Saturday TV Special: The Big Bang Theory

Plot: The series follows three scientists - Sheldon, brilliant and completely antisocial guy who is afraid of many things including birds and bacteria, Leonard who while being a geek hopes he may find a girlfriend, Raj, goofy romantic who loves feminine stuff and can't talk to women due to being scared and nervous unless he is drunk and an engineer Howard, a self professed ladies men. Their lives change when an attractive aspiring actress Penny moves in to the same building Sheldon and Leonard live and Leonard falls for her. As we follow them and observe their little fascinating world we also meet Stuart, the owner of the comic book store, Amy, who is sorta Sheldon's girlfriend, Bernadette, Penny's friend who becomes Howard's love interest and Howard's mother who is continuously yelling at him and we never see her on screen.

Structure: Each episode follows another adventure - weather it's traveling on the train and meeting Summer Glau, fighting off a bird who sits outside the window or dressing up for Halloween. There are on-going story arcs too, including Leonard's pursuit for Penny and his other relationships with women, Sheldon's hatred towards "Star Trek's" Will Wheaton, Raj's struggle to find a girlfriend and Howard doing the same thing, for slightly less romantic purposes.
Verdict: The show is absolutely hilarious especially because of fantastic one liners and sarcastic remarks five friends throw at each other. The show also uses a lot of nods and homages for science fiction and fantasy genre - the guys are huge fans of "Star Trek", "Star Wars" and "Lord of the Rings" among many, many others.

What's so great about it? The main source of humour in the series are the difficulties the guys have with dealing with the people - whether it's the lack of physical strength or the fact they are so much smarter the situation they get themselves into always demand them using their assets to their advantage. Most of the troubles their encounter are either because of Sheldon's wacky ideas or because of him succumbing to his phobias - the best episodes deal with Sheldon having a cold and terrorizing everyone around him into helping him.
Whom you may recognize: The five main actors were previously unknown to me, but there are many guest appearances in the show including Eliza Dushku, Judy Greer, Keith Carradine,Will Wheaton and some surprise appearance from "Star Trek" ensemble. Jim Parsons, who plays Sheldon delivers absolutely brilliant performance which is worth all the awards he got. The other actors, especially Simon Helberg and Kunal Nayyar are fantastic too and really overdue for major awards.
Who's behind it? Chuck Lorre, the creator of "Two and a Half Men".
Who will like it? Fans of great sitcoms who aren't too annoyed with laugh track. The show is really funny and even though it's in its 5 season now it continues to amuse with every single episode.
When and where? Thursdays, CBS