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- Neil Middlemiss
[SIZE= 16px]
[SIZE= 20px]The Big Bang Theory:[/SIZE]
[SIZE= 20px]The Complete Third Season[/SIZE]
[SIZE= 16px] [/SIZE]
[COLOR= #303030]Studio: Warner Bros.
Year: 2009/10
US Rating: Not Rates
Film Length: 472 Minutes
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 – Enhanced for Widescreen TVs
Audio: English Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound
Subtitles: French, Spanish, English SDH[/COLOR]
[COLOR= #303030]Release Date: September 14, 2010[/COLOR]
[COLOR= #303030]Review Date: September 11, 2010[/COLOR]
[COLOR= #303030]Howard Wolowitz:[/COLOR][COLOR= #303030]So how's Sheldon?
Leonard Hofstadter: Well, this morning he got up wearing his Darth Vader helmet and tried to choke me with the Force, so, a little better.[/COLOR]
[COLOR= #303030]Introduction[/COLOR]
[COLOR= #303030]Four of the smartest, socially inadequate individuals grate nerves, intellectually jostle and jovially prod and poke one another as they face the seemingly insurmountable social mores of meeting girls and understanding their gorgeous friend, Penny. Without question the smartest of the four is Sheldon (Jim Parsons), who lives in a world where pure logic can be applied to any situation (from an evaluation of string theory to the algorithm for making new friends). A pompous but lovable soul, happily entangled in the complexities of obsessive compulsive tendencies, rigid routines, and robust rules that trap and guide his three friends that tolerate his idiosyncrasies, and accept his peculiar mode of navigating the world. [/COLOR]
[COLOR= #303030]The Show: 4 out of 5[/COLOR]
[COLOR= #303030]As Sheldon’s suffering roommate is Leonard (Johnny Galecki), perhaps the most relatable, socially experienced of the four high-IQ friends. His affection for their beautiful neighbor, Penny, which expresses itself in bursts of awkward schoolboy grins and oddly placed verbal flattery, is a core element of the show; a running ‘almost’ relationship that is enticed by Penny’s well hidden reciprocation of feelings from time to time. Next up is Rajesh Koothrappali, another PhD holding individual, whose smarts immeasurably outweigh his ability to even talk to pretty women - a task that renders him mute and as mature as a 7-year old pupil with a crush on a teacher. The lovely Penny lives across the hall from Sheldon and Leonard and has slowly become an integral part of the group. Though she glazes over when the complex astro-, and particle-physicist vocabulary is in full swing, she adds a human side to the rampant intelligence that bounces within the walls of her neighbor’s apartment. [/COLOR]
[COLOR= #303030]And finally we have Howard Wolowitz, the only non-PhD in the four (he is a lowly engineer, though he works on NASA projects). Wolowitz live with his mother, smolders with inappropriate confidence in wooing the ladies, and suffers from a wildly gaudy sense of dress and woefully overzealous sexual charm.[/COLOR]
[COLOR= #303030]Three physicists, an engineer, and a gorgeous blond waitress-cum-actress wannabe make up the geeky, gooey center of this terrifically funny sit-com. A show that exists within the trappings of the age-old sit-com, but defies expectations with deliciously nerd-like forays into the world of Star Trek, Star Wars, and all manner of sci-fi goodness. The ‘nerdiness’ appeals on face value to a broad audience as they giggle at the geeks, and for the geeks, there is an abundance of winks, nods and deliriously generous high-fives to the world of comic-books and Comic-Con, tips of the hat that many of us every-day nerds can embrace with knowing grins. [/COLOR]
[COLOR= #303030]Season three took some risks with the treasured sit-com (and drama) formula of two leads coming close, but never quite hooking up. Leonard and Pennies almost relationship had been a sound source of comedy gold in the first two seasons, especially as Leonard pines and Sheldon intellectually berates the non-genius waitress. After a short settling period, the writers managed to find equilibrium for the show again, and new ways for Sheldon to deride and tolerate (in equal measure) the inequality of the relationship between the smart and the not-so smart (while the rest of us marvel at the relationship between geek and goddess). [/COLOR]
[COLOR= #303030]The dynamic provided a new dimension of interaction, giving the Pennie character more presence in episodes and the group interactions more opportunity for derision. The following exchange is an example of how the quick-wit insult and playfulness of the interactions morphed in accordance with the new relationship:[/COLOR]
[COLOR= #303030]Penny[/COLOR][COLOR= #303030]: [to Leonard] Hi, honey.
Howard Wolowitz: So we're honey now?
Sheldon Cooper: Ever since her relationship with Leonard became carnal, she has upgraded her term of endearment to honey, delegating the rest of us as sweetie, usually as a veiled attempt to soften an insult.
Penny:You're boring people, sweetie.
Sheldon Cooper: Although sometimes she omits the veil entirely.[/COLOR]
[COLOR= #303030]Season three also brought back Wil Wheaton playing himself – or rather a snarky mischievous version of himself – giving Sheldon a terrific nemesis. For Trek fans, the match-up is delicious, with references to the universe galore – even if they aren’t always the right Trek period, as Raj points out in this exchange:[/COLOR]
Sheldon Cooper:[COLOR= #303030]Wil Wheaton, my old friend. I've chased you 'round the moons of Nibia and 'round the Antares Maelstrom and 'round Perdition's Flames! [/COLOR]
Raj Koothrappali: [COLOR= #303030]Do you realize you keep quoting "Wrath of Khan" but he was in "Next Generation?" It's a completely different set of characters.[/COLOR]
Sheldon Cooper[COLOR= #303030]: Silence![/COLOR]
[COLOR= #303030]With plenty of real-life science concepts, theories, explorations, and discoveries making up plot and conversation points throughout the episodes, casual fans of astrophysics; people like me who love to read about dark matter, dark energy, string theory, quantum mechanics, and a host of other ideas I can barely wrap my brain around, The Big Bang Theory is a goldmine. The cast is extremely capable in their roles, with Jim Parsons as Sheldon Cooper defining himself as one of the most memorable characters in years. Johnny Galecki (Rosanne) as Leonard is the most normal of the guys, is the one we can easily get behind and wish to do well, Kunal Nayyar and Simon Helberg portraying Rajesh and Wolowitz are the awkward duo, scheming to find snag women despite major social handicaps, and Kaley Cuoco as Pennie is just right in her role. [/COLOR]
[COLOR= #303030]The scripts are smart – with tongue-twisting exchanges that amaze and amuse us in equal measure, delivered with perfection by a cast whose talents are matched by their chemistry. Sheldon stands-out with truly the most amazing runs of big words and ideas in his infinite bid to prove he is the smartest, and gleefully the nerdiest, of them all – and the strongest reason he was nominated twice for an Emmy (Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series) taking home the trophy this year (2010). His pragmatic and logic-driven understanding and expression of all things create full-on belly laughs almost every time he opens his mouth. [/COLOR]
[COLOR= #303030]Getting ready to head into its fourth year, The Big Bang Theory is in full swing and shows no signs of slowing down or running out of ways to mine the cavernous depths of science, science-fiction, and social ineptitude. Along with Community, and to some extent Modern Family, Big Bang is the best of comedy on network television today![/COLOR]
[COLOR= #303030]The Episodes[/COLOR]
[COLOR= #303030]Disc One
Episode 1 - The Electric Can Opener Fluctuation[/COLOR]
[COLOR= #303030]Episode 2 - The Jiminy Conjecture[/COLOR]
[COLOR= #303030]Episode 3 - The Gothowitz Deviation[/COLOR]
[COLOR= #303030]Episode 4 - The Pirate Solution[/COLOR]
[COLOR= #303030]Episode 5 - The Creepy Candy Coating Corollary[/COLOR]
[COLOR= #303030]Episode 6 - The Cornhusker Vortex[/COLOR]
[COLOR= #303030]Episode 7 - The Guitarist Amplification[/COLOR]
[COLOR= #303030]Episode 8 - The Adhesive Duck Deficiency[/COLOR]
[COLOR= #303030]Disc Two[/COLOR]
[COLOR= #303030]Episode 9 - The Vengeance Formulation[/COLOR]
[COLOR= #303030]Episode 10 – The Gorilla Experimentation[/COLOR]
[COLOR= #303030]Episode 11 – The Maternal Congruence[/COLOR]
[COLOR= #303030]Episode 12 – The Psychic Vortex[/COLOR]
[COLOR= #303030]Episode 13 – The Bozeman Reaction[/COLOR]
[COLOR= #303030]Episode 14 – The Einstein Approximation[/COLOR]
[COLOR= #303030]Episode 15 – The Large Hadron Collision[/COLOR]
[COLOR= #303030]Episode 16 – The Excelsior Acquisition[/COLOR]
[COLOR= #303030]Disc Three[/COLOR]
[COLOR= #303030]Episode 17 – The Precious Fragmentation[/COLOR]
[COLOR= #303030]Episode 18 – The Pants Alternative[/COLOR]
[COLOR= #303030]Episode 19 – The Wheaton Recurrence[/COLOR]
[COLOR= #303030]Episode 20 – The Spaghetti Catalyst[/COLOR]
[COLOR= #303030]Episode 21 – The Plimpton Stimulation[/COLOR]
[COLOR= #303030]Episode 22 – The Staircase Implementation [/COLOR]
[COLOR= #303030]Episode 23 – The Lunar Excitation[/COLOR]
[COLOR= #000000]The Video: 3.5 out of 5[/COLOR]
[COLOR= #000000]The Big Bang Theory: The Complete Third Season is presented by Warner Bros. on DVD with its original 1.78:1 aspect ratio, matching how it can be seen on CBS’ HD broadcast. With a quality matching that for the second season, the brightness of the will-lit show demonstrate the colorfulness of the episodes. Warner Bros. provides all 23 episodes of this third season over three discs (more episodes per disc compared to season 2), and the image is good. Each disc is packed a little tighter which may account for the very minor reduction in qualit from last season, but generall it is as clean, bright, and with as good a level of detail as before.[/COLOR]
[COLOR= #000000]The Sound: 3.5 out of 5[/COLOR]
One of the distinct audio elements of the show when I watch this on TV is the transition effect used between scenes. Particles buzzing and zipping around fly from front, to rear, enveloping the surround speakers. Surprisingly, that same effect is reproduced here quite effectively with a Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound, and upgrade from season two, and overall the audio is clean and free of issues in the center and front speakers, and crowd guffaws and applause come through fully.
The Extras: [COLOR= #000000]2.5 out of 5[/COLOR]
Take-out with the cast(10:23) – The cast discuss their favorite moments from season three on set while enjoying Chinese food. Out of their roles, they seem decidedly grown up by comparison, the talk about Katie Sackhoff bathtub scene, growing beards, the Wil Wheaton rivalry, and Sheldon almost failing to learn anything about friendship when Pennie dislocates her shoulder.
SetTour with Simon and Kunal (7:41) – A playful Simon Helburg (Howard Wolowitz) and Kunal Nayyar ([COLOR= #303030]Rajesh Koothrappali) wander the sets, breaking what’s behind the fourth wall touring living room, kitchen, hallway and bedroom sets.[/COLOR]
Gag Reel: (7:42) – The forgetfulness of actors and their inability to keep a straight face at times is genuinely funny, and despite running far longer than most gag reels – almost 8 minutes - it delivers the goods the entire time.
Final Thoughts
As I said in my season two review, I cannot recommend this show enough. Though the series creator’s other creations may leave me a little bewildered (Two and a Half Men,Gilmore Girls), The Big Bang Theory is a genuinely terrific comedy. For me, it stands alongside Community on NBC as the very best the four networks have to offer in the 30-minute comedy format, and survives as the absolute best of the traditional sit-com format. Highly Recommended as terrific comedy entertainment!
Overall Score 4 out of 5
Neil Middlemiss
[SIZE= 16px]Kernersville, NC[/SIZE]
