The Big Bang Theory: The Complete First Season

In the cult tradition of SPARTACUS, the halls of every science department now echoes: "I AM SHELDON"!

Well into its third season, THE BIG BANG THEORY proved to be one of the most funny TV sitcoms ever aired. I had not laughed out loud this hard ever since the best days of SEINFELD - and BIG BANG is consistently brilliant!

Sheldon Cooper is unavoidably the king of the show - the massive black hole this Universe revolves around if you will. A child prodigy, now a 24 years old theoretical physicist PhD with absolutely no social skills or known sexual drive. Sheldon may be on the verge of unifying the fields but cannot drive a car to save his life or break a smile even remotely resembling that of a mere homo sapiens.
Best moment (a very hard choice to make): shouting at his sister, who was telling people that her brother is a "rocket scientist", that she might as well be telling them he is working at the bridge toll-booth!

Leonard Hofstadter is Sheldon's roomate and primary ...keeper. An experimental physicist himself, he juggles Sheldon's idiosyncrasies with his personal neurosis - not to mention his crush on his neighbor Penny.
Best moment: negotiating with Leslie Winkle (a fellow plain-looking but witty physicist and Sheldon's nemesis) their ...annual intercourse session to achieve "therapeutic sexual release" .

Howard Wolowitz is the only one with no PhD yet (and Sheldon never lets him forget it). An electrical engineer whose crowning achievement is a mechanized arm that is used in the space shuttle (and is now working on its liquid waste management solutions). The fact that he is a short man with a severely outdated and misguided sense of fashion, still lives with his mother, insists on using a collection of pickup lines straight from men's magazines advice columns - and yet carries himself as God's gift to women is just hilarious.
Best moment: diverting a military drone from its way to spying on the Russians, only to locate the house where America's Next Top Model is filmed - and be able to drop by and hit on the vulnerable one that gets kicked out that week!

Rajesh Koothrappali is a particle astrophysicist with a fashion sense close to absolute zero and a severe case of shyness - to the point that he cannot speak in front of women unless inebriated. He keeps using the "poor Indian" defense although his father is a rich doctor who drives a Bentley.
Best moment: after falling to give his name to Sheldon's beautiful sister, he comes back to get the flier requesting human test subjects for an experimental anti-shyness drug.

Finally, Penny. She is the proverbial good girl next door who came to California with stardom aspirations but so far works as waitress and suffers a sequence of bad boyfriends - and from her neighbors.
Best moment: filling in a long medical questionnaire with Sheldon at he hospital. "Headaches?" "Well, I'm getting one now!"

The show unavoidably makes use of previous sitcom combinations (the odd couple, the unfulfilled love-interest mismatch) but even if one manages to discern them they are used in such a fresh manner that all that is left is great entertainment!

The way to truly enjoy this is to own it on DVD. The writing is so smart and the jokes fly so fast (many of them non-verbal) there is just no way to savor it during its weekly air time. Well, may be Sheldon could but then again, who can compare his intellect with his?

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

This may be the funniest show in years. Sarcasm, cynicism, double entendres, snide comments and egotism. If you cannot see part of your character in each of the four male characters then get a friend to point them out to you. If you can't recognize some of your friends characters in them look harder.

This show gives us the best chance to laugh at our own foibles we have gotten in years.

Big Bang Theory is the best written sit-com in ages. The series is fresh and original, with well-defined characters and perfect casting. (Plus outstanding production details ie. character wardrobe.) This first season 3 dvd set, features 17 episodes (only), plus a 17min. featurette. Definitely leaves the viewer wanting more.