The Big Bang Theory Season 7 - DVD

Film: The universe's favorite nerds are back! In the seventh season of the hit sitcom The Big Bang Theory, it's really business as usual: After Leonard (Johnny Galecki) has returned from his high-seas mission, he must again face the very everyday flat-sharing madness with his roommate Sheldon (Jim Parsons). His relationship with Penny (Kaley Cuoco-Sweeting) once again goes through numerous ups and downs. But when Penny falls into a crisis due to her acting career not exactly flourishing, the turbulent relationship takes an unexpected turn that could also turn Leonard and Sheldon's previous life together upside down. But Raj's (Kunal Nayyar) life could also see far-reaching changes when he meets the attractive Emily. Or will he screw things up again so that dog lady Cinnamon continues to be the only woman in his life? For Howard (Simon Helberg) and Bernadette (Melissa Rauch), on the other hand, everyday married life has long since set in. Only when Howard gets a tempting offer, the harmony between the two is put to the test. And finally, of course, there is Amy (Mayim Bialik), who continues to hope for a shared, more intimate future with Sheldon and comes much closer to this goal during a romantic train ride. And along the way, she also ensures that the friends will never watch their favorite Raiders of the Lost Ark movie with the same eyes again...

In its darned seventh year, The Big Bang Theory's successful formula is showing slight signs of fatigue. The quality of the first seasons only occasionally flashes through here. And yet, the new episodes once again show in a very amusing way why the series is rightly one of the most successful sitcoms of recent years. The characters are simply wonderfully drawn, whereby after all these years it is also positively noticeable how much the actors have merged with their roles. Combined with the still very well written dialogue and some quite excellent gags, the entertainment value is still far above that of other comedy series, even in this slightly weaker season.

Whether it's celebrating Star Wars Day, Raj trying to lose his fear of horror movies, the purchase of a new dining table driving Sheldon virtually insane, or Sheldon spending a night with James Earl Jones, the voice of Darth Vader - the 24 episodes of the seventh season are again full of amusing ideas that make it clear how much the creators love not only the characters and their stories, but also all the little details from their geek universe. This is evidenced by countless allusions to comic book heroes, Star Wars, Star Trek or Indiana Jones.

Naturally, one could now argue that there are only very minor further developments and the series has strictly speaking been treading water for seven years. Even if this may be true on the surface, the creators always manage very well to vary familiar elements and counter threatening monotony with delightful self-irony. Thus, the series still seems amazingly fresh and works very, very well even after repeated viewings.

The wonderful ensemble, the good scripts with their high gag density and the loving play with numerous nerd clichés make The Big Bang Theory also in the seventh year to the absolute cult. Even a few slightly weaker episodes do little to change that. And since the episodes on the DVD not only in the successful German dubbing, but in the even better original version can be seen, applies to all fans of the series: Absolutely access!

Picture + Sound: Compared to the TV broadcast, there are qualitatively hardly any differences in the picture and sound quality. The picture is also very clean on the DVD, the colors are powerfully mixed and the image sharpness is at a pleasantly high level. The sound is dominated by the very centrally mixed dialogues, whereby the mixture of voices and laughter of the audience sounds somewhat more harmonious on the English soundtrack than on the German dubbing. Overall, however, there is for the audiovisual implementation an absolutely deserved: good!

Extras: The seventh season has to offer again some worth seeing extras on three DVDs. Starting things off on the first disc is a recording of the panel discussion with the series' writers, recorded during Comic Con 2013 (approx. 27:58 min.), moderated by actress Melissa Rauch. Supplementing this is a mini-featurette about Johnny Galecki's surprise appearance at this event (approx. 3:21 min.). There is also a short documentary about the serenade Howard sings for Bernadette in one episode (approx. 6:44 min.). The two composers of the song also have their say, both of whom have guest-starred in the series.

The first featurette on the second DVD deals with another guest star: James Earl Jones, legendary for his voice-over roles in Star Wars (Darth Vader) and The Lion King (Mufasa), delivers a wonderfully self-deprecating performance, which is explored in a bit more detail here (approx. 5:25 min.). A scene in which the girls have a tea party and encounter their mini-issues is also the subject of a featurette (approx. 3:01 min.) on the disc.

Finally, the third disc highlights the series creators' collaboration with the team at Lucasfilm to celebrate Star Wars Day (May 04) in the series (approx. 14:38 min.). Then it's off to a humorous behind-the-scenes visit with series regular director Mark Cendrowski (approx. 15:26 min.). And of course, a few amusing outtakes (approx. 8:30 min.) are not to be missed. Good!

Conclusion: As with many other successful series, the air is also with The Big Bang Theory after seven seasons a little bit out. To the quality of the really excellent first three seasons, the series no longer comes. Nevertheless, the sitcom still works quite wonderfully, which is not only due to the amusing scripts, but also the charming ensemble. Even though there may be some minor hang-ups, the nerds are always fun to watch. The purchase of the DVD box is absolutely recommendable despite felt permanent broadcast on TV because of the worth seeing bonus material and the possibility to choose between the German and the English language version!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp