• Network: CBS
  • Series Premiere Date: Sep 24, 2007
  • Season #: 0 , 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 5 , 17
Metascore
57 out of 100

Mixed or average reviews - based on 23 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 8 out of 23
  2. Negative: 4 out of 23
  1. 90
    Big Bang is the funniest new sitcom of the season.
  2. 80
    Half the fun in this outlandishly funny sitcom is that Penny is so spacey that she doesn't appear to recognize what hard-core nerds Leonard and Sheldon really are--even the presence in their bathroom of Luke Skywalker No-More-Tears Shampoo doesn't tip her off.
  3. It may not be a creative breakthrough, but it's lots funnier than the universal equation would predict.
  4. A nice combination of brains and belly laughs and a solid addition to the CBS comedy block on Monday nights.
  5. With so few traditional sitcoms on the air this year, the new ones had better be good. Happily for viewers, Fox's "Back to You" and CBS's Big Bang Theory qualify as generally welcome newcomers.
  6. 75
    An otherwise promising CBS comedy series.
  7. 75
    This may not be the sitcom breakthrough for which we've all been hoping, but Lorre has produced a first episode that leaves you eager to try the second.
  8. 63
    As far as junk like this goes, it's not heinous and has moments of OK-ness.
  9. 60
    The sporadically amusing Big Bang Theory needs some fancier moves.
  10. It's just the same joke endlessly repeated--the everyday translated into geek-speak, and the obscure and difficult treated as if it were common knowledge.... These are perilous times for sitcoms, and Lorre & Co. may want to think up another.
  11. "Chuck" has interests similar to those of the heroes of Big Bang, including a lack of interest in chasing women, but his comedy is more inventive--the better bet in a new era in which the nerd no longer loses, but the best nerd show wins.
  12. This is a comedy that does what it's supposed to do, which is to make you smile and giggle at the appropriate points. Be that as it may, the pilot never ascends beyond the level of being cute and nice.
  13. Reviewed by: Brian Lowry
    60
    That said, there are some qualms surrounding how long the producers can mine the Leonard-Penny aspect of the show, a shallow vein if there ever was one. More promising is the interaction among the key duo and their Mensa-worthy friends.
  14. I didn't get much of a sense where this show was going from the pilot, though there was nothing to hate about Big Bang Theory, and the writing's every bit as sharp as "Two and a Half Men" and "Dharma & Greg," comedies overseen by Big Bang producer Chuck Lorre.
  15. Standard setup? Sure. Standard execution? For the most part.
  16. 50
    While it's got that professional Burrows sheen of unerrant joke delivery--especially from the talented Galecki, who can do this in his sleep--you have to assume the pile of scripts on his desk in this hurting age for the three-camera studio-audience format isn't what it once was.
  17. To call this a one-joke sitcom would be a stretch.
  18. Reviewed by: Todd R. Ramlow
    40
    Other shows do complicate and elaborate the geek mystique ("CSI" and "Bones" come to mind), but all we're likely to get from The Big Bang Theory are missed communications, fumbled opportunities, and general yuckety-yucks.
  19. 40
    The show might even have been engaging, if the one-liners came less frequently and the characters had a little more dimension. As it is, Sheldon and Leonard are merely laughable, if sweet, and they are even less fleshed out than the characters on "Two and a Half Men."
  20. Luckily, the writing here is so moronic and the situations so forced and mundane, it's easier to dismiss what is, all told, pretty fantastic work on behalf of Galecki and Parsons.
  21. 25
    This is by far the least charming--the lame, leering sitcom tales of two brainiac losers (Johnny Galecki, above, and Jim Parsons) goofily smitten by the babelicious girl next door (Kaley Cuoco). It's about as witty as a pocket protector.
  22. 20
    Even if the jokes on this show weren't tired and mean-spirited, it would be hard to care about any comedy that hates its own lead characters so much.
User Score

Generally favorable reviews- based on 426 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Negative: 38 out of 212
  1. Although it can sometimes feel like jokes are repeated, the show is a shining example of geek culture, full of funny comic, movie and video game references that young people, like me, will lap up. Full Review »
  2. The Big Bang Theory is the easily the best and funniest sitcom since a long time. It has new ideas, has something for geeks but also normal viewers (I showed it to friends who are in no way a geek shown in TBBT) and almost every scene is absolutely funny. Sometimes jaw-dropping funny. Sitting there and thinking: "Did he really say what I just heard?" The first season shows something new, the next seasons are even better. I can accept that some people may have a problem with the geeky stuff, the long sentences and to understand what is meant, but I cannot accept that this is not funny at all. Those who write that just want to put the ratings down. Really, nothing more than that. How can one give less than 5 points for this? Sorry, I won't see which sitcoms you rate higher. Sheldon is the most intimidating geek ever seen on TV, the others are not far behind. The only issue I have at the moment is that most jokes base on sexual relationships or intersexual behaviour. Some episodes are almost classics. Great unique episodes you will never forget and you do not experience watching other sitcoms. Full Review »
  3. I'm sorry but there is something seriously, fundamentally, achingly, scarily wrong with that 8.2. I'm actually literally scared for the well being of myself and this country. Full Review »