Why the Big Bang Theory shouldn't have 10 seasons

So it was recently released that CBS has renewed the Chuck Lorre show “Big Bang Theory” but what is the most surprising part of it all is that it has been renewed for three more seasons. Not 1, not 2 but 3 season, meaning that CBS is taking a gamble and putting all their eggs into the basket of the show still having good ratings (or whatever other kind of metaphor works here) So the show will have 10 seasons and run up through to 2017, meaning that I will have gone through all major stages of the education system with this show still on.  

Now anyone who knows me knows I hate the Big Bang Theory, I think it is mediocre and poorly written. I’ve never been a fan of Chuck Lorre in general. But even putting my dislike for the show aside, it shouldn’t be getting 10 seasons, Chuck Lorre’s “Two and a Half Men” also shouldn’t have gone over 10 seasons, but I’ll get to that later. There are few Sitcoms that should be allowed to make it 10 seasons. Those types are either family based or shows with what I call the “Friends Structure.” Making it to 10 isn’t even a good thing in reality, by 10 the show will have run out of good ideas; it started running out of ideas by season 5, and will have jumped the shark.

The reason why sitcoms based around families work and are able to last for so long is that as time passes new plotlines develop, allowing them to continue. The kids in the family grow up and start to go through puberty, that’s at least 5 storylines alone. There’s the breaking voice, hair on your genitals, wet dreams, boy/girl problems. Look at any long-running sitcom that has kids in them, when the actors hit puberty, it became part of the plot.

The other sitcom format is what I call the “Friends Structure,” it is a structure that has been employed years before Friends but I doubt you’d get the meaning if I said the “Happy Days Structure.” The Friends structure, in its barest form is basically where it is just a group of friends, each unique and separate from one another and bring something different to the table. Obviously there are things that connect the characters; otherwise they wouldn’t be friends, they share hobbies, jobs, homes, genetic makeup. The characters are different from one another for two reasons

(1) By having a vast array of characteristic it makes it easier for the audience to relate as they’ll connect to something

(2) With a group of very different characters there multiple situations that each character can get into, meaning there are inventive plotlines to last years.

As the structure suggests, Friends is a classic modern example of this. First, let us look at the 6 principle cast members. Joey the dim-witted ladies’ man, Chandler the sarcastic self-loather with a rough past, Ross the geek with a bad luck streak in terms of marriage, Monica the control freak who has an interesting love life, Rachel the shallow ex-rich girl who spends the first half of series growing and finding herself (in a sense) and then there is Phoebe the wild child. I’ve never understood how they even became friends with Phoebe in the first place; after all she is rather dangerous and perhaps a bit insane. So with this somewhat ragtag group of friends there are various comical situations they can get into. And one of the things that made Friends so moving is that they also had some very serious and moving plotlines. Here are just some:

·        Divorce (a lot of it)

·        Dying alone

·        Relationships

·        Jobs and financial stability defining class

·        Same-sex couples

·        Sexuality/gender

·        Infertility

·        Adoption

·        Missing parents

·        Beauty and attractiveness being defined by society (Monica and her weight)

·        Child custody

·        Pregnancy

·        Death

·        Alcoholism

·        Employment (Unemployment, being in a job you hate and following your dream)

And I’m skimming over the ones I can think of off the top of my head. Friends addressed a lot of serious issues throughout its running and add those to the just straight comedy situations of being an average 20 something New Yorker and you have stories that lasted them a decade, with the odd clip show thrown in every now and again.

The Show

Now before I get started, let me just vent all my problems with the show before I critically look at the show from an unbiased perspective.

Now my beef is with Chuck Lorre and his writing team, I have nothing against any of the actors; they are just doing their job. I dislike all of Lorre’s shows and considering he is currently overseeing 3 separate shows (Big Bang Theory, Two and a Half Men, Mike & Molly) tells you they don’t spend awfully long on the jokes.

It is said Lorre made nerds cool, which is bullshit. He made what he thinks nerds are like ‘cool.’ I may sound like a grumpy nerd elitist but, we really aren’t like that. Yes there are people like those in the show and they are the people the media likes to focus on because they are funny. The rest of us have other, more important parts of our lives to worry. Sure, we might sit around discussing pop culture or argue who would win in a fight Superman or Thor but that is only when we have free time, which we don’t really have because most of us have jobs or lectures to go it. Yes, we wear t-shirts with superhero logos on them but we do have only clothes and since nerds are cool now tons of people wear them to seem nerdy and cool.

Then there is the referencing that is woeful. They’ll be midway through a scene and something happens or someone says something and then someone else says something that makes a very, very vague reference to a comic, TV show, film or game.

They enter a competition of some kind and are beat by bunch of children so someone says “Now we know how the storm troopers felt after the battle on Endor” *Cue laughter*

Now to the best of my knowledge that hasn’t happened in the show, yet, I just made that joke up on the spot and it could fits right into the show, the jokes are that easy. They make a joke with a reference and then nothing after it, you might have Penny enquire about the reference and they try to explain and it makes no sense to her *Cue more laughter* The humour is very one level, with jokes being made and nothing coming of it later in the show. Sitcoms that get it right are shows from the UK. For example, shows written by Irish comedy writer Graham Linehan will have a small joke made at the beginning of an episode that then slowly gets referenced to throughout the show, slowly building up the big punch line in the end.

Then there is the fact these nerds are meant to be super smart. Three of them have a Ph.D. and one with a Master, which they mock him for despite the fact a Masters is pretty hard work to achieve in its own right, and they can’t seem to do simple everyday tasks, which is ridiculous. Not knowing the rules to a sport is understandable because you might just not follow it but genius or not, the tasks they struggle with are one they all will have had to learn how to do early in their life. The other problem with them being geniuses and have a Ph.D. is in how they spend their time. They spend most of their time hanging out in the comic book store or hanging out/bickering in Sheldon and Lenard’s apartment, playing video games or watching films. That’s what we, the general population, do (obviously maybe change the comic book store to somewhere else) In reality geniuses spend a lot of their time writing papers, trying to solve some big questions of life or advance mankind. Hanging out and doing nothing is something the normal nerd does.

Ok, I think I got it all out, now I’ll try to explain why the show shouldn’t be getting 10 seasons.

Firstly, the fact the characters are basically the same, with just small variations, is the first problem.

• There is Lenard Hofstadter, who is meant to be the main character, is the ‘normal’ one. Lenard is a super smart experimental physicist. Lenard spends much of the first 2 seasons trying to get Penny and eventually gets together with her by season 5.
• Sheldon Cooper, the oddball. While many just find his weirdo behaviour hilarious he is really just showing signs of either autism or Asperger but still people laugh away. With an IQ of 187 Sheldon is the Super Dooper smart theoretical physicist who studies string theory and quantum mechanics.
• Rajesh Ramayan Koothrappali, the ethnic one who cannot talk to women for the first 6 seasons of the series unless he drinks alcohol. He works as a particle astrophysicist is super rich. 
• Howard Wolowitz, the dummy of the group because he is an engineer, despite he is the only one who has contributed to the real world. Howard the Jewish one and I mean the JEWISH one. Howard is a major stereotype of the Jewish people, if he was an accountant he basically would have been the whole package.
• Penny, the Blonde one with boobs.

With the exception of penny, the principle cast are all the same character type but with small differences pretty much all based on clichés and stereotypes. Even Penny is just one big cliché, an actress from the mid-west who moves to LA for her big break but ends up working as a waitress, stop me if you’ve heard this one before. The nerds are similar and they work together, meaning they spend around 12 hours together in total. This means that they all get into similar situations, either together or one at a time, resulting with them having to recycle storylines.

The premise of the show is, at its core, about a Lenard trying to get the hot girl next door, Penny. In the first few seasons there is the obvious on again-off again romance with them and they finally get together long-term in the fifth season, so basically the premise is mute and they can end the show but no, we then must watch the pursuit of love for Howard and the initially forced relationship on Sheldon. Howard gets together with Bernadette, a waitress/microbiology researcher, who he later marries. Sheldon enters a relationship with Amy Fowler, a neurobiologist. And Rajesh remains singles, having a brief relationship in season 6. So most of this occurs by season, pretty much everyone gets their girl, curtains close, thee end, right? Nope. Season 6 and onwards becomes basically about a bunch of couples trying to do couple things, a premise already taken by CBS’ Rules of Engagement. The series has been becoming stale over the years and could have easily ended by season 5, With Howard marrying Bernadette and going into space to the International Space Station. Season 5 ends with everyone watching Howard’s ship launching on TV, during this penny and Lenard hold hands in comfort, along with Amy and Sheldon doing the same. Finishing the show here would have worked, with everyone embracing each other. It certainly means the show wouldn’t have over stayed its welcome.

And if the network demanding another season Lorre could have done something no one would have expected. At the end of season 5, as Howard’s ship launches there is a freak malfunction and the ship explodes, Challenger style. Then by season 6 it’s been a year isn’t Howard’s death, however everyone is still coming to terms with it. Perhaps Penny has landed a decent role on TV and is together with Lenard. Amy and Sheldon are in the alternative relationship they are in the actual show. And Rajesh is close with Bernadette, perhaps together romantically or spend the season building towards them getting together and you end the Show at that. Yes it would be a shock to the system and sometimes that really works for a show, it would be a landmark episode, people would talk about it. Sure people would get mad but that happens. Shows that have had this kind of episode are:

•  How I met you mother (Season 6, episode 13)
• Scrubs (Season 3, episode 14)

To conclude, the Big Bang Theory should not get to go to 10 seasons and should have probably ended 2 seasons ago. There are only a few shows that should be able to make it to season 10, at the most. And finally, the Big Bang Theory is a poor show, but I digress

What do you think about this news? Are you a fan of the show?