Save this article to read it later.
Find this story in your accountsSaved for Latersection.
The Big Bang Theoryhas ended after 12 seasons.
Conversations, both within the show and about the show, are not noisy or urgent.
They were not standard fodder TV heroes.
The protagonists were the sorts of guys that the friends fromFriendswouldve mocked.
The references and cultural benchmarks that made it different are now the things we all share.
OnBig Bang Theory, sex is described as being as good as a newStar Warsmovie.
They form the references and benchmarks for how these characters move through life.
The president is notposting memes about his administrationwithBig Bang Theoryfonts.
Theres no glut of pieces on the popularity of Sheldon as a baby name.
The fictional conversations withinThe Big Bang Theoryhave never driven large conversations outside the show.
Whatever the reasons may be, the flow of cultural information throughBig Banghas always run mostly one way.
To use the kind of astronomical metaphor Raj Koothrappali might appreciate, the show behaves like a black hole.
It sucks in pop culture, but the show has never reflected back any of the light its absorbed.
The finale ofThe Big Bang Theorydoesnt feel like that at all.
If anything,Big Bangs finale is a meditation on the shows own refusal to change.
And anyhow, the kids on this show rarely appear on camera.
Penny riding upstairs in the elevator got a bigger audience whoop than her pregnancy.
Things have happened over 12 years onThe Big Bang Theory, but not much has changed.
Its impossible to be a meaningful barometer if the dial only ever reads one thing.
