The Big Bang Theory, originally aired in September 2007 and now in it's sixth season, is one of my husband's and my favorite shows. My husband had previously seen bits of it before and I was introduced to the show while in Rhode Island for our wedding. It became a hit with us and when we moved back to California we got the show from the library. Bored with waiting for various seasons to slowly make their way to us, my husband strategically purchased seasons one through five on DVD for our own home use. We watch it very frequently, often bounces between the seasons at random, and picking from our favorite and least favorite episodes.The show centers around the activities, misadventures and day-to-day life of Sheldon Cooper, Leonard Hofstadter, Howard Wolowitz, Rajesh Koothrappali, and Penny. Later added into the series as regulars are Amy Farrah Fowler as Sheldon's "girlfriend," and Bernadette Rostenkowski who dated and later married Howard. Each character, even the supporting characters of Kripke, Leslie Winkle and Stuart, are very well defined and easily distinguished from each other {which is a good thing if my family ever watches this show}. The show also has a visual appeal, with the characters dressed in bright colors tastefully grouped together, and everything overall looks clean in the show.
Anyway, Sheldon provides most of the shows' comic relief {though, since its a comedy show, everyone is comic relief}. Sheldon is a science prodigy who went to college when he was eleven, started his graduate studies at fourteen and earned his Ph.D at sixteen. He grew up in East Texas in a Christian environment. While his childhood is ideal compared to Leonard's, Sheldon often complains about having had to suffer through Christmas and birthday celebrations, etc. He also has momentary flash-backs, most dramatically when it comes to fights. Like his friends, Sheldon was bullied growing up and has the fond habit of disappearing in the worlds of Star Wars, Star Trek, online video games, and such. He has many phobias that include no touching and a fear of germs, and many quirks that confuse his friends. For example, he organizes his breakfast cereal by fiber content, has labels on everything in the apartment, continually refers to the Roommate Agreement he made Leonard sign when he first moved in with Sheldon, and is picky about where he eats out. Sheldon also lives under the delusion that he is the reason why his friends all hang out with him in a group when really, they can hardly stand him for long periods of time. He is also bad at sarcasm, thinks his practical jokes are funny and is very dumb when it comes to everyday social situations. He has an older brother, an older twin sister {who appears on the show}, and his down-to-earth mother who is called by his friends in emergencies to "fix" Sheldon.
Leonard is originally from New Jersey {btw, the show takes place in Pasadena, California which is nowhere remotely near where I live} and earned his Ph.D at the age of twenty-four. He is an experimental physicist while Sheldon is a theoretical physicist. Leonard is Sheldon's roommate - a living situation that comes many laughs from the audience and a lot of friction, tension and mishaps on the part of the characters. He also works at the same university where Sheldon, Raj and Howard work, thus giving Leonard the wonderful responsibility of having to drive Sheldon to and from work - and everywhere else for that matter. While Leonard consistently puts his foot in his mouth and makes humorous mistakes when it comes to women, he shows himself to be a lovable {mostly} upright man. Throughout the course of the show, Leonard has gone out with Leslie Winkle, Raj's sister Priya, and has an on-again off-again relationship with Penny. Leonard is also the long-suffering member of the show and the peacemaker between Sheldon and, well, everyone else. He has an older brother and sister who don't come into the series, and his mother {who does come into the show occasionally} is a detached psychiatrist.
Penny comes from Nebraska and is something of a girly tomboy. She originally came to Pasadena in the hopes of becoming an actress; in the meantime she works as a waitress at the Cheesecake Factory and puts up with her crazy neighbors Leonard and Sheldon. While viewed as an odd outsider at first by Sheldon, Penny is now an ingrained member of their group. With no degree of any sort {she didn't even finish community college - the horror!}, Penny provides a balance to the group and has the everyday street-smarts, social skills and practical thinking that the guys lack in varying degrees. She began the series as rather sweet and gentle, progressing later on to a more comfortable relaxed personality. She and Sheldon constantly knock their heads together, but they have also teamed up to teach each useful skills and life-lessons. Penny has at least one brother and a nephew. Her father appeared in an episode and provided an interesting new parent dynamic to the show. He is, so far, the second father to appear on the show.
Howard is an engineer and boasts of his work going up on the space station. In the fifth season he himself goes up in space and orbits earth, finding himself homesick. He is Jewish and, despite being nearly thirty, lives with his mother still. She does his laundry, cuts up his meat and drives him to the dentist. They communicate mainly by yelling at each other from different rooms in their house. We never actually see his mother though. Howard considers himself a ladies' man {he isn't} and boasts of hook-ups that may or may not actually have happened, invents odd dating ideas and the most ridiculous pick-up lines. He began the series as a rather disgusting character in my opinion, but since his wife was introduced, he has mellowed out a little. As far as we the audience know, Howard doesn't have any siblings and his father abandoned his mother and him when he was a little boy.
Rajesh, or Raj as everyone calls him, is originally from India and is an astrophysicist. While he is often the brunt of rather racist jokes, he is the most optimistic of the group. However, he is extremely shy and unable to talk to women at all unless he's been drinking or under the delusion of having been drinking. A generally sweet lovable character, he can be kinda weird too from having spent too much of his time with his best friend Howard trying to pick up women. Several episodes of tension take place between Raj and Sheldon when Sheldon hires Raj in order to help his friend out and keep him in America when his job is in jeopardy. Having had crushes on each of his friends' girlfriends, Raj is still single and often becomes depressed because of it. Raj is also a bit more feminine than a guy normally should be, although he "is definitely not gay." He frequently Skypes with his parents in India who are very wealthy and loving but don't want him settling down with any American girls. He has five brothers and sisters; one of his sisters, Priya, is a lawyer and stays with him for awhile, dating Leonard while doing so.The show is geared toward twenty-somethings and is very funny; it also has its drawbacks though. Howard's conversations are often disgusting and Raj, when drunk, can be just as bad. The characters have hook-ups, dates, breakups, relationships and sex with each other and other minor characters in the show, though nothing is showed and it's not at all graphic. Just lots of implications, suggestions, and innuendo, providing the show with enough cleanliness to make it work and just a pinch of dirty to keep things active and people on their toes. Some of the girls' dresses are also rather revealing. Religion is poked fun at, especially the Hindu beliefs, but it's not overly mocked. There isn't any foul language, which is a nice change for once. Very witty conversations and humor abound in this series. I don't recommend it for children, however; just older teens {eighteen and up} and the twenty-somethings it's intended for.
