The Big Bang Theory Lasted 12 Seasons, But Stuart Couldn't Fix the Show's Biggest Problem

Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady are dusting off the Big Bang playbook again. Their new spinoff, 'Stuart Fails to Save the Universe,' is the franchise ’s third offshoot and the first one set in the present day, not the past. It ’s a follow-up to The Big Bang Theory that brings back a few familiar faces you probably didn’t expect to headline anything: Stuart, Denise, Bert, and Barry Kripke. That’s a fun, unexpected swing — and it also inherits a very specific problem the original series never solved across its 12-year run.

So what is this show, exactly?

Unlike 'Young Sheldon' and 'Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage' (both prequels), 'Stuart Fails to Save the Universe' picks up in the modern era after the events of The Big Bang Theory. Sheldon, Leonard, Howard, Raj, and the rest of the Pasadena crew aren’t the focus here, but the setup clearly keeps the door open for cameos. The core cast this time is Stuart and Denise from the comic book shop side of things, plus Bert and Barry Kripke from the Caltech orbit. There’s also a multiverse angle, which gives the series license to bend canon and peek into alternate realities — the fun kind of nerdy swing if they stick the landing.

The built-in problem it has to solve

The Big Bang Theory never actually connected these four characters in any meaningful way. They lived in separate corners of that show and mostly intersected through Sheldon and his friends. That’s fine when you have the whole Pasadena group acting as the glue; it’s a headache when you don’t.

• Stuart Bloom and Denise: the comic shop crew, anchored in the geek-culture, hangout side of the series.
• Barry Kripke and Bert Kibbler: the Caltech crew, tied to the work/lab side of the series.

Without Sheldon, Leonard, Howard, and Raj in the middle, it’s tough to picture all four in the same room, let alone teaming up for a multiverse adventure. That’s the storytelling gap this spinoff has to bridge right out of the gate.

How the show can patch it (and still be funny)

The multiverse setup gives the writers wiggle room, but since the story starts in the original timeline, the show needs a clean, believable way to assemble this quartet. There is a handy deep-cut from TBBT to use: that one time Sheldon tried to prove he could make new friends and invited both Barry and Stuart to hang out. That little crossover thread is enough for Stuart to plausibly reach out to Kripke when strange stuff kicks off. From there, pulling Bert in is easy — he and Kripke both work at Caltech, so a lab run-in or campus mishap can fold him into the mission fast.

Yes, that’s a bit of a goofy chain of events, but this is a comedy; a well-executed silly setup can be a feature, not a bug. The trick is committing to it and making the character dynamics feel earned, not just tossed together because the plot needs bodies.

When and where to watch

'Stuart Fails to Save the Universe' starts streaming on HBO Max this July. If the show nails the team-up and uses the multiverse for character, not just chaos, this could be a surprisingly fun follow-up — and maybe even the excuse to sneak a few Pasadena legends back on screen.