The ever expanding BANG.

[Tuesday Pajamas]

Hi everyone,
I can't figure out which thread is better suited to introducing myself, so I decided to land here. First of all, I'm so happy that I have discovered this place! I started watching BBT couple months ago (I blame Delta, because they had three BBT episodes in their in-flight entertainment, and that led to my current predicament; although it wasn't even good episodes, it was S10 episodes, so I should probably share the blame).
Anyway, I had binge-watched the show in several weeks and it was like meeting someone, falling in love, and then watching your loved one develop Alzheimer's. It left me feeling so sad, but even more baffled, because I couldn't understand why the showrunners would do such awful things to their own creation. I went online, because I couldn't believe that the viewers would not object to the things happening in the later seasons, but apparently people love it! It is mind-boggling!
I understand that I may be biased, because I work in academia, and most of the people I know are pretty much like the ones we see in the show (well, in the early seasons, at least), but my biggest issue is with Amy. She is not a valid representation of women in science, nor is she a "female version of Jim Parsons", she is a mean and ugly caricature of either. I understand that money is money, but I honestly don't know how the actress who plays Amy deals with it considering that she apparently has a scientific background herself. It is so infuriating that the producers (I think it was Molaro) do not even understand how offensive it is when they say that while Sheldon and Amy both missed a whole lot of "normal" experiences in life, the difference between them is that he is fine with that, but she is eager to make up for it (I'm paraphrasing because I don't want to look it up, it makes me too angry). Which means they think that while a man can be interested and happy and satisfied with something other than dating, getting married and having babies, a woman can only pretend to be until she has a chance to "get a life", and then she apparently turns into this frightening creature that is Amy?
I remember when I first heard about BBT, it was from one of PhD students in our department who was obsessed with it and kept repeating that everyone who works in academia should watch it. It was about eight years ago; I doubt she would say that about current version of the show. Which is sad, because the idea had so much potential.
But anyway, as I said, I started reading discussion boards, and it turns out, people love Amy, they think she is lovely and beautiful and a sweetheart (that made me think that something is wrong with my TV or with me, because I totally don't see that), and they love "Shamy", which is probably one of the saddest and creepiest pairings in TV history. I turned to fan fiction, and at least that didn't disappoint, because most of the fics seem to be about Sheldon/Penny. But if fanfic writers can see that, why cannot show writers? Why on "Friends" (that ended more than ten years ago), Joey was allowed to stay single until the end of the run, and Ross and Rachel were allowed to have an oops baby and not get married, and that was a show about "regular" people? Why the show about outstanding, exceptional scientist(s) does not allow him to do anything interesting? I can understand lazy writing and poor plotlines every once in a while, like with the can opener (which was completely unbelievable: if someone tampered with my results and let me publish it? I wouldn't still be friends with those people, I might let them live but only if I couldn't figure out where to hide the bodies), I can sort of gloss over it and pretend it didn't happen. But when the writers systematically destroy the characters that were the reason of the show's success in the first place?
As I understand, there will be at least two more seasons of BBT, and despite the fact that the ratings seem to be declining, they are still the highest on TV (right?), so it is unlikely that the writers will try to change anything. I couldn't bring myself to watch two last S10 episodes, and I don't want to watch the next seasons if the show continues to translate the message that people cannot have any aspirations in life besides being married and boring.

(Sorry about the long post and abuse of English language!)

Welcome Shelatte. I love this post, it reminds me of the exact feelings I had discovering BB and the disappointing direction they took.

Can Opener was written by Steve Molaro and it shows a lot of recentful undercurrents towards Sheldon. It was 'pay-back' time an episode where Leonard got Penny and Sheldon got a swift kick in the teeth. He easily let Leonard off the hook for the sabortage and it made me feel like the writer felt Sheldon was inconsequential. Or wanted to make some kind of statement about that.

Molaro is now the showrunner so you can understand why we have the state of affairs which we do, Sheldon is still important but they keep him in check. Its almost as if he took revenge out on a charcater that was bigger and better than the show itself. Which Sheldon really was at the time, he was epic once. By S3 we were seeing him in Mickey Mouse ears and Penny playing 'Mom'. It was gross and felt deliberate. Sorry to any Shennys who like that scene where Penny is supposed to have taken Sheldon to Disneyland but I hated it. Disneyland FFS!