08-04-2015, 01:41 AM
8.1 The Locomotion Interruption
When my mates took me to see The Phantom Menace on opening night I was excited because they were excited. How it turned out, however, was my spending more than a few moments checking my watch to see if the movie would mercifully end and my friends trying to bolster themselves up with the two-second Darth Maul battle or the overlong pod race. Overall, the experience angered me, not because it's time I'll never get back but because Lucas had stoked the imagination and hopes of his fans only to horribly let them down. That is unforgivable.
At the end of s7 Sheldon had decided it's time for a walkabout to get his head together since his life was spiraling out of control. Leonard and Penny were engaged. Amy wanted to move in. Even his beloved physics had seemingly abandoned him as string theory no longer provided the answers he sought. Sheldon was at a crossroads and crossroads are oftentimes magical places, hence I had some hope that the writers would take this opportunity to address some of the problems that were affecting the overall quality of the writing over the prior two seasons. That even they recognized that the show wasn't as funny as it once was and that they needed to get back to basics on at least one front—Sheldon's personality—since Sheldon is the show's lead and sets the pace for how the humour comes across. He is the canary in the coal mine by which the humour on the show is judged.
Alas it was not to be.
Instead, we began with a pantsless Sheldon wandering through a train station. He'd been robbed in his sleep and was now at the mercy of strangers to help him. This sequence was not funny, rather it showed just how low the writers had to go to make Sheldon look more pathetic than he was in s7. There was a concerted effort to show that Sheldon without his friends (and girlfriend) could only cope so long before his incompetence would lead him into trouble. He's literally lost without them. This is the result of Sheldon's re-write over the past three seasons where Sheldon has been reduced to a stubborn toddler. It seems to be forgotten that Sheldon did have a life in Pasadena prior to meeting Leonard. Sure, it might not have been as dynamic as it became when the boys showed up but at least Sheldon didn't get mugged on his way to Siam Palace or wander the streets without his pants. In other words, he was strange but *competent*.
The (mis)Education of Sheldon Cooper continued with his admission that he didn't want Amy to see his failure. With the way she puts down nearly everything he does/acts/says how could he possibly disappoint her further? He's a toddler in need of correction, who can't even ride a train without needing to be bailed out.
As I watched the episode I kept checking the clock on my computer to see how much longer I had to endure. What didn't help the boring content was the overall pacing of the milk carton missing poster of a plot. The whole reason for the cut-aways and our favorite atoms spinning is so we can cut the crap and get to juicier scenes. That didn't happen. Nothing substantial happened at the police station, most certainly not worth building an entire set for it (and wasn't one of the comments about not having Penny succeed as an actress was that they didn't want to spend the $$$ on sets?).
It just seemed as though the writers didn't have enough plot to create a full episode so they kept cutting back and forth to stretch out what they had to make a full episode. I mean, it was stupid from a writing perspective to have characters in both plots driving around and talking. One should have been somewhere else to create a 'meanwhile, back on the farm' feel as opposed to 'while at another intersection'. There was a whole heck of a lot of travel and yet I felt as though they didn't get anywhere. I know I didn't feel moved.
It seems as though TPTB's revamping of the characters in order to show 'growth' has detrimentally affected the show's structure—something which we've all effectively lamented over what with the disappearance of the guys' hobbies and interests. As I said above, the quick flashes between scenes speed up the story so we can get from one comedic moment to the next, in a way creating a montage of humorous experiences. In the early seasons things were dynamic, in flux, and this motion continued in their use of multiple cameras so that there was 'movement' even as Sheldon and Leonard sat at their desks working on their laptops. Now with the inflated cast, what was simple machine-gun fast banter has slowed as there are establishing group shots followed by two shots or three shots which slow down the scene. For example, the dinner scenes at 4A are positively mind numbingly s-l-o-w and formulaic. The characters even sit as designated couples.
While some people tout the growth of the characters I think that it's obvious that what we're seeing is a degradation. They no longer do anything dynamic. They eat at 4A. They go to restaurants. They do things where they are sitting and can converse. They are at work, but are sitting at desks (remember when Sheldon stood before a whiteboard, a lone warrior against the universe?). Granted they need to communicate in order to create banter for the show but there was so much more they were doing to create the illusion of action around them like the breathers they took in the paintball shack. Or Penny stepping out of her apartment in fancy duds because she's on her way to dance with her friends. As the characters have become bogged down with their relationships so have the show's mechanics.
The framework that made the first three seasons work like a well oiled machine is not suitable for the kind of romance they're trying to impose upon it. This does not mean, however, that romance can't be added to it as there are quite a few fan fictions out there that have successfully amalgamated the two. The problem is that the writers *SUCK* at writing romantic comedy. Just plain ol', balls out, in your face blow goats. And yet they've decided to put all their eggs into one basket and ride the relationships for the foreseeable future.
What we saw in the s7 finale was the last vestige of vintage Sheldon boarding the train. What arrived in episode 8.1 is Sheldon in name only. So in a way I'm right when I say that Sheldon did hop the train and never came back.
He's smarter than I am. I actually stuck around for s8.
8.6 The Expedition Approximation
Nowadays, many showrunners seem to follow a similar formula for sit-coms in that they believe the shows need romance/coupledom in order to be more inclusive for general viewership. Sadly, The Big Bang Theory has fallen into this trap and has revamped the entire construct of the show so as to rewrite the concept of 'four nerdy scientists learning about the world with the help of their world-wise neighbor' to 'six scientists and their world-weary friend embarking on a Live Laugh Love ride towards coupledom and domesticity.'
The problem with this is that it doesn't jive with the initial construct of the humour. Jokes were lovingly crafted and if they took several lines to come to fruition they were afforded that time (Asimov's Test for Being a Robot for example). Now there is little time as there are two more cast members to accommodate as well as the big elephant in the room—the relationships. Yes, the writers thought it wise to expand beyond Leonard's Wile E. Coyote pursuit of Penny and stuck all of the guys in relationships. As stated in my last review, the problem with this is that the writers can't write even one romantic couple much less juggle a handful and combining this with having to revamp the structure of an episode has meant disaster.
Plotlines are now segmented more or less by relationships and in this instance we have the Leonard/Penny plot, the Howard/Bernadette plot and the throwaway Sheldon/Raj plot.
In the case of Leonard/Penny, there is an argument about her wanting to return the money Leonard had forked out to buy her a car. This is then stretched over twenty two minutes—twenty two minutes of Leonard's insecurities and general whininess at the prospect of his fiancée actually finding stability in her life and wanting to be a true partner in the relationship. Unfortunately, their interactions more than affirm how badly they are *not* compatible; Leonard is just too insecure to trust the newly professional Penny. He wants the scales back to where they were when she was dependent on him to bail her out of situations. This is not the message for 'twoo wuv' but the writers had painted themselves into a corner since s1 with the Leonard/Penny dynamic. So what to do?
Cue in Howard/Bernadette and their imploding marriage that everyone else on the show seems to think is okay. Bernadette has become a cruel harpy as she constantly belittles, degrades and condescends Howard. In this instance she has taken her abuse to new depths as she emasculates Howard right in front of Penny and Leonard. The allowance. The chore chart. His Star Trek collector's plates. Things that demonstrate Howard's immaturity (and yes, I did notice that the collector plates got tossed onto the pile of 'juvenile interests'. Boo on that!). But don't think that this is a turning point for the relationship; the writers solve this awkward and serious slight the best way they know how—avoid the consequences and have Howard and Bernadette skip to the makeup sex.
For me, the problem with this cause and effect of humiliation-->sex is that we have the nastiness and the makeup but beyond the lack of a consequence we're also missing the HUMOUR. Was I supposed to find Bernadette's emasculation of Howard funny? If I didn't find it funny (which I didn't) the ending is unsettling as Howard's 'oh boy' reaction to his birthday party is meant to reinforce his 'childish' obsessions and therefore justifies Bernadette's belittling point of view. It justifies her actions, which were horrific given how much she seemed to relish stepping on Howard's self-esteem in front of their friends.
So what do Penny/Leonard take away from all this? 'Yeah, we're screwed up but Howard and Bernadette are worse. As long as we're not them we'll be fine.' Or in other words, the 'Howardette' is going through a devolution in order to give the illusion that the Leonard/Penny relationship has elevated.
The tertiary plot had Sheldon and Raj bonding in a steam tunnel in an attempt to simulate a salt mine. There really wasn't much going on until Sheldon confessed to Raj that he was worried about his career: "When I entered the field of string theory, I was a prodigy. I rose to a position of respect, and I assumed my career would continue on that upward trajectory. Now here I am in my thirties, I'm back at square one. And, frankly, it's frightening." Now *this* is a self-reflection that is missing in s7. Sheldon has undergone so much change and yet it's been glossed over as a 'pass the salt'. This from a guy who couldn't handle a change in restaurants to the point that Leonard had to buy cartons so as to fake that the restaurant was still open even two years after it closed? Oh wait, I forgot, Sheldon's 'grown'. I guess that's why at the very next moment when he sees a rat he bails out and locks Raj in the tunnel. And why when Raj calls him "a completely selfish human being and a...physical and a moral coward" Sheldon sniffs that Raj's comments are "statements of the obvious".
The only thing is that Vintage Sheldon wasn't like that. Yes, he was selfish but he did get pantsed at Kurt's for Leonard and moved out of the apartment so as to protect Penny's secret and gave Raj a job to keep him in the country. He wasn't a physical coward as he risked his life putting the rocket fuel in the elevator and returned with Leonard to confront Kurt. As for a moral coward? I refer you to his admonishing Penny for her Hello Kitty shorts and his willingness to address the wrong he did to Howard with the security clearance. Yes, Sheldon wasn't perfect but, at least to me, he had a lot more depth than he has now.
As much as I've lamented the deaths of my beloved characters from the early seasons I now mourn the wit and humour of episodes past. I miss the inclusiveness of the jokes, the gentleness and the wit. The nastiness is repugnant. More importantly, it isn't funny. And what is a sit-com without humour? We call it season 8, gentle readers...
When my mates took me to see The Phantom Menace on opening night I was excited because they were excited. How it turned out, however, was my spending more than a few moments checking my watch to see if the movie would mercifully end and my friends trying to bolster themselves up with the two-second Darth Maul battle or the overlong pod race. Overall, the experience angered me, not because it's time I'll never get back but because Lucas had stoked the imagination and hopes of his fans only to horribly let them down. That is unforgivable.
At the end of s7 Sheldon had decided it's time for a walkabout to get his head together since his life was spiraling out of control. Leonard and Penny were engaged. Amy wanted to move in. Even his beloved physics had seemingly abandoned him as string theory no longer provided the answers he sought. Sheldon was at a crossroads and crossroads are oftentimes magical places, hence I had some hope that the writers would take this opportunity to address some of the problems that were affecting the overall quality of the writing over the prior two seasons. That even they recognized that the show wasn't as funny as it once was and that they needed to get back to basics on at least one front—Sheldon's personality—since Sheldon is the show's lead and sets the pace for how the humour comes across. He is the canary in the coal mine by which the humour on the show is judged.
Alas it was not to be.
Instead, we began with a pantsless Sheldon wandering through a train station. He'd been robbed in his sleep and was now at the mercy of strangers to help him. This sequence was not funny, rather it showed just how low the writers had to go to make Sheldon look more pathetic than he was in s7. There was a concerted effort to show that Sheldon without his friends (and girlfriend) could only cope so long before his incompetence would lead him into trouble. He's literally lost without them. This is the result of Sheldon's re-write over the past three seasons where Sheldon has been reduced to a stubborn toddler. It seems to be forgotten that Sheldon did have a life in Pasadena prior to meeting Leonard. Sure, it might not have been as dynamic as it became when the boys showed up but at least Sheldon didn't get mugged on his way to Siam Palace or wander the streets without his pants. In other words, he was strange but *competent*.
The (mis)Education of Sheldon Cooper continued with his admission that he didn't want Amy to see his failure. With the way she puts down nearly everything he does/acts/says how could he possibly disappoint her further? He's a toddler in need of correction, who can't even ride a train without needing to be bailed out.
As I watched the episode I kept checking the clock on my computer to see how much longer I had to endure. What didn't help the boring content was the overall pacing of the milk carton missing poster of a plot. The whole reason for the cut-aways and our favorite atoms spinning is so we can cut the crap and get to juicier scenes. That didn't happen. Nothing substantial happened at the police station, most certainly not worth building an entire set for it (and wasn't one of the comments about not having Penny succeed as an actress was that they didn't want to spend the $$$ on sets?).
It just seemed as though the writers didn't have enough plot to create a full episode so they kept cutting back and forth to stretch out what they had to make a full episode. I mean, it was stupid from a writing perspective to have characters in both plots driving around and talking. One should have been somewhere else to create a 'meanwhile, back on the farm' feel as opposed to 'while at another intersection'. There was a whole heck of a lot of travel and yet I felt as though they didn't get anywhere. I know I didn't feel moved.
It seems as though TPTB's revamping of the characters in order to show 'growth' has detrimentally affected the show's structure—something which we've all effectively lamented over what with the disappearance of the guys' hobbies and interests. As I said above, the quick flashes between scenes speed up the story so we can get from one comedic moment to the next, in a way creating a montage of humorous experiences. In the early seasons things were dynamic, in flux, and this motion continued in their use of multiple cameras so that there was 'movement' even as Sheldon and Leonard sat at their desks working on their laptops. Now with the inflated cast, what was simple machine-gun fast banter has slowed as there are establishing group shots followed by two shots or three shots which slow down the scene. For example, the dinner scenes at 4A are positively mind numbingly s-l-o-w and formulaic. The characters even sit as designated couples.
While some people tout the growth of the characters I think that it's obvious that what we're seeing is a degradation. They no longer do anything dynamic. They eat at 4A. They go to restaurants. They do things where they are sitting and can converse. They are at work, but are sitting at desks (remember when Sheldon stood before a whiteboard, a lone warrior against the universe?). Granted they need to communicate in order to create banter for the show but there was so much more they were doing to create the illusion of action around them like the breathers they took in the paintball shack. Or Penny stepping out of her apartment in fancy duds because she's on her way to dance with her friends. As the characters have become bogged down with their relationships so have the show's mechanics.
The framework that made the first three seasons work like a well oiled machine is not suitable for the kind of romance they're trying to impose upon it. This does not mean, however, that romance can't be added to it as there are quite a few fan fictions out there that have successfully amalgamated the two. The problem is that the writers *SUCK* at writing romantic comedy. Just plain ol', balls out, in your face blow goats. And yet they've decided to put all their eggs into one basket and ride the relationships for the foreseeable future.
What we saw in the s7 finale was the last vestige of vintage Sheldon boarding the train. What arrived in episode 8.1 is Sheldon in name only. So in a way I'm right when I say that Sheldon did hop the train and never came back.
He's smarter than I am. I actually stuck around for s8.
8.6 The Expedition Approximation
Nowadays, many showrunners seem to follow a similar formula for sit-coms in that they believe the shows need romance/coupledom in order to be more inclusive for general viewership. Sadly, The Big Bang Theory has fallen into this trap and has revamped the entire construct of the show so as to rewrite the concept of 'four nerdy scientists learning about the world with the help of their world-wise neighbor' to 'six scientists and their world-weary friend embarking on a Live Laugh Love ride towards coupledom and domesticity.'
The problem with this is that it doesn't jive with the initial construct of the humour. Jokes were lovingly crafted and if they took several lines to come to fruition they were afforded that time (Asimov's Test for Being a Robot for example). Now there is little time as there are two more cast members to accommodate as well as the big elephant in the room—the relationships. Yes, the writers thought it wise to expand beyond Leonard's Wile E. Coyote pursuit of Penny and stuck all of the guys in relationships. As stated in my last review, the problem with this is that the writers can't write even one romantic couple much less juggle a handful and combining this with having to revamp the structure of an episode has meant disaster.
Plotlines are now segmented more or less by relationships and in this instance we have the Leonard/Penny plot, the Howard/Bernadette plot and the throwaway Sheldon/Raj plot.
In the case of Leonard/Penny, there is an argument about her wanting to return the money Leonard had forked out to buy her a car. This is then stretched over twenty two minutes—twenty two minutes of Leonard's insecurities and general whininess at the prospect of his fiancée actually finding stability in her life and wanting to be a true partner in the relationship. Unfortunately, their interactions more than affirm how badly they are *not* compatible; Leonard is just too insecure to trust the newly professional Penny. He wants the scales back to where they were when she was dependent on him to bail her out of situations. This is not the message for 'twoo wuv' but the writers had painted themselves into a corner since s1 with the Leonard/Penny dynamic. So what to do?
Cue in Howard/Bernadette and their imploding marriage that everyone else on the show seems to think is okay. Bernadette has become a cruel harpy as she constantly belittles, degrades and condescends Howard. In this instance she has taken her abuse to new depths as she emasculates Howard right in front of Penny and Leonard. The allowance. The chore chart. His Star Trek collector's plates. Things that demonstrate Howard's immaturity (and yes, I did notice that the collector plates got tossed onto the pile of 'juvenile interests'. Boo on that!). But don't think that this is a turning point for the relationship; the writers solve this awkward and serious slight the best way they know how—avoid the consequences and have Howard and Bernadette skip to the makeup sex.
For me, the problem with this cause and effect of humiliation-->sex is that we have the nastiness and the makeup but beyond the lack of a consequence we're also missing the HUMOUR. Was I supposed to find Bernadette's emasculation of Howard funny? If I didn't find it funny (which I didn't) the ending is unsettling as Howard's 'oh boy' reaction to his birthday party is meant to reinforce his 'childish' obsessions and therefore justifies Bernadette's belittling point of view. It justifies her actions, which were horrific given how much she seemed to relish stepping on Howard's self-esteem in front of their friends.
So what do Penny/Leonard take away from all this? 'Yeah, we're screwed up but Howard and Bernadette are worse. As long as we're not them we'll be fine.' Or in other words, the 'Howardette' is going through a devolution in order to give the illusion that the Leonard/Penny relationship has elevated.
The tertiary plot had Sheldon and Raj bonding in a steam tunnel in an attempt to simulate a salt mine. There really wasn't much going on until Sheldon confessed to Raj that he was worried about his career: "When I entered the field of string theory, I was a prodigy. I rose to a position of respect, and I assumed my career would continue on that upward trajectory. Now here I am in my thirties, I'm back at square one. And, frankly, it's frightening." Now *this* is a self-reflection that is missing in s7. Sheldon has undergone so much change and yet it's been glossed over as a 'pass the salt'. This from a guy who couldn't handle a change in restaurants to the point that Leonard had to buy cartons so as to fake that the restaurant was still open even two years after it closed? Oh wait, I forgot, Sheldon's 'grown'. I guess that's why at the very next moment when he sees a rat he bails out and locks Raj in the tunnel. And why when Raj calls him "a completely selfish human being and a...physical and a moral coward" Sheldon sniffs that Raj's comments are "statements of the obvious".
The only thing is that Vintage Sheldon wasn't like that. Yes, he was selfish but he did get pantsed at Kurt's for Leonard and moved out of the apartment so as to protect Penny's secret and gave Raj a job to keep him in the country. He wasn't a physical coward as he risked his life putting the rocket fuel in the elevator and returned with Leonard to confront Kurt. As for a moral coward? I refer you to his admonishing Penny for her Hello Kitty shorts and his willingness to address the wrong he did to Howard with the security clearance. Yes, Sheldon wasn't perfect but, at least to me, he had a lot more depth than he has now.
As much as I've lamented the deaths of my beloved characters from the early seasons I now mourn the wit and humour of episodes past. I miss the inclusiveness of the jokes, the gentleness and the wit. The nastiness is repugnant. More importantly, it isn't funny. And what is a sit-com without humour? We call it season 8, gentle readers...
Let's go exploring!