Getting Smaller

Don't get me wrong, folks.   A mediocre episode of "The Big Bang Theory" is ten times better than anything else on prime time TV.   Nobody was a bigger fan of this show when it premiered ten years ago than I was.   And I was one of the people who was watching the program before anybody else.

But, as TV life spans will always dictate, nothing is forever.   And the sad pronouncement I have to ask is that TBBT has probably its better days in the proverbial rear view mirror.

When it originally came on, I couldn't fathom that this show would become the worthy successor to Friends on Thursday nights.   Indeed, it fell into that status when the producers wisely added the female characters played by Melissa Rauch and Mayim Bialik to the dynamic.  Suddenly, the show worked itself into a Comic Con edition of Friends with three weekly subplots that utilized all the characters.   They also wound up with their own version of Ross and Rachel as the characters of Leonard and Penny would fall in and out of love.

However, the first misstep for me was the ultimate marriage of those two.   Traditionally a sitcom's kiss of death, the union of Penny and Leonard didn't necessarily add new energy.   Indeed, their plots got a little duller.

The same can be said for Sheldon and Amy.   Once they hooked up, a little bit of the tension disappeared and now their relationship has been reduced to punching bag humor.

I started to really notice the sameness during last year's ninth season episodes. Hadn't they done this before?   I note that a lot of the writing staff has been intact for the whole run.  Are they bored?

In the current tenth season, you can see that the producers are desperately trying to mix it up.   And are now focusing in a fatal mood on the character of Raj played by Kunal Nayyar.   This is unfortunately sounding the death knell as both the character and the actor have been virtually unnecessary since Day One.  To make matters worse, Nayyar has always been the weakest actor of the cast.   Now, by concentrating storylines on him, they are just amplifying his inadequacies.  

You may have read that CBS just renewed TBBT for two seasons, which will take it up to its inevitable twelfth season series finale.  I will keep watching, but I am looking at the show now more with fond memories than new flights of comedic wonder.   

Yep, as series goes, seven years might have been enough for Sheldon and company.   

Dinner last night:  Beef and garlic stir fry.