Is Big Bang Theory Down for Mass Audience
Sheldon Cooper Fan Art
I’ve been doing a lot of driving back and forth to my mom’s house and that long drive means a lot of time to think. You can only listen to NPR for so long before you go nuts. On this trip, Clem was in tow with the kids and we started talking about TV shows. For some strange reason Big Bang Theory popped in my head and I thought of two conversations I had recently with a family member and a older friend of the family about the show.
It’s obvious that Big Bang fever is here and strong. The show truly is the new hit show since the days of Friends. The cast is amazing, the characters are richer than Rachel, Monica and Chandler. My reaction to those two people saying they loved the show was, “WHAAA! You watch Big Bang Theory”. Then I realized, today’s Big Bang is not the Big Bang, Clem and I started watching back in 2007. We fell in love with the show because it was hardcore geek talk and crazy intellectual conversations and obscure cultural references.
In the beginning it was just 4 guys and a girl (no pizza!). The show was crazy and quirky but in a intellectual way. What I realized is that over the past few years, since the introduction of characters like Amy and Bernadette as love interests for the core characters. The show has slowly been numbed or dumbed down to make it more entertaining for the masses. Gone are the detailed & quirky conversations of Schrödinger's cat or gaming references like Halo & Dungeons.
Don’t get me wrong, I love the addition of Amy Farrah Fowler. Not sure why I love Mayim Bialik as an actress. The new additions have really made the show the success that it’s become. The producers and writers are genius but I do miss those really witty and smart dialogue snippets. I will admit, I got most of them but there were always a few that I needed to google. The last two seasons certainly provided progress on the main characters love lives but I think it’s time to move back to crazy whit a little. And Will Wheaton needs a few more cameos.
And I must say Jim Parsons would make a wonderful gay daddy someday! Jim has become one of my all time favorite actors. I’ve even traveled across country to see him in two of his Broadway shows. He was extremely fun to watch in The Normal Heart, I balled at the end of that show just like everyone else. He will reprise his broadway role in the TV movie, which air sometime in 2014. Last summer I also got to see Parsons star in Harvey. I was a huge fan of the Stewart movie growing up and seeing Parsons as Elwood P. Dowd. He was brilliant. Look forward to Parsons future broadway productions.