'Big Bang Theory,'
in the sweet spot
Ratings are way up for the sitcom, now in season three
By Tom Conroy
Nov 2, 2009
Somewhere during the run of a good character-driven sitcom—like, say, “Friends”—it reaches a point where the characters are so familiar that the jokes come easy but not so familiar that they breed contempt.
“The Big Bang Theory” is right in that sweet spot.
The sitcom, airing on Mondays on CBS at 9:30 p.m., has even managed to hurdle a traditional jump-the-shark moment, when two of the characters finally consummate their long flirtation. The mentally gifted Leonard (Johnny Galecki) and the physically gifted Penny (Kaley Cuoco) are now an item, and the show is cleverly mining their unlikely romance for laughs.
In tonight’s episode, Leonard tries to bond with Penny by asking her how her favorite football team did. When she says, “We won!” he replies, “That’s a weird figure of speech—‘we won,’ when you weren’t actually playing. When we watch ‘Star Wars,’ we don’t say, ‘We defeated the empire!’ ”
Well into the show’s third season, Leonard’s even more socially challenged friend Sheldon (Jim Parsons) is still incapable of dealing with Penny, and the fact that she is more entwined in their lives makes their interactions funnier.
In a recent episode, he attempted to change her personality by rewarding “correct behavior” with chocolate.
The supporting nerds continue to hold their own. When Penny and Leonard agree to set up his friend Howard Wolowitz (Simon Helberg) with a cute friend of hers, Leonard tells Wolowitz that he told the girl that Wolowitz speaks five languages.
“Six, if you count Klingon,” Wolowitz says.
“Girls don’t count Klingon, Howard,” Leonard says.
In that same episode, Sheldon meets his nemesis, the “Star Trek: The Next Generation” star Wil Wheaton, and he threatens him by speaking Klingon. The writers definitely need to broaden their range of geek references.
Occasionally the jokes are out of character.
When Wolowitz enters wearing what he thinks are goth clothes, Penny immediately says, “Did the Kiss Army repeal ‘Don’t ask don’t tell’?” Though it’s easy to see why the writers would want to keep a line that good, it’s far too clever for Penny.
And sometimes the actual laughter, whether it’s generated by the studio audience or by a heavy-handed use of the laugh track, is both unlikely and obtrusive.
Some people who don’t watch this show probably figure it’s the kind of sitcom they’ll be able to catch later in syndication. Others avoid old-school studio-audience sitcoms—or CBS sitcoms—on principle. Both groups should catch “The Big Bang Theory” now, while it’s hot.
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