Melissa Rauch

Bernadette’s high voice is the first thing we notice in The Big Bang Theory (2007); then comes the sharp tongue. Rauch uses the contrast well, giving a small figure enough force to hold her own in an ensemble. We laughed at the bite she gets into that voice, because the delivery makes Bernadette’s feistiness more surprising. It is a precise comic performance in a programme that can be considerably less precise about its jokes.

Rauch joined the series in 2009, moving from a recurring part to the regular cast and staying through its twelfth season. Her pairing with Simon Helberg puts that sharpness inside a sitcom marriage, where her timing is a reliable asset. Our reservation is with the repeated jokes about social awkwardness, which can wear down the performers’ good work. She is a reason to keep watching, but the material does not always repay her care.

With The Bronze (2016), she co-wrote, produced and took the lead, a substantial change from her place in a television ensemble. Her work with writing partner Winston Rauch gives her a say in the material as well as its delivery. That makes the crude, repetitive comedy more disappointing. The film asks abrasiveness to sustain a leading character, and too often another insult has to do the work of making that character interesting.

The Laundromat (2019) places her Melanie in Steven Soderbergh’s ensemble, but it is no reason to seek her out. We found the film’s villain-hosted revue too easily distracted from its widow, the person who gave us a reason to care. For Rauch, the more revealing work remains in television.

Night Court (2023), with Rauch playing Abby Stone opposite John Larroquette and also executive producing, gives her a leading sitcom role. The revival’s reliance on familiar formula makes it a limited advance, despite the greater responsibility. For the clearest evidence of her comic skill, start with Bernadette and accept that the jokes will sometimes be blunter than the delivery.