In a sea of perfunctory prequels and sequels, you have to hand it to a spinoff that actually comes up with a creative angle. Such is the case with “Stuart Fails to Save the Universe,” the third offshoot of “The Big Bang Theory,” which forms a useful contrast with its predecessors. The straightforwardly titled “Young Sheldon,” a single-camera sitcom that ran for seven seasons on CBS before ending in 2024, wound back the clock to trace the childhood of Jim Parsons’ breakout character as a prodigy in Texas; “Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage,” airing its third season this fall, follows Sheldon’s older brother in his time as a broke newlywed.
Compared with such setups, which color within the lines of characters’ existing biographies, “Stuart Fails” takes a far more innovative approach. The HBO Max comedy — the first “Big Bang” spinoff to air on a streamer rather than on broadcast — does follow a figure from the juggernaut hit as he undertakes his own adventures. But Kevin Sussman’s titular comic book store owner doesn’t merely continue to tend to his small business in Pasadena, California. Instead, Stuart hopscotches through alternate dimensions in search of a way to undo a full-blown apocalypse. It’s a far cry from a few nerds trading one-liners in an apartment, and productively so.
