Written by Pirata Hermosa
Season three of the highly popular show featuring four nerds and one beautiful girl next door has been released on DVD and Blu-ray. This season picks up a few months after season two’s finale with the four men returning from a three-month expedition to the North Pole, their normally clean cut looks being overridden by their now mountain-man attire and unruly facial hair.While the first two seasons introduced you to Sheldon Cooper (Jim Parsons), Leonard Hofstadter (Johnny Galecki), and Penny (Kaley Cuoco) and their unique interactions, season three goes much further than just the immediate characterization and begins to fill in the reason behind their personalities by introducing the outside influences that make them who they are.
We are finally introduced to Sheldon’s mother, Mary (Laurie Metcalf), a devout Christian who is the antithesis of her son. Comparatively, Leonard’s overly analytical mother, Beverly (Christine Baranski) is also the opposite of her son. In a strange twist of fate, the two friends have the mother that the other one really needed.Not only does the audience meet new family members, but they also get to meet Sheldon’s arch nemesis, Wil Wheaton. Yes, it is the same Wil Wheaton from Star Trek: The Next Generation. Not only is he playing himself, but he’s playing an evil version of himself. He shows up during two episodes, one in a card tournament with Sheldon and another in a bowling tournament. And both times he sinks to new lows by lying and tricking his way to victory, even at the cost of breaking up Penny and Leonard’s relationship.
Even though the guest stars are incredibly amazing in the show and fit in perfectly with the cast, they aren’t the only thing that makes the season work. There are also many wonderful storylines like how Sheldon and Leonard first met, Penny hurting herself in the shower and having only Sheldon to call for help, why the elevator doesn’t work, what happens when the gang comes across a Lord of the Rings replica of the One Ring, and can a computer find the perfect woman for Sheldon.There are only three extra features on the two Blu-ray discs, and they aren’t particularly interesting. “Take-out with the Cast” is the best feature as the group sits around the set eating Chinese food and answering question from their fortune cookies. “Set Tour with Simon and Kunal” is self-explantory. The "Gag Reel” is a very typical one where they flub their lines or giggle for no apparent reason.
The Blu-ray is formatted in 1080p High Definition at an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, and the audio is available in Dolby Digital 5.1. The sharpness of the picture is impressive, particularly when Howard shows up wearing his extremely absurd and colorful outfits. As with most sitcoms, the audio tracks aren’t used to their fullest, but more than once it sounded like Sheldon was knocking on my front door looking for Penny.Every season of this show just keeps getting better and better. The cast is superb and every week there seems to be a new surprise. If you’re expecting to get anything more than just the season episodes you’ll be disappointed, but the show is good enough that it doesn’t matter that there are no decent additional features.
