05-01-2015, 08:57 AM
Before I start tonight's review I need a drink. 
Now then, where to begin. On paper, tonight's episode had so much going for it—Amy was reduced to the cold opener, Beverly and Mary made their return—and yet what we got was...well, I'll describe it and maybe you can tell me what I witnessed.
The theme of the A plot was 'pity me, pity me' or 'Now I Understand Why You Annoy the Hell Out of Me, Leonard'. First Penny takes a shot at him regarding his tepid relationship with his mother and then Sheldon suggests that Leonard is simple-minded. Then Beverly comes and thoroughly dismantles him in their climb up the stairs to the apartment. Then he puts up with Beverly's comments in the apartment. Basically, the writers are reminding us that despite all of the shitty things Leonard does HE is the victim. See how bad his childhood was? That's why it's okay he gave Penny a drill bit diamond ring. The logic is there if I only look hard enough. Only I can't see very well at the microbial level. And it is probably just as toxic as it is infectious.
When Beverly and Sheldon leave for a coffee they might have gotten a break from the whining but we sure didn't. Leonard went on—and on—and on about how horrible his mother was. The only thing which would have livened up the moment would have been if Mary had cold-cocked him in the head with a Bible and told him to shut his yap and quit whining or else she'd put him down like the family dog.
All of this whine meets its counterbalance when Beverly and Sheldon return to the apartment. A woman with forty plus years of psychiatric experience, multiple books and degrees has realized after meeting Mary that she had been rearing her children wrong and that love and affection are a viable option. She then tells Leonard that she wants a different relationship with him—one where she showers him with love and affection—and punctuates this with a hug.
That's when I threw up in my mouth.
When you look at Beverly it becomes obvious what's wrong with the writing. In the stairwell with Leonard we had a vintage quality to their banter—his trying to appease her while she is analytically demolishing him. Compare that to her speech about showering Leonard with love and affection and we've easily got the worst acted and written dialogue of the season. I found the contrast quite startling; It was like the original writer started the episode, had a stroke and then Molaro finished it for him. Like Sheldon, Beverly doesn't 'work' in the 'new BBT' so she had to change and by doing so, is completely ruined—which is no surprise given that the key to her character was the precision dialogue which is now lacking.
I guess to sum it up, what's disturbing about the Beverly debacle is that it shows that the writers can write vintage should they choose to—it's just that for some God-awful reason they choose to write pap. Beverly's ending hugging Leonard is preferable to the devastatingly funny dialogue delivered with precision timing.
This means that the crap we have seen since s5 is completely deliberate. Unless we can get the stroke guy to communicate new scripts with us through the straw in his neck we're stuck with this new 'vision' unless we choose to turn it all off.
Yes, that means those of you who have quit watching BBT are much, much smarter than me.
As for the Mary and Sheldon rapport I was ready to take a gravy boat to Jim with how manic he was. I've never had an episode where I winced whenever he spoke and actually shouted out 'shut up, Jim!' repeatedly at the telly. He was absolutely ANNOYING. All personality was gone. He was soulless, laughing at recycled jokes. For someone who loves Sheldon as much as I do it was absolutely horrifying to see. Truly, he's a reanimated corpse and I have no doubt the special effects department earns their money erasing the puppet strings from Jim's body.
Mary was forced to recycle her nuclear power plant story—which took enough time from the episode that I had the time to look up the original joke in Luminous Fish on Youtube. And yes, it was funnier there.
Then there's the B plot with Howard, Raj, Stuart and Bernadette. Let me take the time to give you the plot in its entirety: the guys cleaned the kitchen. It's really sad to see this because I remember earlier episodes like Panty Pinata where the writers took the time to plan out a B plot that was dynamic and interesting. What we saw tonight was a 'yadda, yadda, yadda—back to the A plot'.
In all, as dev so astutely summarized, tonight we have witnessed A list talent delivering D list performances—although to be fair perhaps their performances are in actuality works of genius as they managed to emulate the very essence of crap used to write the episode.
Now then, where to begin. On paper, tonight's episode had so much going for it—Amy was reduced to the cold opener, Beverly and Mary made their return—and yet what we got was...well, I'll describe it and maybe you can tell me what I witnessed.
The theme of the A plot was 'pity me, pity me' or 'Now I Understand Why You Annoy the Hell Out of Me, Leonard'. First Penny takes a shot at him regarding his tepid relationship with his mother and then Sheldon suggests that Leonard is simple-minded. Then Beverly comes and thoroughly dismantles him in their climb up the stairs to the apartment. Then he puts up with Beverly's comments in the apartment. Basically, the writers are reminding us that despite all of the shitty things Leonard does HE is the victim. See how bad his childhood was? That's why it's okay he gave Penny a drill bit diamond ring. The logic is there if I only look hard enough. Only I can't see very well at the microbial level. And it is probably just as toxic as it is infectious.
When Beverly and Sheldon leave for a coffee they might have gotten a break from the whining but we sure didn't. Leonard went on—and on—and on about how horrible his mother was. The only thing which would have livened up the moment would have been if Mary had cold-cocked him in the head with a Bible and told him to shut his yap and quit whining or else she'd put him down like the family dog.
All of this whine meets its counterbalance when Beverly and Sheldon return to the apartment. A woman with forty plus years of psychiatric experience, multiple books and degrees has realized after meeting Mary that she had been rearing her children wrong and that love and affection are a viable option. She then tells Leonard that she wants a different relationship with him—one where she showers him with love and affection—and punctuates this with a hug.
That's when I threw up in my mouth.
When you look at Beverly it becomes obvious what's wrong with the writing. In the stairwell with Leonard we had a vintage quality to their banter—his trying to appease her while she is analytically demolishing him. Compare that to her speech about showering Leonard with love and affection and we've easily got the worst acted and written dialogue of the season. I found the contrast quite startling; It was like the original writer started the episode, had a stroke and then Molaro finished it for him. Like Sheldon, Beverly doesn't 'work' in the 'new BBT' so she had to change and by doing so, is completely ruined—which is no surprise given that the key to her character was the precision dialogue which is now lacking.
I guess to sum it up, what's disturbing about the Beverly debacle is that it shows that the writers can write vintage should they choose to—it's just that for some God-awful reason they choose to write pap. Beverly's ending hugging Leonard is preferable to the devastatingly funny dialogue delivered with precision timing.
This means that the crap we have seen since s5 is completely deliberate. Unless we can get the stroke guy to communicate new scripts with us through the straw in his neck we're stuck with this new 'vision' unless we choose to turn it all off.
Yes, that means those of you who have quit watching BBT are much, much smarter than me.
As for the Mary and Sheldon rapport I was ready to take a gravy boat to Jim with how manic he was. I've never had an episode where I winced whenever he spoke and actually shouted out 'shut up, Jim!' repeatedly at the telly. He was absolutely ANNOYING. All personality was gone. He was soulless, laughing at recycled jokes. For someone who loves Sheldon as much as I do it was absolutely horrifying to see. Truly, he's a reanimated corpse and I have no doubt the special effects department earns their money erasing the puppet strings from Jim's body.
Mary was forced to recycle her nuclear power plant story—which took enough time from the episode that I had the time to look up the original joke in Luminous Fish on Youtube. And yes, it was funnier there.
Then there's the B plot with Howard, Raj, Stuart and Bernadette. Let me take the time to give you the plot in its entirety: the guys cleaned the kitchen. It's really sad to see this because I remember earlier episodes like Panty Pinata where the writers took the time to plan out a B plot that was dynamic and interesting. What we saw tonight was a 'yadda, yadda, yadda—back to the A plot'.
In all, as dev so astutely summarized, tonight we have witnessed A list talent delivering D list performances—although to be fair perhaps their performances are in actuality works of genius as they managed to emulate the very essence of crap used to write the episode.
Let's go exploring!