The Worst Big Bang Theory Season Fans Wish Never Happened
Which season do you skip on rewatch?
The Big Bang Theory, one of the most rewatched TV shows of all time, ran for 12 successful seasons and ended in 2019 to the dismay of many viewers. It has long become the series that people turn on to fill the silence, and while most of the seasons are beloved by the fandom, there are a few that many skip over when rewatching.
So which season of The Big Bang Theory is the worst, according to viewers?
Any fan discussion will show that people love The Big Bang Theory despite its flaws, but when it comes to the worst season, the majority choose season eight, also known as the season when Penny cut her hair. For one, viewers hated the new haircut — it looked great on Kaley Cuoco, but it didn't work for Penny as a character, making her look cold and bitchy. But of course, the haircut is not the only reason people dislike the eighth season so much.
Fans agree that the season had several plot issues, which all had to do with the writers keeping the Pasadena gang in separate groups.
The characters changed groups, but these groups and their storylines didn't intersect. Each episode had nothing to do with the others, and within those episodes, the groups had nothing to do with each other. This weird way of storytelling led to zero character development, too many filler episodes with nothing happening in them, and a lack of an interesting overarching plot.
It's worth noting that season eight was the one when the main cast received massive pay raises — the stars started to get $1 million per episode in addition to the back-end money. Fans think that this led to budget cuts, which in turn caused the series to drop in quality.
Viewers also point out that, around season eight, the series began to lose its roots. While in the early seasons, The Big Bang Theory was a quaint show about these socially awkward science guys who were also big into nerd culture, the later seasons moved more and more away from the original geekiness — the nerd culture stuff was just used to fill in punch lines, and the hard science jokes were pretty much all gone.
Lastly, season eight was the one in which Mrs. Wolowitz died, and since most fans find this to be one of the most heartbreaking moments in the show, it makes this season even harder to rewatch.
But fortunately, we still have 11 other great seasons of The Big Bang Theory left. How about binge-watching tonight?