Forgiving Kaley Cuoco

#TalkNerdytoMeLover’s Adam Reisinger 

OK, so long-time readers of this site may remember last month, when our fearless leader mentioned that Kaley Cuoco, one of the stars of “The Big Bang Theory”, had not only heard of this site, but requested T-shirts. In that post, among the many related tweets, was this one from me:

Which, of course, begs the question: “Adam, why do you have a ‘Kaley Cuoco ban’?” It’s a legitimate question. Let’s flash back to the year 2000. The world was reveling in post-Y2K joy, the Mets were en route to their most recent World Series appearance and that summer, I discovered the joy that was “Charmed”. The show at the time starred Shannen Doherty, Holly Marie Combs and Alyssa Milano and I quickly fell in love with it — so much so that in the fall of 2001, a dropped a computer science class because the lab session conflicted with the Thursday night time slot for “Charmed”.

Eventually Rose McGowan replaced Shannen Doherty in the cast, and the show went through some ups and downs, but I continued to love it, all the way through Season 7. Then Season 8 happened.

You see, Season 7 ended with a reasonable, if not entirely satisfying, conclusion, but The WB picked up the show for another season, and rather than continue with the same, admittedly stale, narrative, the show introduced a new character: teenaged witch Billie Jenkins, played by then-20-year-old Kaley Cuoco. She was the show’s “Cousin Oliver“, and made the final season of what was at the time my favorite show nearly unwatchable. 

At the time, I blamed Cuoco for this development, and vowed to never watch anything she was in ever again. I technically broke this for her one episode guest appearance on “Gossip Girl”, but I purposely avoided “The Big Bang Theory” solely because of Cuoco’s presence, even as the number of people who recommended the show to me continued to pile up. Even after Cuoco’s T-shirt request from Jen, I vowed to continue to avoid her at all costs.

Then, by some cosmic coincidence, I happened to be off from work the same week as Jen’s original post. The first day of my vacation, I woke up and flipped through the channels to find something to watch, and lo-and-behold, TNT was showing re-runs of “Charmed”. At first, I was thrilled, until I realized it was Season 8. I considered not watching at all, but one day, my channel-changing laziness got to me and I left the episode on. As I watched, I came to the realization that I was blaming Cuoco for something that was totally out of her control. Her portrayal of Billie wasn’t the problem, it was the character itself (and, to be entirely fair, much of the writing of Season 8 in general, even when Billie wasn’t involved). Had she not been cast, someone else would have, and I would have hated that person too. Scarlett Johansson herself could not have saved that part. 

So, in the last week, I finally lifted my ban and started watching “The Big Bang Theory”, and, honestly, it’s not bad. In fact, Cuoco’s pretty funny (and pretty, but that was the case on “Charmed”, even when she was playing an unwatchable character). I’m almost through Season 2 right now, then I’m going to catch up on Season 3. When the fall rolls around, “The Big Bang Theory” will have a spot in my DVR schedule. 

So, I guess, this is my long winded way of saying “Sorry, Kaley. ‘Charmed’ Season 8 wasn’t your fault.”