The Big Bang Theory remains one of the great American mainstream comedies of the 21st Century. The Friends of its generation saw four college nerds geek out about every geeky thing under the sun. So the temptation to revisit its universe is as powerful as a Jedi mind trick. We’ve already had seven seasons of Young Sheldon to explore the early years of genius savant and breakout character Sheldon Cooper – and even that spawned the still-ongoing sequel Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage, about his older brother and sister-in-law.
While that might be enough for some, Big Bang head honchos Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady, along with screenwriter Zak Penn (X2, Ready Player One), have done something quite unique with Stuart Fails To Save The Universe. The spin-off takes secondary characters and makes them the stars of their own show. Stuart (Kevin Sussman) was the comic store owner with a hangdog expression, always down on his luck and living his life on the outskirts of the core gang. Now he gets to be a failure on a cosmic scale.
Episode 1 takes us to the show’s old stomping ground of Pasadena, but as a ghoulish hand emerges from the ground ‘Thriller’ style, it’s not as we know it. Stuart still runs ‘The Comic Center of Pasadena’ but it now boasts a black hole-like dimensional rift on the shop floor, which is quite handy for disposing of things, including dead bodies. Bert (Brian Posehn) – the geologist who studied at Cal-Tech in the original show – wants to trade a Batman comic for tinned food. Oh, and a terrifying-looking giant moth is trying to bump its way into the store.
If that wasn’t enough, Sheldon’s physicist tormentor Barry Kripke (John Ross Bowie) is now the “Evil One”, aka Lord Kripke – who has all the money, food and girls in this apocalyptic alternate universe. Fortunately, there is a solution. Another Stuart – the one from our own dimension – arrives to warn his doppelgänger that Leonard, Sheldon and Howard invented a “quantum entanglement” device which has fractured the universe. It’s up to ‘apocalypse’ Stuart to save us all.
With Denise (Lauren Lapkus) – the comic store’s assistant manager in Big Bang – also present, Stuart is (briefly) remodelled as an action hero, chucking explosives to the strains of Beastie Boys’ ‘Sabotage’. It’s an ingenious twist on the long-running sci-fi comedy, as Stuart and co. are soon teleporting through wormholes into different universes, where everything from magic to The Matrix gets a shout-out. Even the titles – which implore you not to skip and drop amusing spoilers each week – feel like a refreshing reboot.
As for guest spots, this show has them alright – although it would be unfair to spoil the who and the where. Suffice it to say, actors familiar to Big Bang fans make appearances – though not always as the characters you remember them as. With more riffs on sci-fi, fantasy and horror than the bookshelves of Forbidden Planet, this show is something that Leonard, Sheldon and co. would’ve dreamt up themselves. Like Stuart says, quite pithily: “Shit just got weird.”
‘Stuart Fails To Save The Universe’ premieres July 23 on HBO Max, with new episodes released weekly
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