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Whenever you ask a nerd or geek or dork what they think of the Big Bang Theory, there’s usually an uneasiness that washes over their face.  See, there’s a problem with this show:  It’s degrading to the nerd set by perpetuating the stereotypes about that particular class of sci-fi obsessing, comic book loving, video game enthralled bunch as the being virgins and losers.  It’s also a damn funny sitcom.

If you haven’t seen the show yet (and based on its ratings, that can’t be possible), the premise involves two genius nerds, Leonard and Sheldon, who live together in an apartment building.  Across the hall from them is Penny, a struggling actress who’s unlucky at love and slowly over 13 season one episodes, she becomes part of the wayward nerds’social group (much to the joy of lovelorn Leonard who pines for the plucky blonde).  Leonard and Sheldon have an extremely small clique of friends that includes the horn-dog engineer Wolowitz and the incapable of speaking to women, Koothrappali.  Both of these characters are constantly referred to by their ethnicities/cultural backgrounds in jokes about them being Jewish and Hindu, respectively, but again the jokes are so innocent and the humor seems so genuine, you feel you can laugh without guilt.

Season One is only a scant 13 episodes that sets up the general atmosphere of the show pretty well.  The characters all come into their own over some very episodic, but not contrived, storylines that give us a window into just exactly who these people are and how the humor of their interactions can be developed.  While Season One shows off the basic character interactions and hammering out the back-and-forth of the humor, Season Two took those building blocks and created scenarios where what was teasted as the funniest parts of Season One and expanded on them for whole episodes.  Things like Sheldon’s borderline Aspirger’s syndrome breakdowns, Koothrappali’s inability to talk to women unless drunk, what would happen if Wolowitz’s actually got laid, and having Penny cross to the dark side and actually become interested in an online Age of Conan game.  With the second DVD set having a total of 22 episodes, you’d think this would get old, but that’s where veteran producer Chuck Lorre (creator of the wildly successful Two and a Half Men) knows his skills in sitcom construction.  Each episode works just fine on its own and can be enjoyed by a layman just jumping onboard in their first viewing.  That’s the mark of sound television writing in terms of being able to draw in new fans: keep it simple and keep it accessible.  Co-creator Bill Prady has talked about how the characters are based on actual people he’d encountered in college and you can see the quirks mixing with the parts of the characters to make them actually three-dimensional and that helps them remain likeable.  Penny is more than just a sweet ditz, Wolowitz is more than just a horny jerk, and Leonard is more than just a lovesick puppy genius.

The show is back for Season 3 and it’s extremely easy to catch up on what’s going on since there’s no complicated ongoing narrative with the exception of the basic dynamics that are easily identified on a first viewing.  I suggest it’s still a great idea to dive into the DVDs and get acquainted, but if you don’t have the dedication, then I pity you and wish you luck with your life and lack of achievments.  Below is a trailer of Season Two that shows off some highlights.

Sometimes something can be too good.  A perfect cast, a perfect writing team, a perfect timeslot, and perfect showrunners would lead someone expect unbridled success for a television show.  In the case of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, it meant, what some considered, an unmitigated disaster.   In 2006, Aaron Sorkin was making his triumphant return to television.  After his previous venture, the West Wing, had wrapped its final season (albeit without him or partner Thomas Schlame since they had departed from the show in 2003).  NBC was frantically looking for their next big tentpole show.  Sorkin had spent his time apart from working on the West Wing developing many new properties for theater and television and the one he most wanted to work on followed the behind-the-scene drama of running a late-night comedy show.  NBC was intrigued and approved the commission of a pilot.  Casting was announced with Bradley Whitford (a veteren of Sorkin’s the West Wing), Matthew Perry (who played Chandler Bing on Friends), Amanda Peet, Timothy Busfield, Steven Webber, and D.L. Hughley.  Initaial hopes for the show were extremely high and the series was greenlit upon postive response to the well-crafted pilot episode.   Critics, though, were slightly apprehensive about the show.  Sorkin had a great deal riding on this, his third television effort (the dramedy Sports Night on ABC had preceded West Wing on television), and the pressure to have an instant success was most likely the number one killer of the show.  The public’s expectations were never going to be met and the constant comparisons to Sorkin’s other work were inevitable.  The show was pulled mid season and was not renewed for a second order.

This is an extremely unfortunate turn of events because there is really nothing wrong with Studio 60.  It’s actually a great show.  Sorkin is known for creating compelling and charming characters and delivering winning dialogue for them to recite and Schlame can set up an episode’s look and feel to be almost cinema-worthy.  It does become evident over the course of the season that a powerplay between the showrunners and the network was brewing.  Stories felt less logical, subplots felt forced, and the trajectory of the show started to slide, but viewers who stuck with it could still feel Sorkin’s hands attempting to keep his characters alive, but the ship had sailed.  NBC dropped the last batch of episodes for final viewing with no fanfare and wrapped the show swiftly with the showrunners trying to satisfy as many lingering threads as they could.

This leaves us with a complete series of episodes following some winning characters, some intriguing stories, and some misfire attempts at perfection.  In a sense, that’s an apt description for everyday life, can’t it?  Give this series a shot and see for yourself.  I don’t expect everyone to enjoy it, but I do expect people to smile at least once.

Every so often, I come across an actor that I think is way too talented for the work I’ve found them in.  Jason Isaacs was someone I first saw in Armageddon way back when.  He played the NASA scientist who figures out how to stop the asteroid and has one of the best lines in the whole movie: “I know the presidents’chief scientific advisor, we were at MIT together. And, in a situation like this, you-you really don’t wanna take the advice from a man who got a C minus in astrophysics. The presidents’advisors are… wrong. I’m right.”  The man just oozed smarmy badass-ness.  Slowly, I waited for him to pop up in better more meaty parts, but alas he wound up as villains in Harry Potter and The Patriot, never really getting a chance to show off how an intelligent, yet realistic, protagonist could be played well.  You can imagine how happy I was to discover the BBC miniseries, The State Within.

The series follows Sir Mark Brydon, British Ambassador to the United States, during his last week in the position.  As he is wrapping up the final duties of the office, a terrorist attack on a British airline on US soil sends the country into a panic.  Brydon and British Counsellor External Affairs, Nicholas Brokelhurst, both begin to investigate the true purpose behind the attack and its connection to the Secretary of Defense Lynne Warner and her ties to former Haliburton-esque company, Armitage.

If you’re a fan of 24, then you’re already well-aware of construction of the plot of this series: a terrorist attack (or threat of terrorist attack) sets into motion a series of events involving multiple characters and conspiracies in the highest corridors of power with one man leading the charge to save the day.  Now here’s the rub: The State Within takes this tired formula that could have been used for any countlessly pointless seasons of 24 and not only compresses it to 6 episodes (thus saving on needless plot threads), but also makes every character believable and interesting.  I recommend this series to anyone that wants a little intelligence with their political action thrillers and some surprising twists on classic characters.  Now if only we could have something like this produced in the US…