After celebrating its 200th episode last month, The Big Bang Theory is still as divisive as ever. Do you love it or hate it? To help you make up your mind, here are some of our top arguments for and against The Big Bang Theory…

Reece Goodall: “A great piece of television”

I can still remember watching the very first episode of The Big Bang Theory and enjoying it greatly. It’s odd to think that we are now 200 episodes in, and it’s still going strong – I love it!

Alongside Parks and Recreation’s Ron Swanson (Nick Offerman), Sheldon Cooper (Jim Parsons) has been the comic creation of this millennium. With his bizarre worldview and unapologetic nature, he has proven the comedic heart of the show.

Mayim Bialik (Amy Farrah Fowler) and Jim Parsons (Sheldon Cooper). Image: iDominick / Flickr

However, with the recent series’ move into more dramatic territory, we have also witnessed masterful character development, to a standard few shows can pull off.

Easy as it is to dwell on Sheldon, it is worth noting the show’s ensemble cast nature. All the lead cast members work together fantastically.

The show’s humour covers such a spectrum too, from science in-jokes to slapstick. I haven’t seen a show manage this successfully since Frasier.

Now, I don’t think that it is perfect by any means – for example, I really dislike the character of Bernadette (Melissa Rauch).

It is also noticeable that, for the most part, the show relies on the lazy humour of implying that its audience and geek culture are losers.

However, The Big Bang Theory has been one of the consistently funniest shows on TV and, when it hits its heights, it is simply brilliant.

It will forever have its haters, but it will also forever be a great piece of television.

Eloise Millard: “Full of offensive stereotypes”

As a 14-year-old, to say I was a fan of The Big Bang Theory would have been an understatement. Boxsets, t-shirts, posters… You name it, I had it. But as I got older, my social awareness heightened. I realised the show is full of offensive stereotypes.

Raj and Howard. Image: NASAblueshift / Flickr

Let’s start with Raj (Kunal Nayyar), the only person of colour in the main cast. When he bakes or shows affection for his dog, or indulges in any typically ‘feminine’ activity, it’s a joke – the other characters or the live audience laugh at his expense. The show unashamedly reinforces gender norms.

As for the women of the show, they are nurse-mothers to the male characters. Penny (Kaley Cuoco) is the ‘dumb blonde’, with innumerable jokes being made about her having multiple sexual partners or not being particularly intelligent. Leonard (Johnny Galecki) essentially pesters her until she finally sleeps with him.  

Not to mention that the show may well be set in a parallel universe where everyone is straight and cis, because any plotlines surrounding LGBT+ issues are painfully absent.

It’s quite clear that Sheldon is coded as autistic – his compulsions, his struggles with intimacy, and need for routine are a huge giveaway. Yet, this too is made into a joke. The writers have the perfect platform to discuss serious issues and they never do it.

A lot has changed since 2007, yet the show seems incapable of making jokes that don’t humiliatingly single people out. 200 episodes later, the whole pointing-and-laughing thing has been exhausted.

For a show in its ninth season in 2016, The Big Bang Theory is probably the least progressive thing on the air.