Back in July I wrote about how I fell in love with The Big Bang Theory. I'm proud to say that I was one of the first viewers amongst the people I know to discover the show. I was watching it before it became popular. I guess it's lucky for the show that at the same time, Marvel superhero movies were taking off, Comic Con was becoming mainstream, and geeks were even setting fashion trends. You could see more and more people wearing superhero and sci-fi t-shirts.
But sadly my love for the show began to dwindle after season 3. I think it coincided with Leondard and Penny getting together. I felt it was too early in the series. There were so many storylines left to explore. The writers didn't need to resort to that so soon, did they? Many times, Leonard gets close to Penny, only to see her go off with another guy. Usually this is done in a comical way, but at the same time the audience feels Leonard's pain and agony. It gives us more reason to root for him in his attempt to woo her.
As the guys start to get girlfriends, I feel the show is losing the very essence of what made it popular. I want to see their "geek" problems - and the main geek problem is the inability to get girls. So if Howard gets married, Raj can now talk to women, and even Sheldon has a girlfriend, then this sitcom is now just like all other sitcoms out there today - mainly focusing on s?? (my daughters may be reading this) and relationship issues. The unique geekiness is gone. They don't talk about superheroes and sci-fi as much as they used to. Now Howard has marital problems with Bernadette, he feels awkward connecting with his father-in-law, etc. These storylines may still be funny, but they are not what The Big Bang Theory is about. It's like if Wheel of Fortune stopped using a wheel and instead used a 20-sided die or a dartboard! How would you feel if the 2 Broke Girls won the lottery?
The worse thing to ever happen was Howard getting married. His character was so funny before. Watch any episode from the first 2 seasons and I would say you have a 95% chance of it being better than any episode after the 3rd season. I expected that Raj would one day learn to talk to women and actually looked forward to the day Sheldon would get a girlfriend (perhaps in season 6 or 7) but Howard getting married was not necessary. It has rendered his character useless. He was so funny before, with his rude and obnoxious comments. But now those days are gone.
Now the writers are trying to make Sheldon more normal, too. He's starting to care about others, have feelings of guilt, and he even kissed Amy! The worse part was that the writers used an episode about National Star Wars day to have Bob Newhart appear as the ghost of Obi-Wan to tell Sheldon that he's wasting his life with his geeky ways. That's a kick in the face to geeks everywhere! The people who supported the show at the very beginning are now being insulted by the show itself. I know the show was built on poking fun at the geek lifestyle. But the difference up to this point was that they were showing how geeks were happy with their lifestyle, as strange as it may be. We choose to live this way and we love it! But now I fear Sheldon is going to come back from his summer road trip a changed person. He will slowly shun his geeky and anal ways in season 8, thus, making the show lose even more of its essence.
So is this how my love for The Big Bang Theory ends, not with a bang but a whimper?
Big Oh
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