Nerd does not have to get revenge anymore - ”The Big Bang Theory” leaves a world that is gone.

The year 2019 has already been called the year of great endings by many. ”Avengers: Endgame” finished three stages of MCU development, ”Game of Thrones” ended with the eighth season and at the end of the year we will see the finale of the new ”Star Wars” saga. However, soon to these great geek endings will be joined by another - perhaps the most interesting showing the changes that have taken place in contemporary popular culture. Well, soon after 12 seasons the ”Big Bang Theory” will end.

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I never watched the show reguraly. Nevertheless, it does not mean that I am completely uninterested in what is happening in the lives of the heroes and how the more or less significant threads develop. I still think that this is a series that has a lot on the conscience when it comes to showing male-female relationships - especially in confirming a certain stereotype of men as eternal boys and women as those spoiling the fun of individuals who try to spoil this fun. I have always had a problem with the fact that the partners of our heroes (and the heroes themselves) are concerned with the lack of interest in the passions of the other half. I do not think about the work or hobby of your other half should know everything but somehow I always shudder at the thought that you can not be interested.

That said, today I would like to bend over a completely different aspect of the existence of this series, which pretty well illustrates what has changed over the last decade with a piece in pop culture. The first season of ”The Big Bang Theory” came on the air in American television in 2007. It was a completely different time in pop culture. In 2005, ”Doctor Who” returned but BBC did not decide on its larger global distribution. The last series from the ”Star Trek” series ended the broadcast two years earlier. It was not until a few months before ”Iron Man” hit the movie theaters, only in two years will be the information that Disney will buy Marvel, no one talked about new ”Star Wars” at that time, and it was still four years to the premiere of the first season of ”Game of Thrones”. ”The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” ruled on screens just four years earlier, and ”Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” came into the cinemas. A year earlier, the ”X-Men: The last Bastion” seemed to argue that creating movies based on comics does not make much sense, and the failed "Superman Returns” questioned whether it is certainly worth investing in super heroic cinema. The Comic-Con was still mainly talked about comics and the most important of the film previews were the third edition of Spider-Man by Sam Rami. Only two years later, the whole world went to theaters to watch the ”Avatar”.

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In the world of technology, things were also a bit different. Elon Musk just became an entrepreneur of the year and he looked polite. Steve Jobs was still alive, although his monument was not even harder than his bronze one. Facebook already worked but again - hardly anyone knew exactly how Mark Zuckerberg looks like - perhaps because the ”Social Network” premiered in the three years. Instagram was to be created in three years, and Youtube was only two years old and it was not necessarily the place where one of the first steps on the Internet was going. Cell phones had buttons. Well, another world.

I recall these facts not without reason - when "The Big Bang Theory" appeared on TV, popular culture and also the significance of the geek culture within it was completely different. The series, conceived as a story told from the perspective of nerds and geeks, could have a chance to discover the world they probably did not know. The world of comic books, series and fantasy or sf books was still largely a closed fan culture. Similarly to the awareness that in the future success will largely depend on the efficiency with which we use social media, new technologies or simply orientate ourselves in the digital world - whether as users or as people involved in its construction. The future did not seem so explicitly associated with what for years was considered the domain of nerds sitting on the floor of the library and reading comic books.

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"The Big Bang Theory" was initially written as a kind of revenge for the excluded - nerds and geeks who - as it may seem - will always function on the margins of the cultural and social world of the American imagination, has lost the reason years ago. Over the twelve years, the prospect of the series has become largely old-fashioned and unlike reality. What a dozen or so years ago was an element of closed culture today is the very core of popular culture. In "Parks and Recration" a scene appears where one of the characters, Ben - accountant and admirer of fantasy (mostly ”Game of Thrones”) is excited by the next episodes of history from Westeros. When colleagues begin to laugh at him, Ben states that their behaviour does not make sense - geek culture has become mainstream culture. Unfortunately, "The Big Bang Theory" did not notice this change, or maybe it did not notice that it somehow contributed to it. The drama of the series may be proof of its success, because the creators still look at their characters with indulgence as if they were watching the life of a group of harmless freaks who do not fit into the American dream.

Meanwhile, the heroes of "The Big Bang Theory" over the years evolved in a form that today is no less a picture of success than this well-known example of an American football player from high school. Their interests fall in what is fashionable and widely accepted. Today, the next episodes of the ”Game of Thrones”, ”Star Trek” or ”Doctor Who” are discussed at work similarly to the once popular sitcoms. Films based on comics are now watched even by people who have never read comics and their premieres are undisputed film events. With the ending of the ”Game of Thrones”, you can expect the premiere of the next fantastic productions that will probably attract a wide audience. The successes of the screened novels with the elements of SF or fantasy have meant that today we have several new products from these genres on our bookshop shelves. Geek's gadgets and clothes can now easily be bought at popular stores and the logo of heroes like Batman and Superman is as popular as the Coca-Cola logo.

Over these several years, the model of a desirable and perfect career has also changed. Of course - being an academic work is never the most lucrative profession, but it seems that, first of all, the generation of parallel characters of the series cries with delight hearing that someone has a full-time position, and secondly - the approach to education, is constantly changing. Although, of course, the anti-scientific mood is on the rise, today the scientist - especially collaborating with business - appears to be more socially interesting than a young stock trader. Interest in traditional careers seems to be experiencing a certain crisis of trust. In particular, careers in the banking sector have ceased to sound so attractive after the crisis. Besides, let's not hide - a series trying to convince us that anyone who is participating in space programs today is a lifeless loser, does not necessarily sense how (again) space research warms up emotions today - the greater if we take into account joining the rivalry of other countries. Today, being a nerd means that you can be much closer to great successes and big money than ever before.

This does not mean that "The Big Bang Theory" did not change during its twelve years - but what's interesting is the recipe for a happy life, which the writers invented for our characters, refers to a very classic scheme. The heroes, to find happiness and a sense of success, should grow out of their childhood attitudes and learn a serious family life - find wives, decide on children, perhaps ultimately put the foundation of a family over scientific ambitions. Certainly they should grow a little out of their children's games, dressing up for super heroes and evenings spent watching series and playing computer games. However, when our heroes grew up, their viewers learned that geek or nerd life can be easily combined with having children, without giving up the console and occasionally putting on a super hero costume on Comic-Con. Adult viewers developed faster than the heroes, perhaps because in the world of their culture there was no contradiction in these two life roles.

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"The Big Bang Theory" is a great proof of how quickly a landscape of popular culture can change over a decade. I am also asked to wonder - what is the geek margin of this culture today? We are not talking about specific titles, but about the phenomena in pop culture that today's devotees can refer to this feeling of exclusion from the mainstream. Or maybe it's gone? Perhaps the development of the Internet has meant that today almost every cultural phenomenon is able to gather a sufficient group of devotees that they can forget about the fact that they are marginal. Perhaps today, this classic nerd has been replaced by a frustrated admirer of conspiracy theories, or a man sitting somewhere in the basement, which we have already written down a sitcom in the 80’s. And maybe - from the point of view of what is needed for life and success in the modern world, we should do a series about three former school footballers who discover that their social skills learned from school are not enough to live in modern times but that geek cosplayer from next door can help them.

"The Big Bang Theory" does not end because its creators have discovered that they are shooting a series that corresponds to the cultural landscape from before the decade. Their decision was a simple financial calculation - the actors in the main roles got bored with their roles, and probably would have to offer them a fortune to decide to stay for the next season, or try to tell a story without their participation. What, paradoxically, it would not be such a bad thing - if we were to wonder what would be the next generation of nerds, brought up in the deep conviction that their culture is dominant. At the moment, the creators concentrate heavily on the prequel for Sheldon's adventures - talking about his young years. Rightly - apart from the fact that Young Sheldon is an interesting and intelligent series, it is also safe.

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Discovering the significance and scope of the geek culture over the twelve years has led to the fact that today "The Big Bang Theory" is a series that everyone will understand - not even very interested in the popular culture.

Of course, you can wonder to what extent TBBT is a victim of himself. After all, when the most popular comedy series in the United States for years talks about geeks, it's hard to expect that nobody will finally consider them as normal and important. Perhaps to some extent TBBT contributed to a certain normalization of the geek culture. Although at the same time - its performance in the series is very debatable and in many cases superficial. But it has been in the best hours of American television for over a dozen years. Perhaps the biggest problem with ”The Big Bang Theory” is that it takes place in a world where The Big Bang Theory is not there. What I said, I still regret that the show never went from the reality of laughing at nerds on laughing with nerds. Perhaps this is what is needed in the new somewhat different times.

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Ps: I have a habit that even if I leave the show much earlier, I always try to watch the last episode. I think it's a good way to convince you if it was worth it to start watching many many years before. Interestingly, I rarely really miss unwatched episodes or seasons. Perhaps the endings always have a bit more in common with the beginning of the series than with what happened in the middle.

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