Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		4.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		4.0

The Big Bang Theory: The Complete Second Season Blu-ray Movie Review

We Left Things in a Hot Dense State

Reviewed by Michael Reuben July 29, 2012

If you're reading this review of The Big Bang Theory's second season, I assume that you're already familiar with the show and aren't concerned about spoilers, to the extent there are any for a series that's largely episodic. If you're new to the show, then stop now and switch to the review of season 1. This is your first and only warning.

After leaving viewers on a cliffhanger at the end of season 1, as Leonard (Johnny Galecki) and Penny (Kaley Cuoco) headed out the door on their first official date, series creators Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady must have been sorely tempted to indulge fan desires by bringing back the two neighbors as the newly minted couple everyone wanted them to be. Fortunately for the fans, Lorre and Prady gave them what they really wanted, which was to keep Leonard and Penny apart for another season, because, let's face it, frustration is a whole lot funnier than fulfillment. Besides, it was too soon to restructure the world so carefully laid out in season 1. Seventeen episodes weren't nearly enough to chart the neurotic topography of Leonard, Sheldon (Jim Parsons), Raj (Kunal Nayyar) and Howard (Simon Helberg), the token non-Ph.D. of the group—not to mention Penny, who has her own secret cache of crazy, as Sheldon discovers when he makes the mistake of introducing her to online gaming. Prematurely reshuffling the group would have meant passing up the comic potential that remained in the existing relationships. And oh what riches they still had to yield.

A friend of mine has a pet phrase to describe an ongoing situation: "more of the same, only more so". The expression aptly captures Big Bang's second season, in which each character progresses further along the same path, and deeper into the same thicket of hang-ups and delusions, that established the show's template.

Raj still cannot talk to women, but that hasn't stopped him from trying. If anything, his non-verbal communication skills have broadened now that Penny has become a regular member of their group. With brief bursts of confidence, either from alcohol or from unusual occurrences like being named to People Magazine's list of "Top 30 Visionaries Under 30" (episode 4), Raj makes brief forays into the world of dating, but mostly he tags after Howard on crazy quests like locating the house where America's Next Top Model is filmed (episode 7). Perhaps his most intriguing adventure of the season is his fanboy encounter with Firefly and Sarah Connor Chronicles star Summer Glau on a San Francisco-bound train (episode 17). The exotic physicist and the beautiful actress seem to be getting along famously, until Howard points out that the beer Raj is drinking is non-alcoholic, so that all his smooth talk is a placebo effect. The curtain of silence instantly descends.

Howard continues to find ever more inventive ways to disgrace himself with the opposite sex. He even makes a play for Penny, which leaves him needing medical attention (episode 12). More serious consequences await when Howard tries to impress a pick-up by inviting her to drive the Mars Rover (episode 8). The Rover ends up in a ditch on Mars, and Howard desperately calls his friends to help him sneak the lady out of the secure government facility he's breached, then cover his tracks in the computer logs. And it turns out Howard never had a shot with the woman anyway. But for sheer degradation, nothing can beat the decision by Leslie Winkle (Sara Gilbert) to adopt Howard as her boy toy, only to dump him unceremoniously when she's had enough, leaving him devastated (episode 21). A trip to Vegas and a (sort of) Jewish hooker are the only cure.

Penny has begun a subtle evolution, of which the most obvious sign is her growing comfort hanging out with a group of nerdy physicists (and one engineer) whose jobs and hobbies she generally doesn't understand. After her failed date with Leonard, she rebounds, briefly, with one of the vacuous hunks that had been her type until recently (episode 2). Leonard, just as briefly, runs into the arms of Leslie Winkle; both relationships are for show, and both end as soon as they've achieved their purpose. Midway through the season, Penny makes the startling discovery that there's such a thing as a physicist hunk, in the person of David Underhill (played by Battlestar Galactica's Michael Trucco, in a sly bit of stunt casting; episode 11). David rides a motorcycle, looks like a million bucks, talks like two and knows how to party. For a brief moment, Penny seems to have it all, but she quickly discovers that a wolf is a wolf, even in physicist's clothing. By the end of the season (episodes 20 and 22), Penny has graduated to a full-blown nerd: Stuart (Kevin Sussman) from the comic book store. The only problem is that she slips and calls him "Leonard" when they're making out. I wonder what that means.

Leonard remains the glue that holds the group together. He's the one always looking for a way to heal rifts, asking people to take it easy on each other, or hoping that problems will blow over. Special insight into Leonard arrives in episode 15, when he suffers through a visit from his psychiatrist mother, Dr. Beverly Hofstadter (Christine Baranski), whose detachment and self-absorption rival that of Sheldon. So proficient is Dr. Beverly that she has Penny bawling about her childhood within the time it takes to ascend the apartment building stairs. Beverly and Sheldon bond almost immediately, like two parents clucking over a problem child, and Leonard seeks refuge across the hall downing tequila shots with Penny. The results are not what either of them hoped for.

As for Sheldon, he remains the star of the show, certainly in his own mind and in reality as well. His distinctive combination of intelligence, eccentricity and shamelessness endows Sheldon with unusual power, allowing him to triumph over such seemingly unbeatable foes as a DMV employee (played by future Oscar winner Octavia Spencer; episode 5). He's able to enforce his friends' compliance with a lengthy list of seemingly petty rules, on pain of expulsion from his life, as Penny learns to her horror when she unknowingly accumulates three strikes and is "banned" (episode 7). The ensuing battle disrupts everyone's lives and ends only when Leonard slips Penny a covert tip about the ultimate weapon against her opponent (a/k/a "Sheldon's kryptonite").

In episode 6, Sheldon attracts what appears to be a groupie (Riki Lindhome), prompting Penny to ask the others what Sheldon's "deal" is. No one really knows, though various speculative theories are offered. If one can look past the abrasiveness, the whining and the acts of personal pettiness—admittedly not an easy thing to do—it often appears that Dr. Sheldon Cooper is motivated by nothing more than a genuine desire to advance human knowledge and share his findings with the rest of the world. (Such appears to be the desire behind the train trip to San Francisco on which the group meets Summer Glau, because Sheldon believes that Nobel Prize winner Dr. George Smoot must read his latest paper.) He is capable of surprising acts of generosity, as in episode 14, where he discovers that Penny is short of money and offers her a loan at no interest and with no set term, or in episode 18, where he volunteers to help get her start-up business off the ground. As with many great characters, Sheldon is a mass of contradictions, which is why his possibilities have yet to be exhausted.

The Big Bang Theory: The Complete Second Season Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The image on Warner's 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray discs for season 2 is comparable to the non-pilot images for season 1, which is to say that they're clean, sharp, colorful and well-defined, with fine detail evident throughout. Given the fact that six more episodes had to be accommodated on this set than on season 1, I tried to keep an eye out for banding, macro-blocking and other compression-related artifacts, but either they weren't there or I was laughing too hard to see them. (It's worth pointing out that the BD-50s for season 1 contained approximately 29 and 27 gigabytes, respectively; so it's not as if Warner was pushing the limits of the available digital real estate.)

The Big Bang Theory: The Complete Second Season Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtrack for season 2 is much the same as that for season 1, in that the track is almost entirely made up of dialogue, which remains clear and centered, and audience reaction, which is heard to the sides and slightly to the rear. The show's signature theme song by Barenaked Ladies, which is heard during the opening titles and, in an instrumental version, over the closing credits, continues to engage the entire 5.1 system and fill the listening space, with solid bass extension. The graphic featuring planetary (or molecular) rotation that is used as a transition between scenes continues to be accompanied by audio that reaches out into the listening space with a deep rumble and a whoosh, creating a sonic break to accompany the visual one. If you don't have either a subwoofer or full-range left and right main speakers, you're missing out on some of the highlights of the soundtrack.

The Big Bang Theory: The Complete Second Season Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• The Big Bang Theory: Physicist to the Stars (SD; 1.78:1, enhanced; 10:12): A slightly tongue-in-cheek portrait of Dr. David Saltzberg, the show's physics consultant.


• Testing the Infinite Hilarity Thesis in Relation to the Big Bang Theory (SD; 1.78:1, enhanced; 15:33): Or, in other words, "behind the scenes of season 2". The usual suspects make the customary observations.


• Gag Reel (SD; 1.78:1, enhanced; 8:54): Gaffes, botches and crack-ups. If only they'd been left uncensored.

The Big Bang Theory: The Complete Second Season Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Big Bang fans awaiting the upcoming release of season 5 on Blu-ray can now fill in their collection and pass the time before the show's sixth season network premiere reliving its past glories. Newcomers have the pleasure of starting at the beginning in a first-rate presentation. Highly recommended.