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The Big Bang Theory

Twelve seasons, two prequels set in nineties Texas, and a spin-off that left the sitcom behind.

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Where to start with The Big Bang Theory

Release order and story order genuinely disagree here, and release order is the better one. Young Sheldon is set eighteen years earlier but was written for people who already knew the man that boy becomes, and watching it first turns its ending into a scene about strangers.

  1. 1
    The Big Bang Theory, series 1 The Big Bang Theory

    Where it all comes from, and the only one of the four that needs nothing before it. Seventeen episodes rather than the usual twenty-odd, because the 2007 writers' strike stopped it halfway.

  2. 2
    Young Sheldon, series 1 Young Sheldon

    A single-camera family show with no laugh track, which is not what anybody expects from this franchise. It is narrated by the adult Sheldon, so the more of him you already know, the more of it lands.

  3. 3
    Georgie & Mandy's First Marriage, series 1 Georgie & Mandy's First Marriage

    Continues directly out of Young Sheldon's ending with the same family, a few years on. Very little use if you have not watched that first, and no use at all as a way in.

Then what? After that, finish The Big Bang Theory — twelve series of it — before Young Sheldon's last episode, which brings the adult Sheldon and Amy on screen and only works if you know them. Stuart Fails to Save the Universe comes last: it is set after everything else, it is science fiction rather than a sitcom, and it is the one part of this you can also skip entirely.

A suggested way in, not an official one. The full list is below — tick anything off in either place.

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