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| Photo: Sonja Flemming/CBS |
First of all, I have to admit up front that I am a relatively recent convert to The Big Bang Theory; it was only a few weeks before Christmas that I finally worked up the motivation to check out the first season and I enjoyed it so much that I quickly grabbed the four season box set and began devouring episodes at a rate of knots...
However, now that I'm up-to-date and catching up on the fifth season, I have to say I am deeply disappointed with the changes that have been wrought upon the show. The Big Bang Theory that I had developed such fondness for told the story of a bunch of guys whose service to science, and love of all things geek chic, means they had the collective social skills of a mouse mat and more raging hormones than a US cattle farm; four guys who lives are disrupted (and enriched) by the arrival of a hot, blonde neighbour who lacks their intellect but also lacks their social awkwardness and outweighs them all combined in the area of common sense.
We spent time in their work environments, were involved in the various scientific projects they worked on and the many machinations they set in play in order to achieve success with the ladies (with the obvious exception of Sheldon, for whom such matters were far too trivial). And, throughout, the show was littered with all manner of SF, comic, fantasy and gaming references (not to mention more than a few snippets of scientific theory). It was fun, it was bright, it was a breath of fresh air in comparison to the majority of turgid sitcoms out there...
Fast forward to Season 5 and it's hard to believe that this is the same show. Leonard is in a long-distance relationship; Howard, the (wannabe) suave player with a penchant for foot-in-mouth disease, is in a serious relationship, Raj has seen more girls in the first four episodes than he did in the first four seasons and even Sheldon - the theoretical physicist who considers himself the first homo novus - has a friend, who is a girl but not a girlfriend (although in episode 3 of the new season we see him displaying very out-of-character jealousy).
Change I can deal with, but it seems like the heart of the show has been ripped out; I'm five episodes in and we've had no scenes in the University (aside from a few discussions in the canteen), there's been very little mention of science and even the various references seem to be far less numerous and designed to appeal to a lower common denominator. Instead of a fresh take on modern sitcom, The Big Bang Theory has descended into the same mire as so many other shows - focusing more on relationships than relativity - and thus mining material that has been seen a hundred times before.
In watching all of the episodes with such delirious rapidity, the decline is all the more noticeable and perhaps nowhere more so than Sheldon who has devolved from a beautiful mind, whose hubris was predicated on years of being way too smart for those around him and who was seemingly unable to comprehend even the simplest social interactions, to some kind of petulant brat who gets jealous when he doesn't get enough attention from his visiting mother...
It feels like the show is trying to temper its sharp edge, bring down the barriers-to-entry created by genre specific references and appeal to a wider audience. But, in doing so, it's losing what gained it its audience in the first place. I'm hoping it can improve, that it can be turned around and restored to its former glories...but I'm not sure how many more tepid episodes I can watch before, like interstellar matter being sucked into the gravity well of a black hole, all the enthusiasm for the show is drained from me...
We spent time in their work environments, were involved in the various scientific projects they worked on and the many machinations they set in play in order to achieve success with the ladies (with the obvious exception of Sheldon, for whom such matters were far too trivial). And, throughout, the show was littered with all manner of SF, comic, fantasy and gaming references (not to mention more than a few snippets of scientific theory). It was fun, it was bright, it was a breath of fresh air in comparison to the majority of turgid sitcoms out there...
Fast forward to Season 5 and it's hard to believe that this is the same show. Leonard is in a long-distance relationship; Howard, the (wannabe) suave player with a penchant for foot-in-mouth disease, is in a serious relationship, Raj has seen more girls in the first four episodes than he did in the first four seasons and even Sheldon - the theoretical physicist who considers himself the first homo novus - has a friend, who is a girl but not a girlfriend (although in episode 3 of the new season we see him displaying very out-of-character jealousy).
Change I can deal with, but it seems like the heart of the show has been ripped out; I'm five episodes in and we've had no scenes in the University (aside from a few discussions in the canteen), there's been very little mention of science and even the various references seem to be far less numerous and designed to appeal to a lower common denominator. Instead of a fresh take on modern sitcom, The Big Bang Theory has descended into the same mire as so many other shows - focusing more on relationships than relativity - and thus mining material that has been seen a hundred times before.
In watching all of the episodes with such delirious rapidity, the decline is all the more noticeable and perhaps nowhere more so than Sheldon who has devolved from a beautiful mind, whose hubris was predicated on years of being way too smart for those around him and who was seemingly unable to comprehend even the simplest social interactions, to some kind of petulant brat who gets jealous when he doesn't get enough attention from his visiting mother...
It feels like the show is trying to temper its sharp edge, bring down the barriers-to-entry created by genre specific references and appeal to a wider audience. But, in doing so, it's losing what gained it its audience in the first place. I'm hoping it can improve, that it can be turned around and restored to its former glories...but I'm not sure how many more tepid episodes I can watch before, like interstellar matter being sucked into the gravity well of a black hole, all the enthusiasm for the show is drained from me...
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