I Rewatched TBBT and It's Outdated, Here Are 9 Better Shows About Geeks

Let's face it, The Big Bang Theory is an iconic but dated show. In the year it came out, it did a lot to legitimize geeks and set the stage for the era where everyone loves comics, not just nerds.

But what to watch instead? There are actually quite a few decent shows about geeks and their culture that surpass The Big Bang Theory in every way. Our list is not limited to sitcoms, but if you were a fan of TBBT and were looking for a good replacement, this list will definitely have it.

1. Con Man, 2015-2017

Con Man is a self-parody by the star of the cult series Firefly, Alan Tudyk. Here he plays the star of another cult sci-fi series Spectrum Wray Nerely, for whom this role remained the main one in his career. Nowadays, Wray only travels to sci-fi conventions, participates in autograph sessions, drinks with fans and takes selfies with them.

The series by Tudyk, in which Alan was the producer, writer, co-director and star, is sometimes funny, but more often a bitter confession of an actor who dreamed of fame and success, but never reached the top.

2. The IT Crowd, 2006-2013

The IT Crowd is a story about the technical support department of a fictional company, where stereotypical sociophobes sit in the basement and do not know how to communicate with real people.

The cast includes top British comedians such as Richard Ayoade and Chris O'Dowd, and the humor here is much stranger than on TBBT. Also, the contrast between the main characters and their boss Jen, who knows nothing about computers, is more interesting than the storyline with Penny. A great sitcom that would have been rated much higher had TBBT not come out a year later.

3. The Playlist, 2022

The Playlist is the story of the creation of Spotify, told in six episodes. Unfortunately, the project did not become a hit, even though it was released during the heyday of corporate stories: it dropped a year before the movies Air, Dumb Money and BlackBerry.

It is a far cry from The Big Bang Theory, but if you want a series about smart guys at work, then The Playlist is your choice. An extremely good biopic that would definitely be more famous if the creators were given a bigger budget and added recognizable actors to the cast.

4. Silicon Valley, 2014-2019

A great series from a great author — this time from Mike Judge, the creator of Beavis and Butt-Head and King of the Hill. In it, we follow the story of the Pied Piper team — a small startup with revolutionary technology, which gradually turns into a large company and faces a huge number of problems: from investors and competitors.

On the one hand, Silicon Valley is more serious and realistic than TBBT. Because physicists do not behave like Sheldon, and real IT specialists from Silicon Valley admitted that the series incredibly accurately reflects their life. But on the other hand, Silicon Valley is much funnier than TBBT.

5. Dead Pixels, 2019-2021

Dead Pixels is a British sitcom about gamers who play the fictional online game Kingdom Scrolls. It's funny, and incredibly fast. The plot moves at a reactive pace, and you can't help but binge on the episodes, one after the other.

Dead Pixels is also valuable because of the show's unique take on geek culture. If the characters of TBBT are successful physicists and those of Silicon Valley are professional programmers, here you get nerds in their purest form and without plot justifications. The level of comedy is not very far from The Big Bang Theory in terms of quality, but the setting and everything around it is much more modern.

6. The Orville, 2017-2022

The Orville is a project by Seth MacFarlane, the creator of Family Guy. The author has a very specific humor, and The Orville may be his best work.

What is it? A big Star Trek parody for those who have never seen Star Trek and know it from endless references in The Big Bang Theory. It turns out to be a great deal: even if you can't relate to the geek stuff, The Orville gives you a chance to laugh at it and understand all the connections in the simplest possible way.

7. Halt and Catch Fire, 2014-2017

This project is not a sitcom, but a drama about the development of computer technology in the 1980s and beyond. Halt and Catch Fire is definitely on the list of underrated shows that have always had too small an audience. But this is a project made with great love for IT technologies and those who developed them. This is also your chance to understand how real computer geeks looked and worked, not their exaggerated versions.

The plot revolves around a company called Cardiff Electric, where a former IBM engineer is trying to create a revolutionary portable computer technology before his competitors. Roughly speaking, this is The Social Network, but with a fictional plot.

8. Community, 2009-2015

One of the greatest sitcoms of the generation, and also a project of Dan Harmon, one of the creators of Rick and Morty. The great thing about Community is that it has always brilliantly broken the traditional structure of comedy, putting the characters in situations that would simply be impossible elsewhere.

Where else will you see the Star Wars parody in the football episode, the Mafia storyline about smuggling chicken wings, or the epic adaptations of Dungeons & Dragons battles?

Until now, no project has used pop culture references as wittily as Community. There have been animated episodes, musicals, pseudo-documentaries, and everything else you can think of.

9. Mythbusters, 2003-2018

This is not a fiction series, but it more than deserves to be on this list. Two charismatic hosts test myths, misconceptions, and urban legends — from the story of how Archimedes set ships on fire with mirrors to the idea that you can break glass with your voice.

The hosts use scientific methods in their tests — they reconstruct conditions using authentic materials, take various factors into account, and repeat the experiment several times. The experiments are often very spectacular, with explosions, crashes, and stunts — it's not for nothing that the hosts used to work as special effects designers.

A special treat for geeks are the episodes dedicated to movie bloopers and clichés. Did you know, for example, that you cannot shoot off a door lock?