7.24 The Status Quo Combustion

[Trust No One]

I'm meant to be living on a three-masted frigate moored in the Mediterranean, only leaving to attend book signings. I've let this plan slide somewhat as well. Quite right. We must get back on track! Or boat.

As for the show being about relationships now, I've had some spectacularly idiotic arguments about that...I think we all have. It generally ends with them triumphantly brandishing a ridiculously piss-weak little list of "science moments" from the last season, as though this somehow nullifies the fact that this used to be a show about 5 individuals, and is now a show about 3 couples.
4 couples soon!
And god help you if you're a fan of only ONE hostage...er..member of those couples. I mean if, heaven forfend, you like Penny but don't like Leonard, or like Sheldon, but not his girlfriend. You're utterly screwed if so, because these characters no longer have any independent validity or volition.

In real life nobody expects you to like your friend AND HIS WIFE equally. Or your other friend and her stooge of a boyfriend. You have your pals, whom you care about, and are interested in as individual entities, but suddenly it's as though every time you meet them, their bloody partners turn up as well (usually through some measure of jealously or control) and they both sit there having a domestic argument. Perhaps then they'll make up, and be all lovey-dovey. Which is worse. Point is, it's their private matter, and they shouldn't force it on an audience.

TBBT is now 22 minutes a week of being forced to witness the private matters of your friend and his wife, your pal and her boyfriend, over and over and over....And a few minutes of Bob Newhart in the Degobah swamp doesn't make up for the sense of being smothered in a triumvirate of couples' dirty laundry.

I'll be watching the first episode of Season 8, but if Sheldon returns from his brief respite and moment of freedom, only to have his restraining ropes tightened, or is immediately harpooned and pulled on board the "Deserving Ship Amy" I refuse to witness his subsequent flensing and rendering down to complete banality and broken domestic servitude.

As Monkey says, this is the series Finale for him, and I fear it might be for me also, unless Sheldon is given his high-mindedness and devotion to science back. But that's not going to bloody happen, is it.

So whilst we're retconning finales, I might choose episode 4.19 The Zarnecki Incursion, as the end of TBBT. It has a cracker of an opening line "Why hast thou forsaken me, O deity whose existence I doubt?", the lads charging off to Ride of the Valkyries, Queen Penelope kicking a bully in the nuts for Sheldon and rescuing his battle ostrich, Sheldon with a Bat'leth (briefly) and possibly the oddest line in the whole series "Stale pastry is hollow succour to a man who is bereft of ostrich." Which is just...beautiful...

Cannot see many Shenny's having the patience seeing Sheldon just going back to the same old Sheldon MG. I'm expecting to see something different and not a Sheldon that just goes back to Amy. TPTB have 3 years and they better start thinking up some interesting things for the entire show.

[spuffyfan]

As for the show being about relationships now, I've had some spectacularly idiotic arguments about that...I think we all have. It generally ends with them triumphantly brandishing a ridiculously piss-weak little list of "science moments" from the last season, as though this somehow nullifies the fact that this used to be a show about 5 individuals, and is now a show about 3 couples.
4 couples soon!
And god help you if you're a fan of only ONE hostage...er..member of those couples. I mean if, heaven forfend, you like Penny but don't like Leonard, or like Sheldon, but not his girlfriend. You're utterly screwed if so, because these characters no longer have any independent validity or volition.

In real life nobody expects you to like your friend AND HIS WIFE equally. Or your other friend and her stooge of a boyfriend. You have your pals, whom you care about, and are interested in as individual entities, but suddenly it's as though every time you meet them, their bloody partners turn up as well (usually through some measure of jealously or control) and they both sit there having a domestic argument. Perhaps then they'll make up, and be all lovey-dovey. Which is worse. Point is, it's their private matter, and they shouldn't force it on an audience.

TBBT is now 22 minutes a week of being forced to witness the private matters of your friend and his wife, your pal and her boyfriend, over and over and over....And a few minutes of Bob Newhart in the Degobah swamp doesn't make up for the sense of being smothered in a triumvirate of couples' dirty laundry.

THIS x 1,000,000
You have summed it up so well. This is what I find so aggravating about the show - that they have ruined my two favourite characters just to make room for dysfunctional relationships. I am first and foremost a Penny and Sheldon fan - but fans of the current show seems to brandish all Shennies under the same label re we are just jealous that our couple isn't canon. However, if you look at the fans of the canon couples, they are predominantly Leonard and Amy fans who think that their two fave characters deserve to have the love story they have always wanted. I read a comment from a fan who was trying to argue that the Lenny pairing is a good one. He/She basically said that Leonard now has someone to love and admire him the way his family never did. As you can imagine, I was livid. What about Penny and her needs? What has Leonard really contributed to her life? Oh yeah he gave her a car, but I just see that as the writers trying to undo some of the damage that was done to the Lenny relationship in that episode when he did not support her decision to quit her job. I see the car as an empty gesture that does not make up for the fact that Penny is now a shell of her former self. The fact remains that Penny now drinks to excess, she has lost contact with all her friends other than Bernadette and Amy, and she has no prospects of fulfilling her dreams. And if someone ever dares to come to my face to tell me that this is growth, they will be asking for a serious beating.

Remember when Leonard said that Sheldon had no personality before Amy showed up. I can't help but take it as a personal slight to all those fans who have loved Sheldon since the beginning. That moment stood out for me as an admission that tptb were aware of what they have been doing for the last 4 years. What's more they are not going to do anything about it because they derive sick pleasure from the ruination of both Sheldon and Penny. There is no way to reason with people who think that the sun shines out of Leonard's and Amy's asses. And so, the more I think about it there is no good reason why I should stick with the show anymore. What common ground there was in the beginning disappeared a long time ago.

[Wisp]

Cannot see many Shenny's having the patience seeing Sheldon just going back to the same old Sheldon MG. I'm expecting to see something different and not a Sheldon that just goes back to Amy. TPTB have 3 years and they better start thinking up some interesting things for the entire show.

The problem is that their idea of "interesting" has already played out. Any interviews with cast, writers or producers of the show concerning what will happen in the next season ends in a wry "Well, Sheldon and Amy are going to make an interesting development!" or "Leonard and Penny encounter some surprising bumps in their relationship." YAAAWN!

[queenoftheDales]

The problem is that their idea of "interesting" has already played out. Any interviews with cast, writers or producers of the show concerning what will happen in the next season ends in a wry "Well, Sheldon and Amy are going to make an interesting development!" or "Leonard and Penny encounter some surprising bumps in their relationship." YAAAWN!

yup

[Trust No One]

The problem is that their idea of "interesting" has already played out. Any interviews with cast, writers or producers of the show concerning what will happen in the next season ends in a wry "Well, Sheldon and Amy are going to make an interesting development!" or "Leonard and Penny encounter some surprising bumps in their relationship." YAAAWN!

Scary what TPTB and actors find "interesting" I hope the interesting development Shamy make is they discover they are lousy together. You can bet there will be plenty of bumps with the Lenny.

[FlyingSolo]

yup

I love the GIF! It's absolutely hilarious!

[Tuesday Pajamas]

Well I think I know what Sheldon has been doing since he left Pasadena. Let's hope he's directing his scheme in Steve Morelo's direction for all this supposed GROWTH.




Shame the url leads to a uni site, I should photoshop it so it goes to HQ.