sustaining development for two seasons without much backlash (because honestly, I think they needed time to hone their characterizations anyway), if they want to keep audiences engaged they’re going to need to stop telling stand-alones and start working at the bigger narrative of the story, whatever that may be. Have our characters fail, have them succeed, have them do something that isn’t sustaining the show’s status quo and you’d be amazed at how much more invested your audience will become.
I’ve also read from several critics that there’s the very real concern that the show spends more time ridiculing its characters than showcasing them. A geek is a geek, and yes, we can laugh at geeks and a wannabe actress as much as we want, but that’s not really a sign of clever writing. (Like in the pilot, when we see Leonard and Sheldon stripped down to their underwear by the jock ex-boyfriend. Haha?) It’s unfortunate, because the show really is funny and the premise has a lot of opportunities for being truly remarkable, but the characters themselves can’t be the show’s punch line. Don’t get me wrong, it could still be funny in a cruel sort of way, but the problem with making your characters out to be ridiculous is that it becomes a lot easier to mock them from afar than it is to sympathize with their respective plights.
The great news is that “TBBT” isn’t incapable of producing that empathy. This show has a tremendous amount of heart under all of the ‘typical-sitcom’ jargon that I like to throw at it, and it’s for these reasons that I’m looking forward to the third season. Jim Parsons steals the show episode after episode as Sheldon, the theoretical physicist with an IQ that verges on not-quite human and neurosis to match. Add onto this intelligence a petulant, oblivious, self-absorbed, and surprisingly child-like demeanor, and you have the brilliance that is Sheldon. The character is larger than life in all of the most entertaining (and potentially irritating) ways, and Parsons is so brilliant at actualizing the persona that as a result most of the great material ends up being a part of the Sheldon show. Understandable, and the audience definitely reaps the benefits, but the rest of the cast really deserves more credit.
Primarily among those is Johnny Galecki, who gets the unforgiving task of playing the slightly more socially capable Leonard, an experimental physicist who falls hard for their new neighbor. With this role comes the traditional problem of the love-sick lead, a guy that audiences have a tendency to either forget or downright reject after a while of hapless longing. Yet for all that, Leonard, for me, continues to be the real heart of the show, and if it wasn’t for Galecki’s ability to be genuinely likeable even while delivering relentless complaints and ‘woe-is-me’ speeches (not really helping the guy out, are you writers?), I would have stopped watching at the pilot. (Sheldon’s a character I’ve learned to love, but he’s definitely an acquired taste.)
Kaley Cuoco as Penny, the sexy would-be actress, might be the weak link in the cast. Granted, a large part of this has to do with her shaky characterization throughout the first season, and as the show has progressed I’ve become more found of both Cuoco and Penny. When she gets it right, I buy every bit of Penny’s frustration and epic temper while still understanding her warmth and the nurturing personality that would give her the patience to become friends with this rag-tag group of nerds in the first place. That’s a hard combination to pull off, and when Cuoco executes that duality well she’s golden.
Simon Helberg as Howard (the engineer/‘sleaze’ who can’t stop hitting on women) and Kunal Nayyar as Raj (‘sweetheart’ who can’t get up the courage to even talk to them) are both better actors than they get the screen-time or material to display, and I can only hope the writers realize this and get the two of them out of the character’s established ‘themes’ and start venturing toward more original stuff in the future, as they’re both a delight to watch and have real dramatic capacities that aren’t being utilized.
In conclusion, “The Big Bang Theory” is a good show. It has a solid premise, a cast that works magic, and an undeniable sense of fun that is consistently entertaining. But given more time and some thoughtful writing, “TBBT” could be much better. Writing a developing story which allows these characters to continually grow and that embraces rather than mocks the oddities which make this show so compelling will go a long way toward “The Big Bang Theory” reaching the sitcom elite.
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