Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #266 in DVD
• Released on: 2009-01-12
• Rating: Suitable for 12 years and over
• Formats: Box set, PAL
• Subtitled in: Dutch, English, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, Polish, Finnish
• Number of discs: 3
• Running time: 341 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
The delightful sitcom The Big Bang Theory revolves around a character type rarely seen on television: the alpha geek. Physicists Leonard (Johnny Galecki) and Sheldon (Jim Parsons) get their lives shaken up when an attractive young woman named Penny (Kaley Cuoco) moves in to the apartment across from theirs. The key to the show, though, is not that they both fall haplessly in love--Leonard does, but Sheldon remains impermeably aloof and caustic about anything resembling romance or human relationships in general. While the push and pull of Leonard's yearning for Penny motivates much of the series' ongoing plot, the show's real drive comes from Sheldon's fantastic combination of obsessive-compulsive neurosis and grandiose obliviousness. He's a brilliant comic creation, imperious and dorky, a seamless collaboration of clever writing and an inspired performance by Parsons. Whether Sheldon loses his job for insulting his new boss, or finds his ego bruised by a child prodigy, or finds himself unable to bear being part of a lie that Leonard has told, he attacks the world with a relentless need to assert his supremacy--and the results are deeply funny.

The triumph of The Big Bang Theory is that everyone is written with genuine affection. What could have been a lifeless parade of stereotypes becomes instead a charming collision of cultures. The familiar stuff (computer games, comic books, social incompetence) has the grit of specificity. The show understands the difference between Halo and Halo 3, knows what the Bottle City of Kandor is, and grasps the infinite variety of ways in which a conversation can go terribly awry. Kudos as well to supporting players Simon Helberg and Kunal Nayyar, who bring their own variations on geekiness to the table, and to great appearances by some of Galecki's former cohorts on Roseanne: Sara Gilbert as geekette Leslie and Laurie Metcalf as Sheldon's fundamentalist mother. All in all, one of the most winning sitcoms in years. --Bret Fetzer

DVD Description
The Big Bang Theory follows the lives of university physicists Leonard and Sheldon, two gentlemen who know whether to use an integral or a differential to solve the area under a curve. But they don’t have a clue about girls. Or dating. Or clothes. Or parties. Or having fun. Or, basically, life. So when a pretty blonde named Penny moves into the apartment across the hall, the guys decide to get an education outside of the classroom. Boys, you have a lot to learn. With series creators Chuck Lorre (Two and a Half Men) and Bill Prady (The Gilmore Girls) concocting the right mix of logic and lunacy and stars Johnny Galecki (Roseanne) and Jim Parsons (Judging Amy) turning geekdom into Phi Beta fun, The Big Bang Theory is big on laughs, and life.

Synopsis
Johnny Galecki (ROSEANNE) and Jim Parsons (JUDGING AMY) star as two geeky scientists who are accustomed to probing the secrets of the universe, but totally inept when it comes to the greatest mystery of all: women. Their lives are turned upside down with the arrival of Penny (Kaley Cuoco), a beautiful blonde who moves in next door and gets their Bunsen burners all fired up. Plenty of high jinks ensue as the two clueless roommates receive a crash course in the ways of the opposite sex.

Customer Reviews

Suprisingly brilliant
I'm not normally a fan of american 'canned laughter' sitcoms, but this programme had me howling. Being a bit of a geek myself I completely empathised with Leonard (and more worryingly, Sheldon at times). If you don't mind a raucous laughter track after every line give it a try, it's one of the most well written and intelligent sitcoms I've seen in a long time. I hope the american TV fatcats don't do what they normally do when they occassionally stumble onto a gem, cancel it after 2 series'.

Live long and prosper, Big bang theory.

The Kings of Freeview
If, like me, you don't trust yourself to get Sky because you're scared you'll never leave the house again, so you thought Freeview was a good alternative but now find it really isn't, allow me to introduce one of the few gems you can actually get on Freeview.

Squeezed in between E4s almost incessant diet of, like you know, teen dramas (One Tree Hill, The OC, 90210 and even Reaper on poorer episodes), lurks the fabulous Big Bang Theory.

Describing it as a series of 19 minute (yes, seriously folks - it must be good if the US networks figure they can squash 11 minutes of ads around it and still keep their audience) episodes in the life of two geeky scientists who live opposite a blonde waitress is as inadequate as saying Fawlty Towers was about a cross bloke in a hotel.

Firstly, the character of Dr Sheldon Cooper really is up there amongst the all-time great comic creations. Coupled with his much put-upon flatmate Leonard, they are eerily reminiscent of the great line in master and servant comic double acts from Laurel and Hardy to Steptoe and Son (but with better teeth). I don't know if the creators always intended it this way, but I suspect they suddenly found they had this unbelievably eccentric, idiosyncratic, gauche character with a brain the size of a planet and simply knew they had to wrap the whole series around him. How else can one of the funniest episodes be simply about all the other characters avoiding him because he has a cold?

Then, the four supporting characters are all well realised and much more than just foils for Sheldon, which is where so many character driven comedies fall down. I particularly love Howard, the seven stone jewish Love God and his very shouty (but never seen) mother.

Best of all, though, is the incredibly tight script. For those of us who mourn the passing of the great US TV wordplays - The West Wing, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, NYPD Blue, Deadwood and even back to the likes of Murder One in the mid 90s - this is a real breath of fresh air. Not a word is wasted, not an inflection missed and occasionally even the line not spoken is very, very funny.

As the box blurb says, this is comedy with affection, where no-one is especially mean to anyone else in the search for funny lines and where you will probably recognise and identify with bits of each of the characters. So, if you're scanning your Free-To-Air TV schedule with dismay that there's no Shameless or Dexter on, ignore the Mock the Week repeats on Dave (how many times can you watch them???), give Big Bang Theory a try and discover another rare Freeview gem.

Beauty and the Geeks
Before purchasing this DVD I'd seen odd episodes on TV late at night and thought it was funny, so I gave the full series a go and watching it from the start has been such a treat I think that anyone who has not watched this show is really missing out...it's brilliant!

It's about a pretty, blonde girl named Penny who moves into an apartment after breaking up with her boyfriend. Across the hall live two geeky physicists, Leonard and Sheldon. They have completely different lifestyles but it is fun and interesting to see how both the beauty and the geeks are in various, very funny situations.

I can't remember the last sitcom I saw that has been as hilarious, heart-warming and addictive as this. I watched the whole series within two days as I was enjoying it so much and I can't wait to see series 2 now!

I can't recommend this show highly enough - it is already well up there with other sitcom classics such as Friends and Frasier in my opinion and I think once it is more commonly known, this show is going to be big!