Aidonian's blog

 No, i’m not going to talk about the theory surrounding the Big Bang. We can safely assume that that did happen and started our universe. I’m going to talk about a sitcom called the Big bang Theory. It’s one of my favorite shows. Its about 4 smart people who work at a university in 4 different fields: engineering (Howard), astrophycistist Rajesh, experimental phycisist Leonard and theoritical phycisist Sheldon. Sheldon is the one who got all the attention throughout the show due to his mannerism and routines. He’s the one person who sticks to his routines, much to the destriment of others,especially his roommate Leonard. Its often assumed that besides his genius IQ, Sheldon might have asperger syndrom. This was never confirmed or denyed by the writers or the actor. Maybe for the better. Its already a stereotype that people with aspergers are genius’. 

He is the one who stays the same, while his friends evolve, until he meet Amy, a woman who is just like him, well except she has feelings and does desire a physical relationship. At first, in the fourth season, she does appear to be just like him, like she is the female version of Sheldon, but after the fifth season, she changes. She is the catalyst that drives him to change and helps him understand the world better and in most cases acts as aintermediary between the outside world and Sheldon. Sometimes it even annoys her as well. At one point, it annoys her to the breaking point where she breaks up with him, devastating Sheldon in the process. 

Leonard is considerd bright, not as smart as Sheldon, more socially apt than Sheldon, but can be equally dumbfounded by social rules like his other two friends Howard and Rajesh. He falls in love with Penny, a waitress/ actress from Nebraska, who moves in the building. Throughout the series we see him try to win her over, but failing. In the end, because its comedy show, they get together at the beginning of season 3, but break up by the end of it. In season 5, they try again and this time it sticks and they marry. 

Howard was dominated by his mother and a creep towards women. Not that Rajesh or Leonard are any better than him. But they hide it bit better than Howard does. Since they are socially inept, they don’t see that their creepiness is what drives women away. In the end, even Howard is redeemed when Penny sets him up with her coworker Bernadette (who gradually changes over time and starts to dominate Howard as well)

Rajesh’ selective mutism is only overcome in the beginning when he is drunk. He does get a girlfriend when Penny introduces him to a deaf woman, but she turns out to be a golddigger when she takes advantage of Rajesh’ need to be loved and to be in a relationship. When he meets another woman who is extremely shy and breaks up with him, he seemingly overcame his selective mutism and reveals to Penny, Bernadette and Amy what he really can be like, a much less creepier version than Howard as it turns out and equally sexist as Howard and Leonard. 

The show plays with tv tropes about smart people having poor people skills and what nerds tend to be like. It knows what it is and doesn’t apologize for it. When it knows what it is and what they want to show, to show a stereotypes about smart, nerdy people, than its ok. 

The problem lies with its blatantly sexism that it showcases. Before she meets the 4 nerds, Penny has friends. Yet, we almost never seen any of them except for couple of episodes in the beginning. Its like she dumped her friends for Leonard and his friends. While Penny is not as bright as the other 4 or Amy or Bernadette, they do show that she is dumb blond, who is only there for eyecandy. Every “hot” girl on the show is shown to be dumb, petty and mean. 

In season 2, when Howard is acting like a pig and he gets called out for it, the show did two things. It shows that Howard does care what people think ot say to him. Instead of letting him realize that he was in the wrong, the show opted to have Penny apologize to him, basicly letting him think that if he acts this way, the girl forgives him, even though she was pressured into it by Leonard. It was hinted at during the show what a sexist and a creep (sometimes blatantly shown and referenced to it by others) but nothing really was done about it. He finds redemption through Bernadette, but it doesn’t allow him to show remorse for how he behaved towards women in general. 

Rajesh is also a sexist when it comes down to it. He only wants to date supermodels and thinks very little about ordinary women.

Throughout the series the show shows us that the women in these guys lives must compromise every time to the needs of the guys instead of the guys actually feeling sorry for when they offend their partners or cross cerain bounderies. 

The show even as a comedy is flawed, but i still love the show as i watched every season several times now. It is flawed to say the least. Like the lack of real friends outside the 4 guys and the three women, could be written off as more to do with budget than anything else. Still its somewhat unerving. 

When it was announced that they were cancelling the show after 12 seasons, i was shocked. Jim Parsons, the actor playing Sheldon wanted to quit and the network didn’t see any way to continue the show without him. It would have been weird having the show without him. I doubt it wouldn’t even work. The spinoff show Young Sheldon isn’t as good as the parent show, but it does show a young Sheldon with all his quircks when he was a child. It is narrated by Jim Parsons, but the show doesn’t quit hold itself to the parent show. Rarely do spinoffs do that. Than again, the spinoff tries its own thing, totally different from its parent show and in that it works. More or less.