The Big Bang Theory: The Complete Eighth Season
Blu-Ray Reviews | Sep 13th, 2015
Starring: Johnny Galecki, Jim Parsons, Kaley Cuoco, Simon Helberg, Kunal Nayyar, Melissa Rauch, Mayim Bialik, Kevin Sussman
Created By: Chuck Lorre, Bill Prady
Directed By: Mark Cendrowski
Studio: Warner Bros
Buy On Amazon.com
The latest season of The Big Bang Theory is what I like to call, the Debbie Downer season. Or some people might call it, The short hair Penny season. While the show still has it’s funny moments in each episode, this season was just depressing at times.
When we last left off Season 7, Sheldon left Pasadena to go on some soul searching train ride. As usual, that didn’t go over too well and Sheldon is back to being awkward with the rest of the group. This season sees Leonard going for a minor surgery and Sheldon worrying about it, Leonard and Penny’s relationship is tested when he finds out she makes more money than he does. Howard is obsessed with Stuart’s relationship with his Mom and then tragically, his Mom passes away in the middle of the season. Raj finally scores a chick that isn’t extremely weird or actually likes him. Amy continues to whine at Sheldon to be a better boyfriend, and that’s pretty much it for Season 8.
I’ve been a fan of the show for many years but this was the first year where I thought it could have been a lot better and funnier. I did find the season funnier the second time around, and when I could fast forwarding the sappy parts. A lot of storylines seemed to be exhausted particularly Sheldon and Amy’s relationship. Just recycling the same type of things into different situations over and over. Sheldon does something weird and without thinking of Amy, Amy gets mad, Sheldon realizes what he did, things are okay after that. Either she needs to leave the show or something needs to progress in that storyline to make it less annoying.
The main reason why the show was a downer this season was because of the passing of Carol Ann Susi, who voiced Howard’s mom. Yes, it’s really sad that she passed, and having my own Father pass away back in May, watching this certainly didn’t help. I can see doing a sad episode where they pay tribute to her and then sort of move on with show. Sort of like what NewsRadio did. But after she died, it just seemed like every episode was about it, at least with Howard’s storylines. Howard was beyond sappy this season, even before his Mom passed away. I usually like his character but this season he was getting too whiny.
The best part of the season was when Leonard and Sheldon’s mothers stopped by, together. Usually one makes a visit and that’s a highlight of the season but having both of them was great. Having Raj is a relationship where the girl is somewhat normal, and him messing things up was enjoyable. Better than trying to date weird girl like Kate Micucci’s character. I like how Stuart was added to the main cast, although I always like when Kripke shows up.
The end of the season was left on a bunch of cliffhangers. Sheldon and Amy might break up or he might try to propose to her. Penny and Leonard are on the way to Vegas and MIGHT get married, Howard and Bernadette want Stuart to leave the house, and Raj wants to break up with his girlfriend since she’s kind of morbid. I don’t know but hopefully the next season is better than this one. Honestly, I prefer the show when it was just the original group although I like the addition of Melissa Rauch.
The Blu-Ray features contains the Comic Con panel, which is always fun to watch those. Since I can never get to Comic Con, I try to watch them all on YouTube the next day. Other features on the Blu-Ray include a tribute to Carol Ann Susi, a funny gag reel and a few other quick featurettes.
Features:
2014 Comic Con Panel
Shooting Stars: BBT on BBT
Constellation Prize
Here’s To You, Carol Ann Susi
It’s A Quark, it’s an Atom it’s the #BBTSuperfans
Gag Reel
Video:
1080p High Definition 16×9 1:78:1
Audio:
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 16-bit)
Spanish: Dolby Digital 2.0
Portuguese: Dolby Digital 2.0
Subtitles:
English SDH, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Korean
Bottom Line: A downer of a season (Howard’s Mom died, some professor died, Raj’s parents split, etc. etc. etc….)
Running Time: 478 mins
Rating: NR
Extras Rating:
Overall Rating:
