Tuesday TV Touchbase: Stuart Fails To Save The Universe

Big Bang Theory is dead.

Long live Big BangTheory!

Let's take a look at Stuart Fails To Save the Universe. 

Let's start with the theme song composed by Danny Elfman.

The comments on You Tube dismiss the opening as A.I. slop. I think this may be just trolls engaging in "haters gonna hate" or hell, the comments may be A.I. slop.  It does seem to be the go-to insult to to dismiss anything as A.I. slop whether it is or not.

God, I hate having to always be on guard if something is A.I. or not. I can't always tell even though I am a genius as certified by  Cracker Barrel Inc. 

Me, maybe I'm just dumb but I liked the opening and I hope it's not A.I. slop.   

Anway, that's the intro from episode one.  The opening changes with each episode with Elfman providing variations to the arrangement each time.

The naming convention for episode titles is "Spoiler: _____"

For episode one, it's "Spoiler: Gary Dies".

Who's Gary?

He's just this guy who.... don't get too attached because, well, he dies. 

OK, he is in episode two because as Stuart correctly identifies, "You're some kind of running joke in this nightmare."

So what the hell is going on in Stuart Fails To Save the Universe?

OK, here's the deal,sparky! 

Sheldon Cooper, Leonard Hofstadter and Howard Wolowitz have created a quantum entanglement doohickey that has gone wrong and fractured reality.

Comic shop owner Stuart Bloom is tasked with recovering the device and averting a resulting "multiverse Armageddon".  The device sends Stuart skipping across different realities encountering variations of himself and his friends with different worlds operating under strange and distinct rules.   

The core of the series features: 

• Kevin Sussman as Stuart Bloom 
• Lauren Lapkus as Denise No Last Name* 
• Brian Posehn as Bert Kibbler
• John Ross Bowie as Barry Kripke 

*It looks like Denise might be in for a repeat of the gimmick of Penny on Big Bang not having a last name. But the name on the door of her apartment building in episode 2 shows "Denise Jeffries".  But that's just in one of multiple realities so it might not stick and become "some kind of running joke in this nightmare." 

Also making cameos: 

• Kunal Nayyar, Kaley Cuoco, Melissa Rauch, Joshua Malina, Wil Wheaton, Christine Baranski and Riki Lindhome are among the ones we know about.

During some recent interviews, Jim Parsons made a point to say how miserable he was playing Sheldon Cooper on Big Bang Theory and has no intention of being Sheldon ever again.

Doth the man protest too much? 

Nobody's heard from Johnny Galecki.  As for Howard, Simon Helberg's been quiet as well but I can't see Simon saying no to this.

Stuart Fails To Save the Universe is an amalgamation of comedy and sci-fi adventure.  While rooted in some obvious Big Bang Theory nostalgia, this show also far removed from BBT.

For example, instead of appearing as Beverly Hofstadter, Christine Baranski appears as "noted film, TV and theater star Christine Baranski" as the host of a training film at a rehabilitation camp. Will the rehabilitation be painful? as "noted film, TV and theater star Christine Baranski" says, "It will hurt like a motherfucker" and then she laughs.

Oh yeah, they get to cuss on this show.

As Stuart says in the pilot, "Shit's about to get weird."  

What turns Stuart Fails To Save the Universe on it's head from being a mere nostalgia trip is seeing how returning actors from Big Bang are NOT exactly playing the characters we remember.

Episode two is "Spoiler: Zack Is In This One"

Hey BBT fans! It's everyone's favorite Penny's pre-Leonard dumb boyfriend, Zack!

Actually, Zack is not the best example of "the same but different".  Zack's still kind of dumb.

But Kaley Cuoco shows up as Penny but NOT the Penny we knew but a dark haired hard ass leader of a resistance movement against a planetary fascist A.I. regime. 

While Stuart Fails To Save the Universe defies our expectations from Big Bang Theory canon, it also defies our expectations of a sci-fi adventure series. 

Stuart Bloom is still pretty much the weak willed nerd comic shop owner from BBT but he's genre savvy enough to know he needs to step up to this challenge he's been thrust into. Too bad he's not a stronger, smarter person than he is and thus, as it says in the title, Stuart is destined to fail.   

That seems a bit of a pessimistic premise to hang a TV series. I don't know, maybe Bert or Denise will have better luck.

Spoiler: Barry Kripke is NOT to be trusted. 

As befits a series set around a comic book store owner, Stuart Fails To Save the Universe will be part of a series of variant covers from DC Comics.   

Jason Badower

Serg Acuna

Sean Izaakes

By the way, there is an official Stuart Fails To Save the Universe podcast that goes live after each episode drops.  It's hosted by Wil Wheaton and Felicia Day and the podcasts are longer than the episodes they're talking about.

And that is that for this week's Tuesday TV Touchbase.

Coming up on the Touchbase: The Librarians are back as the next chapter resumes with season 2.  

Until next time, remember to be good to one another and try to keep it down in there, would ya? I'm trying to watch TV over here.