Greg F, quite fairly, called me out for criticizing “The Big Bang Theory” before seeing an episode. Last night, I finally had the time and internet speed to watch two full episodes. In an utterly unsurprising turn of events – DO NOT WANT. The nerds are the standard nerd-stereotypes: there’s a horny nerd, a lovelorn nerd, a socially aloof nerd, and a South Asian nerd. (Notice that the South Asian character needs no actual personality traits other than a funny accent.)
The hot blonde neighbor character is hot! She has boobies! She likes parties and fun! She bribes the horny nerd by telling him how to get into her “easy” friends’ pants. Every girl needs a friend who will sell her insecurities (in the show, the friends were a formerly overweight girl and a girl who hated her father) to the highest bidder!
There is a brief and actually funny scene with a female grad student (played by Sara Gilbert from “Roseanne”), but all in all the show is indeed about nerdboys drooling awkwardly over unattainably hot women. In other words, having seen the show, I stand by my former opinion. Two episodes (yes, yes, df=1) may not be a good sample size, but I really cannot bear to waste more of my life being mildly irritated and very, very bored. As Ny said on the last post: “I was going to give it a Revise & Rewrite, but no, this is just a Rejection.”
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I…. think the show is funny. *hides*
Mainly because the guy who plays Sheldon looks like an elf and has some good lines. I’ll give you that the other characters are boring, and the blonde-related storylines are lame. But there’s some good stuff in there. I’m not trying to convert you or anything… mainly I don’t want you to hate me for liking the show. Please!
i was recently trapped on an american airlines flight from turks and caicos to miami to san francisco… on the first leg, the in flight “entertainment” was bbt… oh, i guess i wanted to like it… “a sit com for science geeks… cool!”…
the writing’s bad, the acting’s bad, the sets are bad, the nerdiness is stereotypically bad… bad bad bad…. well, maybe it’s not that bad, but oh my it wasn’t good…
after transiting in miami and boarding the miami-sf leg (6 hour flight), i plug in for some in-flight distraction… and guess what? more bbt… same episode… needless to say, over it…
Kirsten – I am currently reading the latest “Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter” novel, so no judgment here.
Rick – On my recent Curacao-Miami-DFW-San Diego flights, they showed it too! I tried watching the full episode then but found that I preferred doing work, which is a somewhat disconcerting.
As a Caltech alum, I can tell you that us Tech guys are (mostly) neither desperate for female attention nor completely socially awkward. The graduate students are probably even less so (socially incompetent, that is). I think the administration made a very poor choice in approving the use of the Caltech name for this show. Not that Numb3rs is much better: the lone female mathematician on the show started out as a grad student with a crush on her advisor (and now they’re dating).
Hao – Somehow I missed BBT being set at Caltech. At least your post can serve as a beacon for girls who want to trawl for reasonably socialized nerd-boys. As for Numb3ers, I suppose it could redeem itself by showing the many many realistic pitfalls of dating one’s advisor.
Show has not made it here yet. From the post and the comments, that does not appear to be a bad thing!
I must admit, though, that the show makes me laugh – especially Sheldon (“This would be one of those circumstances that people unfamiliar with the law of large numbers would call a coincidence.”). If you haven’t watched much you probably haven’t noticed that the smartest, most self-assured person on the show is Leslie, played by Sara Gilbert. In any case, the best part is the little missives that Chuck Lorre flashes on the screen at the end of the show. You can see them without suffering through the show at http://www.chucklorre.com/index-bbt.php
I love big bang theory. The show is well balanced between typical nerd stereotypes and every day problems the average guy has. I’m a former jock who loves the star trek and sci-fi references.