Filmsane

By May of next year, the series finale of Big Bang Theory will air on CBS and the fans will applaud the network for pulling the plug on the series that had 12 long seasons. Seriously looooong.

As a fan of the show until season 4/5 and casual watcher (if I catch it on TV while i’m at the gum onwards), Big Bang Theory has become for me something of a fading Hollywood star. You know that she/he is not on top of her game for years now, but you kind of watch her/his stuff out of moral obligation, nostalgia or some other generic reason.

And you have to admit that Big Bang Theory hasn’t been on top of the game of quite some time. What I loved (and so many other fans) about the show, was that for the first time Nerds, fanboys, Geeks and other game/SF/science enthusiasts were not looked down and treated with shame and disrespect.

In Big Bang Theory’s world it was cool to be smart, to be fan of Lord Of The Rings, Star Trek and to be fan of comic books, movies and science in general. The men of Big Bang Theory were smart and the women too. And I loved that.

But what at first was a geek heaven, turned into a Beverly Hills 902010 type of a series. Yes, I’m very well aware that the characters had to evolve and change, (the focus and the narrative of the show changed too) but the writers put more emphasis  on the relationships between the characters and not on their interests.

It was more will they or won’t they talk and less of Comic-Con talk. The humor got lost in this transition too, and so did the character’s aims, ambitions and desires. I suppose that’s part of real life too, and BBT was just transferring that real life image into their characters. Not anyone can achieve greatness in their respective fields of work (Sheldon, Leonard and Wolowitz) and not anyone has the luxury to do the job they like. Take a look at Penny for that. She stared of as an aspiring actress, only to be stuck at a job in waitressing and to end up as a Pharmaceutical Sales Rep.

The very talented cast can now play characters their own age (most of them are in their early 40’s) and as for me I’m going to look for a show that makes me laugh again. To be quite frank, Big Bang Theory used to be funny. And I used to make me laugh. It used to make me think. It used to be relatable and it used to make me feel good about being a nerd. Now, when I do see it, it has none of those effects.

Why? Because now the characters have the same boring girlfriend/boyfriend work problems like the rest of us? Maybe. Because almost every other long-running show suffers from the same demise in development? Yeah probably. Even Friends was great in the first 5 seasons or so, and it started got became a real bore afterwards. ER too. The list goes on and on. But I’m glad that Jim Parsons had the balls to see the end coming. He must have known that the show has lost its shine and that’s why he wanted out. And the producers knew that he was the glue that hold the show together. So, it was smart move to pull the plug on an otherwise dying show.

Maybe they should have done it much sooner, but I’m glad it’s ending. Now, I can look forward in seeing other great TV comedy shows. And who knows… Maybe some of them will catch my eye again, like The Big Bang Theory did back in 2007.