In a post-apocalyptic world where chaos reigns and giant moths roam around eating humans, only Stuart, the oddly comic book store owner from “The Big Bang Theory,” can save the world. It’s as ridiculous as it sounds.

“The Big Bang Theory” is often seen as a divisive series, but we cannot deny the impact it had on pop culture. Nerd culture became prevalent after the show’s central theme of four nerds just living their lives, talking comic books, playing video games, and needlessly nitpicking over TV shows. It gave us a memorable cast of actors taking the roles of Leonard, Sheldon, Howard, Raj, and Penny. One of which, Sheldon, would end up having his own spin-off series, “Young Sheldon,” that arguably surpasses its source material in terms of quality. And in true “Inception” style, the spin-off generates its own spin-off series with “Georgie & Mandy's First Marriage,” following the story of two “Young Sheldon” characters, and landing with surprisingly positive reviews. With all this success, it seems showrunners Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady decided the next big spin-off to churn out would be one of the franchise’s most unlikely candidates… Stuart.

In “Stuart Fails to Save the Universe,” we follow Stuart (Kevin Sussman) in a rundown Pasadena, still running his comic book store in the post-apocalyptic world. Another Stuart shows up to him and claims only he can save the universe to put everything back to normal by finding a specific device. Joining him on his mission are fellow minor characters from the show’s original run, geologist Bert (Brian Posehn) and Stuart’s former sweetheart Denise (Lauren Lapkus). As the three work to find the device, they have a run-in with the new overlord of the area, Sheldon’s nemesis Barry Kripke (John Ross Bowie).

So far, only two episodes have been released. From a personal perspective, it feels like an unnecessary addition to the sitcom. Performances from the cast feel mostly deadpan in their delivery. We’ve also seen two core members, Raj (Kunal Nayyar) and Penny (Kaley Cuoco), pop up for cameos, though even their presence doesn’t drum up the level of excitement it’s supposed to. Multiversal gags don’t land and deliver a short chuckle or two at most. The show also has a meta joke about having no budget for its graphics… It shows. From how things are edited, a lot of the monsters and visual effects of the show also look cheaply made, looking stiff or unreal. A lot have also speculated that generative AI was used to make the title sequence, given how some scenes have telltale signs of its use like gibberish text and notable visible errors.

Since it’s just the start, we’re giving it the benefit of the doubt. There are still eight more episodes to go. From the second ep, it seems it’s starting to get into its rhythm. Let’s hope it only goes upward from here.