09-28-2016, 08:02 AM
I give this episode a thumbs down because it's a hodge-podge of previous episodes: Amy wanting to scan Penny's brain in the midst of doing something. Sheldon's struggle to keep silent like he did at Raj's office over the People magazine article. The Sheldon and Penny scene was the same ol' Sheldon states problem, Penny relates with problem, Sheldon can't see relation, they come together and hash out their problems. I think what has me about tonight's Shenny encounter is partially what PJ had said re: how tight the camera cuts were so as to practically eliminate the smiles and other non-verbal chemistry (hope I didn't put words in your mouth!). Tonight's encounter is how the writers see them now--a quick joke in a formulaic sequence and then on to the next scene, whereas before we had camera cuts specifically to capture a Sheldon scowl or a Penny grin. It's not personal now, and I don't like that. Hell, the affection I had for the characters is the reason why I wrote novels about this show. This is what is being sacrificed in the later seasons, the connection, because the writing is atrocious and the style and tone of humour has changed, and now the choppy directorial structure of the episode butchers what scenes they do have. I felt like I was watching Penny and Sheldon reduced to the 'just the facts, ma'am' routine. What makes Sheldon and Penny scenes shine *is* the originality. The chemistry. Given that the writers have taken so much away from Shenny screen time, there's less time to do something different, and it's disappointing that they aren't doing anything different with the limited time they had. To lose the originality sparked by two dynamic personalities is as growly to me as the guys coming to the idea that geekiness is a stage until you get a real girl and 'grow up'.
When the writers add 'new' things in, it's still stuff that can be fished out of a 'Insert When Needed for Filler' bowl like Howard's 'I make less than my wife' and Bernadette being mean(er) and mean(er). And of course, how can I forget the new 'Sheldon says something positively s-t-u-p-i-d.' I mean, not bizarre or self-serving, I mean downright dumb. Like, I cringe as it's coming out of his mouth bad.
The only thing which captured the fun of the guys was when they were playing with the eye recog scanner. Yes, geeking out over cool technology is something they do, but it's something that's being presented differently here. That is my beef--they are repeating too much stuff in order to capture the feel-good love for earlier times in the series when things were original and funny. If they've run out of ideas and have to repeat, at least make the jokes as different as possible. i.e. Lifting up Howard for the ret scanner and other goofy things we know they must have tried. It's one thing to borrow one sequence for an episode and another to construct an entire episode with borrowed scenes. It's retconning IMO and there's so much the canons want to forget and rewrite about earlier seasons that appropriations like these are not appreciated.
I'm in the 'been there, done that' category. Try something different. Or at least, spend some effort in repackaging jokes so that some sort of originality is at play. As it is, I feel like I watched a highlights episode with one excellent sequence. And like how the Shenny kiss couldn't save that episode for me, the guys geeking out at the door doesn't give this one a pass either.
When the writers add 'new' things in, it's still stuff that can be fished out of a 'Insert When Needed for Filler' bowl like Howard's 'I make less than my wife' and Bernadette being mean(er) and mean(er). And of course, how can I forget the new 'Sheldon says something positively s-t-u-p-i-d.' I mean, not bizarre or self-serving, I mean downright dumb. Like, I cringe as it's coming out of his mouth bad.
The only thing which captured the fun of the guys was when they were playing with the eye recog scanner. Yes, geeking out over cool technology is something they do, but it's something that's being presented differently here. That is my beef--they are repeating too much stuff in order to capture the feel-good love for earlier times in the series when things were original and funny. If they've run out of ideas and have to repeat, at least make the jokes as different as possible. i.e. Lifting up Howard for the ret scanner and other goofy things we know they must have tried. It's one thing to borrow one sequence for an episode and another to construct an entire episode with borrowed scenes. It's retconning IMO and there's so much the canons want to forget and rewrite about earlier seasons that appropriations like these are not appreciated.
I'm in the 'been there, done that' category. Try something different. Or at least, spend some effort in repackaging jokes so that some sort of originality is at play. As it is, I feel like I watched a highlights episode with one excellent sequence. And like how the Shenny kiss couldn't save that episode for me, the guys geeking out at the door doesn't give this one a pass either.
Let's go exploring!