Review: 'The Big Bang Theory' - 09/19/2016

"The Big Bang Theory" kicks off its tenth season this week and that's a big milestone for any television comedy. The longest any modern day non-animated television comedy has lasted is 11 seasons ("Cheers," "The Jeffersons," "Married With Children," "Frasier," "M*A*S*H*" and "Happy Days") and there's a good argument to be made that several of those shows went on a bit too long.

It's tough to keep a comedy fresh after a decade on the air. You have the advantage of an audience that knows your characters and their respective backstories. And that familiarity is also the biggest creative challenge. How do you introduce new storylines to a veteran show, while still keeping it all in the context of the ongoing characters?

Given all of this, it's probably no surprise that the season premiere of "The Big Bang Theory" is one of the funniest episodes of the show in the past several years. But it achieves that by relying on some new characters mixed in with a couple of familiar ensemble characters. On the face of it, the episode "The Conjugal Conjecture" centers around Penny and Leonard's decision to get married again so they can have a ceremony which includes their respective families. And while that ceremony does take place, it only ends up being a minor reason to watch the episode.

Penny and Leonard's plans for the wedding quickly begin to spin out of control when Leonard's father Alfred (Judd Hirsch) and Sheldon's mother Mary (Laurie Metcalf) inexplicably hit it off. Everyone is convinced that the two of them had some sort of one-nighter and while that's funny enough, the real joy is watching two under-appreciated comedic actors at work. As always, Hirsch displays impeccable comedic timing and while Matcalf is always good in this role, it's nice to see her character being given the chance to expand past the normal Bible-thumping mom role that she's typically given. Their brief moments together on-camera are great and it made me wish we could see more of them in later episodes.

The treat for long-time fans of the show is that we finally get to meet Penny's entire family. Katey Sagal plays Penny's anxiety-ridden mother, Susan and Jack McBrayer plays her her drug dealing brother, Randall. Keith Carradine plays her father Wyatt and while his calm makes him the sole pretty normal member of the clan, that's only by comparison. Their arrival at Penny's apartment is both funny and grounded in real life and their conversation is one of my favorite moments in the recent history of "The Big Bang Theory." Sagal in particular is a revelation, as she delivers an understated performance and spot-on delivery that is a reminder of just hot good she is at doing a comedy role.

Despite the uniform hilarity of the season premiere, there are still many creative challenges facing the show this season. With six core cast members, there's been a lot of recent episodes that canter around two equal tracks of the premise: one for the women and one for the men. Figuring out new ways to bring everyone together without just stick them in Leonard and Sheldon's living room is a big challenge. I also hope to see episodes that are more nuanced than "Sheldon doesn't want to live alone" or "Marriage isn't easy." One of the things that has made "The Big Bang Theory" a success for nearly a decade is that it has usually managed to walk the fine line between mass market comedy and witty, smart humor.

The season ten premiere of the show walks the line very well and if this is what we can expect in the future, than I'm ready to see more seasons of the show. If not, then bring on the inevitable spin-off series "All About The Raj."