By Kofi Outlaw

I’ll give this to “The Big Bang Theory”: the show is definitely finding its niche.

This week offered what I’d say is the best intro segment, a chuckle-worthy look at the nerd-squad engaged in a high-stakes game of World of Warcraft, complete with treachery, greed and some online backstabbing.

The main plotline deals with Leonard (Johnny Galecki) stumbling upon crush Penny (Kaley Cuoco) making out with one of her boy-toys—an injection of reality the show badly needed; up until this point Penny had been virtually asexual.

Lovelorn Leonard is crushed. To win back his confidence he proposes to his friends that he will ask out his lab partner at work. The lab partner is played by Sara Gilbert, Galecki’s on-screen girlfriend from “Rosanne” (Inside joke alert!) Leonard nerdishly requests a date from Gilbert, who in equally nerdish fashion opts to cut right to the kiss. The result: no ‘bio-chemical reaction’; the girl is not interested in him. Leonard is further crushed.

After a period of lamenting (singing emo songs and planning to buy a cat,) Leonard, provoked by Sheldon (Jim Parsons,) does what he should’ve done in the first place: knocks on Penny’s door and asks her out. Well… sort of. Too nervous to confront the issue directly, Leonard leads Penny to believe that their date is actually a group outing with the nerd squad.


The date goes well enough. At dinner Leonard manages sociable conversation, learns a bit about Penny (weekend-long sex romps with her boy-toys is unfulfilling,) and even manages to impress the lady with a trick involving lifting an olive off the table using a glass and centripetal force (see kids, physics can be cool!) Then Leonard suffers a concussion. End of date.

When they get back to the apartment, Penny asks Leonard if their dinner was actually a date. Leonard pauses, seeing his chance, but ultimately chickens out, downplaying the evening as dinner amongst friends. Then he immediately goes home and brags to the nerd-squad.

I don’t know if writer Chuck Lorre is reading my blogs or what, but “The Big Bang Theory” is definitely tweaking its faults according to the blueprint I laid down: a more realistic take on Penny’s character; fewer scenes of pedantic nerd-speak; and more fish-out-of-water moments of the geeks grappling (hilariously) with social norms.


I’d say my chuckle factor was up to nearly four this episode—but the show has yet to provide the full-bellied laughs that would make it a mainstay. With Chuck Lorre at the helm though, the odds are favor of TBBT.