TV Review: The Big Bang Theory The Complete First Season

I have a thing for dorks. That dictated my desire, no my need, to watch The Big Bang Theory. I quickly fell in love with Sheldon (Jim Parsons) and Leonard (Johnny Galecki). The two are roommates and physicists; they know everything about integrals and black holes but have little to no knowledge of women. That is plenty apparent when the blonde bombshell Penny moves into the apartment across the hall and Leonard makes a bumbling idiot of himself and Sheldon is more interested in watching Battlestar and mentions that they tried masturbating for money.

Joined by Raj and Wolowitz, they make a 30-minute sitcom that easily found its way on my Must-See list. Everyone quickly learns to head for the hills when Sheldon gets sick because he’s easily the neediest person alive. Tempers flare when Sheldon and Leonard present a paper at a symposium, but luckily Wolowitz videotapes the entire thing so the dork fight can be viewed over and over on YouTube. Leonard has a semblance of social skills but Sheldon prides himself on one thing – being the smartest person around and even that gets fractured when a child prodigy tours the university where our favorite geeks work.

As far as special features go, The Big Bang Theory is short on special features, but honestly who watches those all that much? The only feature is a behind the scenes look at the creation of the show called “Quantum Mechanics of The Big Bang Theory.” However, the show’s creators do have some help of actual physicists to help the jargon and information be accurate to allow Big Bang to be a genuinely smart show. Now no one can say intelligence isn’t entertaining. Plus, it is sort of nice to see the nerd cast as the hero instead of a sidekick who gets a few chuckles. Maybe it can prove that the nice guy really does get the girl, even if the plot of a beauty among beasts isn’t something new.

Luckily, the ensemble cast works well together with each individual bringing something to the table – from comical timing to a simply refreshing presence. And let’s face it; the casting is what makes the show a hit. The wrong group of actors could have seen Big Bang fall flat very quickly. I enjoy the show a great deal, but there isn’t much a show can accomplish in a 30-minute time slot that could be considered revolutionary. But in a world of hour-long dramas, it’s good to have a witty sitcom that hits the spot.

DVD Review: Jericho The First Season

I was hooked on Jericho from the first commercial I saw. I made it a point to make room for the show in my appointment TV watching. I easily watched each episode at least twice. The show is far from being cheery, yet it still holds onto a glimmer of hope. It also makes you think about what life would really be like in such a situation.

Jericho is about a small Kansas town and their survival after a nuclear attack on the United States. They have no idea if there are other survivors or if they are alone to rebuild. The show chronicles what would be very real problems like food shortages and looting and then goes a bit further to show war-like skirmishes between neighboring towns that had very different responses as to how to survive.

Jericho is another in the growing popular ensemble-cast thrillers. The thriller aspect comes in from living in a basically post-apocalyptic world. But sprinkled throughout the chaos are stories of the people of Jericho: who they are, their relationships with each other, and what secrets they aren’t telling anyone else. The setup has drawn a lot of comparisons to Lost, just without the supernatural aspect.

What makes Jericho so gripping, and perhaps timeless, is the invisible enemy. Without knowing who is attacking the US or why, it puts a real spin on the plot. I think the mysterious forces behind the nuclear attacks also force the audience to wonder how they would react in such a situation: would they maintain law and order or would it be a free for all?

The casting of the show also works in its favor. Skeet Ulrich (Scream) is the lead and is equally strong and vulnerable, which makes his character more compelling. He’s also ridiculously good looking, so you know some love triangles are in for the making. The cast of Jericho is rounded out by Gerald McRaney (Major Dad, Simon & Simon), Ashley Scott (Birds of Prey), Pamela Reed (Proof of Life), Kenneth Mitchell, Lennie James (Sahara), Sprague Grayden, Michael Gaston, Erik Knudsen (Saw II), Brad Beyer, and Shoshannah Stern (Weeds) who is really deaf.

The special features on Jericho: The First Season are fairly typical extras these days. Most of the episodes have deleted scenes, commentary, or even both available to watch. The sixth disc also has two mini-featurettes. The first is called “Building Jericho” and is a behind the scenes look at how the first season of Jericho was made – from audition tapes, to building the back lot, special effects, and even how fan feedback affected the season. The next feature is a mini documentary called “What If” that looks at possibilities of actual nuclear attacks in the past, present, and future. It chronicles the history of nuclear weapons with stock footage and interviews with various people. The feature also discusses responses to disasters, with Hurricane Katrina being a big example of how it can go wrong without a plan in place.

Technically speaking, Jericho: The First Season is in widescreen format, enhanced for 16:9 televisions. The sound is Dolby Digital English 5.1 Surround with options for subtitles in English, Spanish, and Brazilian Portuguese.

I highly recommend Jericho be added to your DVD collection.

DVD Review: NUMB3RS The Third Season

If crime-solving shows aren’t your bag, you’re hard pressed to find much on television these days. In a world full of CSI and Law & Order and their various incarnations in different cities, it is fairly difficult for a new cop show to come on the scene and offer something new to its audience. NUMB3RS is able to give a fresh perspective by focusing on the importance of math. The show also allows enough focus on the personal lives and relationships between the characters that it isn’t just some formulaic way to solve a crime. But the character development doesn’t fall into the trap of being reminiscent of a soap opera, the drama is stuff that explains who the characters are as we already see them. And thankfully there aren’t the cookie-cutter one-liners being spouted horribly from characters we don’t really like that much anyway (David Caruso on CSI: Miami anyone?).

NUMB3RS is an FBI crime drama based in Los Angeles. But the LA in the show is more a reference than a location because it really could be happening in any city. The lack of pretty shots of the city help NUMB3RS maintain a more universal appeal. The show keeps it’s appeal for those who, like me, stopped taking math after high school by creating analogies about what the math is figuring out. The analogies aren’t the strength of the show and some of them are even quite boring, but they distract you enough from the equations being scribbled furiously that you think you understand exactly what is going on.

The Special Features for the third season of NUMB3RS are spread out over discs four, five and six. All the discs except for four have at least one episode with commentary available. Disc four has a featurette titled “Crunching NUMB3RS: Season 3” that looks at the importance the third season has for the series and the various ways the show changed. The fifth disc has a featurette called “Eppes Central” detailing the house used as the Eppes home and why they ultimately had to recreate the home on a sound stage. The final disc has two special features: a tour of the set house and a blooper reel.

Technically speaking, the DVD set has what you come to expect these days. It has a widescreen version enhanced for 16:9 televisions; the sound is Dolby Digital 5.1 English with Closed Captioning. The 24 episodes and special features are spread over six discs.

If you are a fan of the plethora of crime-solving dramas on television, NUMB3RS: The Third Season is worth adding to your collection. The show itself is worth giving a second look if you’re sick of all the forensic following franchises because it doesn’t have the same formulaic approach. Then for you Northern Exposure fans, Rob Morrow is one of the leads, playing FBI agent Don Eppes. Charlie Eppes is Don’s math whiz brother, played by David Krumholtz, and Judd Hirsch plays their father, Alan Eppes.