Created by: Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady
Starring: Johnny Galecki, Jim Parsons, Kaley Cuoco, Simon Helberg, Kunal Nayyar
MPAA Rating: Unrated
Distributed by: Warner Home Video
Release Date: July 10, 2012
Running Time: 374 minutes
Season Two: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Blu-ray: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Extras: 2 out of 5 stars
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“Our whole universe was in a hot dense state,
Then nearly fourteen billion years ago expansion started. Wait…
The Earth began to cool,
The autotrophs began to drool,
Neanderthals developed tools,
We built a wall (we built the pyramids),
Math, science, history, unraveling the mysteries,
That all started with the big bang!”
If you are a fan of the show, you probably find yourself, like me singing along to this theme song…even when the show is not on. “The Big Bang Theory” is easily my favorite comedy on television…period. I have to be honest though, I was not always a fan of this show. I remember dating back to 2007-2008, when friends of mine insisted we watch it and I just kept thinking “A show about science…Yeah right!” Boy, was I so wrong. This show is so much more and only has gotten better with each season. Thankfully Warner Bros has finally released this show’s first and second seasons on high-definition Blu-ray. “The Big Bang Theory” started its Blu-ray releases with season 3 back in 2010. So luckily now we are all caught up, until the upcoming release of season 5 in September 2012. If you are a fan of the show, this release is very welcomed and does not disappoint.
Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady have really created one of the most unique and funniest shows on television. It is packed with some great pop culture aspects merged with a very creative use of scientific jargon and rapid-fire dialogue (mostly courtesy of the amazing Jim Parsons). The first season is the shortest of the series due to the Writers Guild strike of 2007, but it still is able to capture its audience. Fall 2012 also begins the show’s sixth season and it currently shows no signs of slowing down. In the first season, we meet Leonard and Sheldon, who are science nerds and also roommates. When they meet their new neighbor Penny, an aspiring actress/currently waitressing at The Cheescake Factory, Leonard goes on the prowl to get her. We also get introduced to Leonard and Sheldon’s hilarious duo of friends, Howard, who is a suave nerd and Raj, who cannot speak with women (unless he is drunk). Overall, this season is a great kick-off to a great series.
This Blu-ray release is much more impressive over seasons 3 and 4. This is a six-disc set consisting of two Blu-ray and 4 DVDs. The real selling point for me though was the Ultraviolet streaming digital copy included of all 17 episodes. When I originally saw the first season of “The Big Bang Theory”, it was not in high definition. So it was great revisit this show on high-def Blu-ray. The 1080p transfer is very sharp and colorful, definitely does not disappoint. The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track also is great but of course isn’t challenged much especially since the show is 99.9% dialogue. The special features though are a bit of a letdown, not some much in what is presented but by what is not included. “Quantum Mechanics of The Big Bang Theory”, runs just short of 20 minutes and is a retrospective on the origins of the series. Lorre and Prady and all the principal cast chat about the series. Lastly there is a “Gag Reel” includes, which had me literally crying.
