Fall Preview: The Big Bang Theory

The Premise

The show is based around the lives of five individuals living in Pasadena, California: two roommates, Sheldon Cooper and Leonard Hofstadter, their next-door neighbor Penny and their two eccentric friends Howard Wolowitz and Raj Koothrappali. The show is based off the strange contrast between the four men's nerdliness and non-existent social lives and the extremely socially aware abilities of Penny.

Over the years various others have joined the show for extended periods of time including: Leslie Winkle, Bernadette Rostenkowski, Amy Farrah Fowler and Stuart Bloom.

Johnny Galecki (Hancock) stars as Leonard Hofstadter, Jim Parsons (The Muppets) stars as Sheldon Cooper, Kaley Cuoco (8 Simple Rules) stars as Penny, Simon Helberg stars as Howard Wolowitz, Kunal Nayyar (Ice Age: Continental Drift, Bruno) stars as Raj Koothrappali, Sara Gilbert stars as Leslie Winkle, Melissa Rauch (I Love You, Man) stars as Bernadette Rostenkowski and Mayim Bialik stars as Amy Farrah Fowler with Kevin Sussman (AI: Artificial Intelligence, Hitch) as Stuart Bloom.

The Big Bang Theory returns on CBS, Thursday September 26th at 8PM EST.

Where I Would Go With the Plot

First things first -- this thing needs to start getting wrapped up. We've had six great seasons, but the plots are slowly running out and we're not going to be able to get much out of these nerds an society girls. Howard has completely changed over the years going from uncontrollable perv to married and controlled. We've seen Raj go from completely unable to talk to women to a chatterbox in last season's finale. Leonard and Penny finally have told each other they love each other and Sheldon seems to be loosening up now that Amy is in his life. So my question, what else do these characters have left to do?

The main plot needs to revert back to Leonard and Sheldon. They're our main characters and we need to get their story-lines finished up before the series ends, probably in two seasons. This season will need to focus on Leonard and Penny figuring out what exactly they want to do. Penny is scared of commitment, but knows that she's found something good in Leonard. I expect Leonard to keep proposing every once in a while. Finally, in the premiere he'll do it casually, almost out of habit and she'll say yes. Of course, the humor will be that he doesn't realize it for a couple seconds.

Sheldon and Amy seem to be doing well, but Amy wants so much more of Sheldon. I'm not entirely sure how far CBS plans on taking their relationship on screen, but we should expect it to get physical at some time during this season. Whether that's Sheldon giving her a kiss or even more than that, I'm not entirely sure, but that needs to happen at some point this season too.

What I Think Will Happen

The show seems obsessed with giving us Raj's story right now. While we'll get progression in everyone's lives I feel that the main emphasis will be put on Raj and his new-found ability to talk to women. Ideally, I don't see Raj ended the series in a relationship, but a new-found appreciation to be able to talk to them.

Also, my gut tells me the show will get even raunchier this season. It's been the way the show has been going for the past few seasons and I doubt there will be any change now with Raj's open mouth and Sheldon's deeper trust in Amy Farrah Fowler. Those of you who know me now I'm not all for this.

All in all, my gut instinct is that we'll get the total effect of Two and a Half Men. They're doing to beat a dead horse out of this show and in the end it'll lose it's spark.