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'The Big Bang Theory' Is Finally Ending (theguardian.com)
"The Big Bang Theory is dead. If you need me, I'll be dancing on its grave," writes a TV columnist for the Guardian:
The inexplicably popular geek sitcom has announced that its 12th season will be its last. Its demise should come as a relief to everybody... Producers have promised an "epic creative close" when the series ends in May. After that, The Big Bang Theory will be dead, and nobody will be sad. Except, of course, they will. Because, inexplicably, The Big Bang Theory is still one of the most-watched shows on U.S. television. It regularly gets more than 15 million viewers an episode, and, statistically, not all of them can be incapacitated to the point of being unable to change channels whenever it comes on.
Nothing confuses me more than The Big Bang Theory's success. It has always been markedly less smart than it thought it was; the TV version of someone wearing a "GEEK" T-shirt because they liked a Facebook post about the moon once.... Watch any recent episode of The Big Bang Theory and you'll see that it is barely even a sitcom at this point. It has been going on for so long that the writing, presentation and performances are more or less autonomous. Everyone is just glumly going through the motions, stuck in the tracks they've carved out for themselves over the years. It's like watching a museum exhibit of a sitcom made with mannequins and miserable circus bears.
The actor who plays Sheldon will be 46 when the show ends, the columnist points out, adding that for 12 years he's been playing "a weirdly ageless man-boy trapped in a developmentally arrested closed-loop flatshare scenario more suited to somebody half his age." The Guardian titled their piece "Our Long Nightmare is Finally Over" -- but leave your own thoughts in the comments.
How do you feel about the ending of The Big Bang Theory?
Update from msmash: Two suggested readings, one from The Guardian itself, Critics be damned -- here's why The Big Bang Theory is an unstoppable force with fans, and this four-year-old article from Vulture, Why Are 23.4 Million People Watching The Big Bang Theory?
Nothing confuses me more than The Big Bang Theory's success. It has always been markedly less smart than it thought it was; the TV version of someone wearing a "GEEK" T-shirt because they liked a Facebook post about the moon once.... Watch any recent episode of The Big Bang Theory and you'll see that it is barely even a sitcom at this point. It has been going on for so long that the writing, presentation and performances are more or less autonomous. Everyone is just glumly going through the motions, stuck in the tracks they've carved out for themselves over the years. It's like watching a museum exhibit of a sitcom made with mannequins and miserable circus bears.
The actor who plays Sheldon will be 46 when the show ends, the columnist points out, adding that for 12 years he's been playing "a weirdly ageless man-boy trapped in a developmentally arrested closed-loop flatshare scenario more suited to somebody half his age." The Guardian titled their piece "Our Long Nightmare is Finally Over" -- but leave your own thoughts in the comments.
How do you feel about the ending of The Big Bang Theory?
Update from msmash: Two suggested readings, one from The Guardian itself, Critics be damned -- here's why The Big Bang Theory is an unstoppable force with fans, and this four-year-old article from Vulture, Why Are 23.4 Million People Watching The Big Bang Theory?
How do you feel about the ending of The Big Bang Theory?
I may have seen half an episode once.
-Indifferent.
Its obvious theres a LOT of people who like it, I, being one of them.. If it wasn't so well-liked it wouldn't have lasted 12 years, I, for one, will be sad to see it go...
THANK YOU, Edward Snowden!! Americans owe you a debt of gratitude (whether they know it or not..)
The laugh track isn't fake. I know because I was in the audience.
Totally wasn't worth the whole day wait to get on the show. Taping lasts at least 5 hours. Way too long. The show wasn't funny after hour 3 and the pizza they gave out sucked.
It's not a laugh track, it is a studio audience.
Laugh tracks are cheesy, but very rarely used. It is quite common for sitcoms to be filmed in front of an audience though. But whether or not you find it offputting is a matter of taste.
The whole thing was pretty toxic.
Take Howard. Especially in the early series he was really creepy. That was his entire character: being a creep. Harassing and stalking women, creeping them out. And it was supposed to be okay because he was a socially awkward nerd or something.
Raj's mental illness was played for cheap laughs. Then there is the whole "Raj being camp" thing. They didn't know what to do with Penny after the first few episodes, and Bernadette quickly got boring too.
Mayim Bialik (Amy) is by far the most talented comedy actor on the show but underused and eclipsed by Sheldon.
I have no idea how it lasted so long.
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SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC