Season One comes out on DVD today.. gotta pick this one up. I'm a bit disappointed in the lack of extras but as least all 17 fantastic episodes are there.
Here's a Review from TVShowsonDVD.com
Big Bang Theory, The - The Complete 1st Season Review
Rating
Video: 8/10
Audio: 8/10
Extras: 1/10
Geeks Unite!
by Gord Lacey (All reviews) 9/02/2008
Physicists Leonard and Sheldon understand everything from the inescapable gravitational pull of a black hole to the intricate structure of the atom. But take those atoms and assemble them into a woman, and their comprehension comes to a grinding halt. And when Penny, a woman with all those atoms in all the right places, moves in across the hall, Leonard and Sheldon's universe begins to expand in ways they never could have imagines.
When series creators Chuck Lorre (Two and a Half Men) and Bill Prady (Dharma & Greg) combine equal parts science, superheroes and sex and add stars Johnny Galecki (Roseanne) and Jim Parsons (Judging Amy), the result is an explosively funny comedy for the nerd in all of us.
I don't keep track of sitcoms at all, so it's no surprise I hadn't heard of this one before it was announced on DVD. The premise, a bunch of geeks with a hot new neighbor, sounds like a good one. The 17 episode first season is on this 3-disc set:
Disc 1 (2:07:54)
Pilot (22:54)
The Big Bran Hypothosis (21:06)
The Fuzzyboots Corollary (22:02)
The Luminous Fish Effect (20:40)
The Hamburger Postulate (20:11)
The Middle Earth Paradigm (21:01)
Disc 2 (2:03:43)
The Dumpling Paradox (21:12)
The Grasshopper Experiment (20:12)
The Cooper-Hofstadter Polarization (19:30)
The Loobenfeld Decay (20:40)
The Pancake Batter Anomaly (22:02)
The Jerusalem Duality (20:07)
Disc 3 (1:43:32)
The Bat Jar Conjecture (21:40)
The Nerdvana Annihilation (20:06)
The Pork Chop Indeterminacy (21:51)
The Peanut Reaction (19:48)
The Tangerine Factor (20:07)
Video
Though the packaging states this is "matted" widescreen transfer, meaning it's a 4:3 image with black bars on the top and bottom, it's wrong. The episodes are presented in Anamorphic Widescreen (1.78:1), and they look good, with the exception of some visible noise in the pilot episode. The noise is most obvious on the solid colors of walls, but it's greatly reduced by the second episode; it's common for a pilot to look slightly different from the regular season episodes. Each disc contains a "play all" option, and there's a chapter after the opening of the show.
Audio
The Big Bang Theory features a decent English Stereo Surround audio track. Of course the majority of the audio can be heard from the 3 front speakers, with the center channel getting most of the dialog. Audience laughter, and some music, can be heard from the rear speakers. Oh, I also love the opening theme song by The Barenaked Ladies. There are subtitles in English, French, Spanish, Chinese, Korean, Portuguese and Thai.
Extras:
Quantum Mechanics of The Big Bang Theory (17:12)
A look behind-the-scenes of The Big Bang Theory featuring interviews with the cast and crew.
Summary
This show must be one of the hardest sitcoms to write due to the insanely geeky language. I can't imagine the type of comments the writers receive, because I'm almost certain any flaw in a mathematical equation or "factual" comment that turns out to be wrong would result in letters and emails sent correcting the information. Yikes!
I thought the show was very funny; I laughed out loud a number of times. It's too bad the bonus material is so sparse, I would have enjoyed listening to a commentary track or two. I doubt I'll catch the show when it airs on TV, but I'll happily watch the second season when it hits DVD next year.
