It’s just not my style of television show, but, I have a great many colleagues/old classmates who absolutely love it because they get to see little snippets of their work appear on black boards in the backgrounds of shots. The fact that they really do have actual physicists on staff helping with the writing is certainly a plus, and a rarity for television. I really wanted to like it… but it’s just way too cheesy for me! The characters being goofy extremes of people certainly doesn’t help (although unfortunately, I also know a lot of people in physics who find the characters’ personal lives just as relatable as their research lives :p).

It’s too silly for me, but, I don’t think it does anymore of a disservice to the images of scientists than anything else on TV. The most realistic media portrayals of academics I’ve seen have been in movies/plays like Proof, and that was just so depressingly realistic that it certainly wouldn’t encourage anyone to become a mathematician.