One major event of the season is Howard (Simon Helberg) and Bernadette’s (Melissa Rauch) approaching wedding. While Bernadette, Penny and Amy Farrah Fowler (Mayim Bialik) are hard at work planning the wedding, Howard makes a major announcement concerning one of his projects. It seems that one of his designs has been picked to go into space and be installed on the International Space Station and they want Howard to be on hand. This event brings up several plot points including the timing of the trip and the wedding and exactly how Bernadette feels about her fiance being strapped to a Russian rocket and sent into space.
Last season had Leonard (Johnny Galecki) dating Raj’s sister, Priya (Aarti Mann), but her move back to India has put a major strain on their relationship. It isn’t long before the online relationship falls apart, but that’s okay, because Leonard will find himself with someone else before the season is up. Meanwhile, Amy pushes Sheldon (Jim Parsons) harder at wanting a full relationship, and while they do take things to the next level, Sheldon’s personal hang-ups keep the pair from getting too close.
There is a noticeably different feel to this season than past ones, and a lot of that has to do with the amount of screen time the female characters get. In the first few seasons, there was Penny and the four guys, but as the show started introducing more regular female characters, the overall feel and dynamic of the show has shifted. In fact, it’s sad to say, but Raj feels more and more like a secondary character rather than one of the gang; a sentiment he all but expresses at one point in the season. While last season started this trend, it is much more clear this time around, and even though there are still a good number of hardcore-geek jokes, they are not nearly as numerous as before. Actually, at this point, the only character really holding on to that old feel is Sheldon who, if anything, has become a more extreme version of himself when compared to older seasons.
The Big Bang Bang Theory: The Complete Fifth Season has a couple of guest stars. Wil Wheaton returns for a couple of episodes and in one of them he brings Brent Spiner (Star Trek: The Next Generation), while Leonard Nimoy lends his voice to a toy of Spock that appears in Sheldon’s dreams. Astronaut Mike Massimino makes two appearances as Howard’s mission commander and Stephen Hawking makes an appearance when Howard gets the privilege of maintaining the famous physicist’s equipment while he is on campus.
The Big Bang Bang Theory: The Complete Fifth Season’s special features include a look at the show’s 100th episode, "The Recombination Hypothesis," which I can’t really talk about much in this review because it focuses on an interesting twist in the season. There is also a series of interviews with the cast about this season, as well as a behind-the-scenes featurette focused on the various departments that go into making The Big Bang Theory. Also, the Blu-ray release of The Big Bang Bang Theory: The Complete Fifth Season not only comes with two discs of the show in high definition, but it also contains the three DVD discs as well.
While I feel like The Big Bang Theory has changed a lot over the years, it is still a good and funny show. The characters have grown some, the dynamics have changed, but it is still worth watching and following.
