Poor Alessandra Stanley! The New York Times—apparently functioning in a serious hip on a budget mode these days—has assigned her the impossible task of writing amusing copy on the state of American sit-coms. After an obligatory nod to the one sit-com she actually wants to write about, the ever-cool, though rarely watched—certainly not by me—“30 Rock,” Alessandra stumbles through the witless present-day lineup and finally flings herself in an awkward embrace upon “Big Bang Theory”:
Of all the CBS comedies “Big Bang” is the least like the others. And it’s also the funniest, partly because it explores newer territory, focusing on geeky science nerds who love physics (and Xbox and “Star Trek”) and never have dates. The characters and dialogue have some of the arch sophistication of the NBC hit “Frasier.”
“Big Bang” revolves around Sheldon (Jim Parsons), a tall, storklike physicist who is so bad at reading social cues or understanding other people’s feelings that he’s almost an idiot savant. Sheldon is fussy, pedantic and childlike, and a trial to his roommate, Leonard (Johnny Galecki), and two fellow nerds, Howard (Simon Helberg) and Rajesh (Kunal Nayyar). Sheldon can’t drive and is afraid of swimming pools. He did, however, teach himself to swim via the Internet. Leonard asks him why he bothered since he doesn’t go in the water. “The ice caps are melting,” Sheldon replies reprovingly. “In the future swimming isn’t going to be optional.”
“In the future swimming isn’t going to be optional.” Ha, ha! Ha, ha! Well, you know, it does capture the arch sophistication of “Frazier”! Down to the damn toes!
