I haven't written on this blog about The Big Bang Theory in a long time, so I think it's time weigh in again. I'm going to write at least one more time about this show that I used to like a lot.
I don't think I reviewed the sixth season of the show, which in my opinion was probably its worst. It was just terrible to be honest. It wasn't funny and felt in many ways cheap.
This seventh season hasn't really been any better. I haven't seen an episode yet that I could recommend to my friends who gave up watching this show a long time ago.
Nevertheless, recently I've also been curious what others have been thinking about this show. I have read a lot of critiques written by fans. I wanted to see how they saw this show and felt about its progression (or regression).
So, I read a lot of stuff and good points were made about what made the show good. I also read about why the quality started to decline. Certainly I'm not the only person who figured out what's the problem and what went wrong.
One of the best comments I read was how during the first two seasons the show used to be somewhat original. It used to be 'innocent' in a way and that was something that attracted a lot of people to become regular watchers of the show.
I think this 'innocence' thing was a genuinely good assessment of how the show used to be. The characters were likable, they were underdogs and they were excited about doing their own thing - science and geek stuff.
Naturally these qualities were something that I found attractive too. I too felt that the show was made for people like me. Finally someone understood that there's this other way to live your life and that you don't have to apologize for being who you are.
This all was rather rare when you look at what television has to offer us in general. A lot of the stuff out there is so out of touch with reality that you can't help but to turn off the tv as quickly as possible.
Anyway, that was the good part. The other thing that the couch critics understood well, was when the show got worse and why. A lot of good reasons were given. Such as: the characters getting unlikable, the relationship stuff and 'reinventing' the series that destroyed the show.
Indeed, already during the first episode of the third season the characters started to become a bit more unlikable. Leonard betrayed Sheldon and that was supposed to be somehow funny. In a way the show jumped the shark there, if you were honest to yourself.
Of course a lot of people gave the 'it started to suck when it became a show about relationships' answer. Even though some people fervently disagree with this, it's nevertheless the truth. 'It was funny until the girls showed up'.
Sheldon getting a clone version of himself in Amy Farrah Fowler, Howard getting married to Bernadette, the complete lack of chemistry between Leonard and Penny and Raj getting the short end of the stick all the time. It just didn't make much sense.
Futhermore, it was just an awful decision to give those three girls individual scenes. They were not interesting. There was no point to change the point of view of the and to retool the show. The Big Bang Theory simply became a huge mess.
Youthful innocence was gone, their excitement about nerd stuff faded away, storylines became contrived and non-existent, believing in your own things wasn't important anymore. The show and the characters sold out to the 'supposed' masses.
It's really unfortunate that this all happened to the show. Too many mistakes were made and no one in charge seemed to be interested. Even today, the denial seems to be there. Going back to basics seems to be completely out of the question.
It's just too bad, because The Big Bang Theory is one of those shows that could have been something really special. I guess it even was during the first two seasons. Today, on the other hand, not so much.
One can only wonder what could and would have happened if they had had better writers and a more talented showrunner in charge. What if, indeed.
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