FolkLorre

[Louise]

A lot of sitcoms are, in fact, darker than you realize. The Big Bang Theory is about alienation.

Yes, it's a show about people who are misfits and outcasts. The problem is that instead of siding with them, the show itself treats them with contempt. Instead of just showing us people who are bullied and shunned, the show is complicit in the bullying and shunning. There's no "revenge of the nerds", here, IMO it doesn't really treat the characters as heroes or invite us to identifty with them.

I think there's some of that even in the earlier seasons. I'm not sure the show has ever really embraced the guys' perspective or ever truly empathized with them. Rather, it kind of implies that their alienation is their own fault and things would get better if they'd just "snap out of it."

As fun and entertaining as they are, IMO even the early seasons have kind of an ugly undercurrent and some mixed messages. This show never *quite* knew what its premise or its message was. Odd as it might sound, this was always a show where I liked the characters and the *idea* of it, more than the actual episodes.

I think the early seasons were good almost by accident, if you see what I mean. The best parts were unrelated to whatever theme or message the writers *thought* they were presenting. The show was good in spite of itself.

ETA: and now, they think they can balance-out the cruel humor with syrupy emotional moments where everyone is crying and hugging, or by letting a character succeed for about five minutes before knocking him/her down again. There's major tonal whiplash.