Normalization of TV Characters

SPOILER ALERT:  This post contains plot points about The Big Bang Theory seasons 1 through 10.

There's a TV show called 'The Big Bang Theory' which I used to love, primarily focused on the story of two guys who could only be described as socially awkward.  One was named Sheldon and the other was named Leonard.  From the start they were portrayed as social outcasts because of their high intelligence - Sheldon more so than Leonard as he himself would profess.  Leonard was straight, that much was made obvious from the start as a love interest was introduced for him, whereas Sheldon was somewhat ambiguous at first, portrayed more so as asexual, someone with no experience of or interest in sexual attraction.  The premise of the show centred around the difficulties their professions caused them in terms of their social lives.  Sheldon was a Theoretical Physicist and Leonard was an Experimental Physicist.  Their circle of friends was very small and consisted of Howard and Raj, an Aerospace Engineer and an Astrophysicist respectively who were also social outcasts.

The show is now in its 10th season and during that time the characters have grown quite a bit.  One thing I have a problem with however is the idealisation of the characters' lives.  Each of the original four characters, and the periphery characters associated with them, have been "normalised" through the course of the 10 seasons.  Howard who was arguably the most repugnant of the four when it came to love interests, borderline perverted at times, was married off and is now expecting a child.  Raj who was physically incapable of speaking to women because of his social anxiety was also turned into a character that not only has no problem speaking to women anymore, they often want him to shut up now.  Raj is perhaps the most offensive transformation in the show to me as it completely undermines the struggle people have with social anxiety, his character experienced heartache that miraculously cured his anxiety and made him no only able to speak to women but actively lead conversations and speak with a confidence that betrays the notion he ever struggled in the first place.

Leonard was also married off to his love interest - Penny, someone who the show actually points out explicitly in one episode set at a convention how incredulous the storyline between them became.  As for Sheldon, the character who struggled the most with social interaction, unable to comprehend many human emotions and someone who arguably is depicted with many symptoms of Asperger's Syndrome throughout the early seasons - although the show's creators have explicitly stated he is not on the Autism Spectrum.  Nevertheless the depiction of the apparent ease the character has in overcoming his difficulties is rather unrealistic.

I do realise that the show is meant to be a sitcom, and I do realise many people will argue it's not meant to be realistic, but I would argue the word "sitcom" is a portmanteau of "situational comedy" and the show through its 10 seasons thus far has now basically abandoned the entire situation the comedy was derived from.  Through the course of 10 seasons the characters have been normalised to the point where they are now four "normal" people as defined by the mainstream media's narrow definition of what it is to be normal.  The show has reached a point where, for the most part, it's not funny anymore.  The show was never meant to be about laughing at the characters, but laughing at the situation they found themselves in and depicting that.  What it has become is a homogenised television series that at times becomes indistinguishable from the gargantuan mountain of crap the these networks purvey.