Season 3 poster
23 episodes

The Big Bang Theory - Season 3

First aired Sep 21, 2009Season 3

Worlds collide in Season 3! A love affair with Penny has opened a big, wide, wonderful world of romance for Leonard. But Sheldon likes the world just the way it was, thank you. All of which makes for a zany comic triangle with brainy, clueless Sheldon and practical, grounded Penny hilariously vying for the role of hypotenuse.

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Reviews

Community reviews for The Big Bang Theory, shown here with its season details.

C

ComputerBlue

6.0

**What this review might have sounded like had I written it 7 years ago.** The first few seasons are, for the most part, extremely fantastic, focused, funny, fresh, intelligent and even at times, brilliant. Most importantly, it offers something that separates it from the pack...Must see TV! **What this review sounds like now nearing the end of the shows run.** A once great show which slowly starts to diminish around season 4, unfortunately. By the 9th season it seems as though the pen and paper have been handed over to teenage fans of the show...Decent background noise. **To conclude.** This show was once incredible, and something fresh, even at times brilliant. I couldn't wait for each new episode. Now, I watch it when it becomes available on a streaming service, and, on rare occasion you get a great episode, but it's not worth devoting a weekly schedule and sitting through all the fan-fiction episodes and story lines to get to the good stuff. The show can still be enjoyable, without question, though I find it better suited as background noise while doing work instead of must see TV that you're excited to tune in as it airs each week. It's now just another average sitcom which has been dumbed down for the masses quite considerably. At this rate, the show will probably end with Penny having Sheldon's child to fulfill the most commonly seen teenage fan-fiction.

P

Peter McGinn

10.0

I did not start watching this sitcom until the show end3d, but I had the good fortune to watch the episodes of all 12 seasons in order. I don’t agree with another review I saw that said the show had slipped over time. Rather, it is a consistently great show, as all of Chuck Lorre’s efforts seem to be, sort of comedy’s answer to Aaron Sorkin’s dramas. Mind you, I had some minor issues with it. I really got tired of Sheldon’s attitude and antics, but that 2as counterbalanced by the slow and careful ways he also showed character growth. Similarly, all of the characters exhibited realistic growth in their attitudes and behavior. The writing was usually strong, even during the few shows that I would classify as clunkers— plots that didn’t work for me. I am impressed that the show never jumped the shark, but rather stayed true to itself. Some long running shows can’t resist doing it, such as when Happy Days changed the Fonz from a cool dude to a combo superhero/cartoon character who could do almost anything, it seemed. Funny, I have a friend who told me she couldn’t watch it due to the canned laugh track, so I was amused to learn there was no laugh track as the show was filmed in front of a live audience. Imagine that!

Episodes

The Electric Can Opener Fluctuation still

Episode 1

The Electric Can Opener Fluctuation

7.9
Sep 21, 200922 min68 votes

When Sheldon learns the guys tampered with his expedition data he got from the arctic, he leaves to Texas in disgrace. This results in the guys following him, which threatens Leonard's hope for some romantic time with Penny and the guys' friendship with Sheldon.

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Episode 2

The Jiminy Conjecture

7.4
Sep 28, 200921 min59 votes

Leonard and Penny struggle to recover from an awkward first hookup while Sheldon and Howard stake their best comic books on a bet to determine the species of a cricket.

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Episode 3

The Gothowitz Deviation

7.5
Oct 5, 200920 min58 votes

Howard and Raj visit a Goth nightclub to pick up women while Sheldon attempts to build a better Penny using chocolate-based behavior modification.

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Episode 4

The Pirate Solution

7.5
Oct 12, 200921 min61 votes

Raj must find a new job or be sent back to India, but Sheldon has a solution, which leaves Leonard and Penny dealing with Howard as a third wheel.

The Creepy Candy Coating Corollary still

Episode 5

The Creepy Candy Coating Corollary

7.7
Oct 19, 200921 min59 votes

After overhearing that Wil Wheaton is entering a trading-card competition, Sheldon decides to enter it himself. Meanwhile, Penny sets up one of her friends on a date with Wolowitz.

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Episode 6

The Cornhusker Vortex

7.1
Nov 2, 200920 min59 votes

Sheldon becomes Leonard's teacher in order to understand football, while an incident with flying a kite threatens Howard and Raj's friendship.

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Episode 7

The Guitarist Amplification

7.3
Nov 9, 200919 min62 votes

A squabble between Leonard and Penny sees Sheldon playing mediator, though out of his own incovenience from the sitiation rather than altruism.

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Episode 8

The Adhesive Duck Deficiency

8.3
Nov 16, 200921 min69 votes

With Leonard, Howard and Raj away camping in the desert, an injured Penny has only Sheldon to rely on.

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Episode 9

The Vengeance Formulation

7.8
Nov 23, 200919 min63 votes

After he's humiliated on National Public Radio, Sheldon vows to destroy Kripke, while Wolowitz tries not to destroy his new relationship with Bernadette.

The Gorilla Experiment still

Episode 10

The Gorilla Experiment

7.9
Dec 7, 200921 min58 votes

Penny gets help from Sheldon in order to understand what Leonard's work is, while Wolowitz develops a jealousy when Leonard starts hanging out with his new girlfriend.

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Episode 11

The Maternal Congruence

7.6
Dec 14, 200920 min60 votes

A Christmas visit from his mother has Leonard discovering she's kept a lot of news from him that she shares with Sheldon and worrying if she'll approve of his romance with Penny.

The Psychic Vortex still

Episode 12

The Psychic Vortex

7.9
Jan 11, 201019 min58 votes

Leonard is aghast to find out a secret of Penny's: she believes in psychics. Meanwhile, Sheldon tries to assist Koothrappali in picking up a girl at a university mixer.

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Episode 13

The Bozeman Reaction

7.7
Jan 18, 201020 min56 votes

When their apartment is robbed, Leonard and Sheldon turn to their friends to create a state-of-the-art security system.

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Episode 14

The Einstein Approximation

8.0
Feb 1, 201019 min57 votes

Sheldon's search for the answer to a physics problem leads him to work at the Cheesecake Factory with Penny.

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Episode 15

The Large Hadron Collision

7.7
Feb 8, 201021 min54 votes

Leonard can only bring one guest on a trip to see CERN's Large Hadron Collider (the world's largest and highest energy particle accelerator) in Switzerland on Valentine's Day.

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Episode 16

The Excelsior Acquisition

7.8
Mar 1, 201021 min56 votes

Sheldon winds up in traffic court when he gets a ticket because of Penny.

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Episode 17

The Precious Fragmentation

7.9
Mar 8, 201020 min56 votes

When the guys find a ring from "The Lord of the Rings" at a garage sale, it threatens to tear them apart.

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Episode 18

The Pants Alternative

7.9
Mar 22, 201021 min54 votes

Sheldon's friends come to his aid when his fear of public speaking stands between him and a coveted award.

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Episode 19

The Wheaton Recurrence

7.4
Apr 12, 201021 min52 votes

A fight between Leonard and Penny threatens their relationship, while Sheldon battles Wil Wheaton in bowling.

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Episode 20

The Spaghetti Catalyst

7.8
May 3, 201020 min54 votes

When Leonard and Penny aren't speaking, Sheldon goes to extremes to keep them both happy.

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Episode 21

The Plimpton Stimulation

7.4
May 10, 201021 min57 votes

Leonard and Sheldon compete for the attention of a famous female physicist.

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Episode 22

The Staircase Implementation

8.4
May 17, 201020 min60 votes

Leonard tells Penny about how he met Sheldon for the first time...and what happened to the elevator.

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Episode 23

The Lunar Excitation

7.8
May 24, 201020 min55 votes

While Penny worries that dating Leonard has ruined her for normal guys, Wolowitz and Koothrappali search for Sheldon's perfect match online.