SPOILER ALERT: This story contains spoilers from the series premiere of “Stuart Fails to Save the Universe,” now streaming on HBO Max.
HBO Max’s “Stuart Fails to Save the Universe” opens in a post-apocalyptic Pasadena, an alternative world where zombie hands poke out of the ground, giant moths terrorize, random tears in reality serve as vacuum portals to unknown parts of the galaxy and survivors barter with their last remaining canned goods.
About the only thing still operating is the comic book shop run by Stuart Bloom (played by Kevin Sussman), where the gang on “The Big Bang Theory” would sometimes hang out. But even that store is no longer normal, as geeky fights among patrons quickly turn deadly. It’s not a great place, so when another Stuart from a different dimension arrives, so begins our main character’s quest to save the universe.
According to Alt Stuart, it was “The Big Bang Theory” characters Leonard, Sheldon and Howard who built a quantum interference device that caused reality to be altered. Regular Stuart and Bert (Brian Posehn) embark on a quest to find the device at Cal Tech — and along the way, reconnect with Denise (Lauren Lapkus) and discover that Kripke (John Ross Bowie) has turned into an evil gang leader controlling much of the San Gabriel Valley. They also find Raj (Kunal Nayyar), who’s been imprisoned by Kripke for quite some time and is looking to help them fix the device.
