8.03 The First Pitch Insufficiency (Sept 29)

[Nutz]

I suggest we stop referring to Sheldon Cooper as a character currently appearing on TBBT. That character is dead and gone. Jim Parsons is currently appearing as himself, but passing as a heterosexual. Amy Farrah Fowler is his beard.

OUCH! Completely true, but still.... Oh, BTW, here are the ratings from last night

16.38 Million 4.8
It's on its way down

[Toad]

Thanks for scrounging up the test, Nutz! Good grief. Disregarding the facts that Sheldon thinks the social sciences are hokum, the test is not designed for couples to take together, and that a basement captive would score just as highly, it's, er, well I don't know where I was going exactly with that sentence.

Okay, so...8.2. We're TOLD. But what I SEE is Amy sourly grumbling, yet again, about Sheldon <honestly, just frackin' fill in the blank>, the two of them sharing a meal with the sterility and formality of a first date, and Nanny Fowler having to offer up cotton candy and a bobblehead doll (ugh, really?) to get her sanctioned-by-science mate to stick around. Yes, yes, the script calls for them to smile in sync a couple times, but that simply doesn't begin to mop up the exasperation and discontent that pours out everywhere else. So why doesn't any of this 8.2-garnering fabulousness ever make it ONSCREEN I wonder?

A Yoko and Yoko re-set is arguably more palatable than one half determinedly scheming to snare the other's notice and affection, but it honestly wouldn't surprise me if, later on, we see Amy spooning with Rice!Sheldon or frantically licking Sheldon's bedroom etc. These are, after all, canonical facts that the conglomerate (as Idle Miscreant terms it) can resurrect at will if they feel an episode needs spicing with their patented brand of squickiness.

Penny and Leonard seem to be vanishing before my eyes. I can't seem to recall much of anything they do these days, this episode being no exception. Leonard furrows his brow, Penny wrinkles her nose, there's a minute of "are we crazy?" quickly resolved with a "we're gonna make it." Cue the audience "awww." It all has the emotional tug of a greeting card. Meanwhile I expect the two of them will soon be nothing more than a couple of speech bubbles bobbing around. (I have a suspicion that I stole that speech bubble image from one of you lot. If so I apologize that my brain can't cough up anything original.)

Helberg, as always, is brilliant and particularly shines in a too-short bit of physical comedy that calls to mind Art Carney in The Honeymooners. I like to think that Vintage Howard is still in there somewhere. Behind the in-laws, the car payments...Berna-zilla. Ultimately though his storylines are undermined by an obnoxious dependance on the idiot husband/wise wife trope and a sad re-jigging of his bromance with Raj. The snark too often veers into meanspiritedness. "You suck, Wolowitz!" Over and over again. Poor guy, I want him to win.

Painfully unfunny and unbelievable episode. Parsons...eh... Toad gives it 2 Dirty Socks. If not for Helberg I would have given it 3.

[Idle Miscreant]

Aggravatingly brilliant post as usual Toad...(you utter bastard!)

In elaboration of what I said earlier about Parsons acting as Sheldon as opposed to Parsons BEING Sheldon...

I'd have no problem watching Jim Parsons for 22 minutes a week. He's a lovely, charming fellow. The problem is that this is merely his mannerisms, voice and posture, not his opinions and nature, and Parsons' manner (alternately sassy, cynical, abrasive, urbane, amusingly smarmy) doesn't suit the character of Sheldon, particularly when coupled with his increasingly obnoxious dialogue and apparently decreased intelligence.

Sheldon got away with his more outrageous statements by virtue of his innocence, his detachment, his alien-like confusion. Once you remove that, the Sheldon character becomes abhorrent.

If this exact same scene was played with Sheldon prattling on delightedly about how "superior" his relationship was, and seeming GENUINELY baffled at Leonard's failure to agree, it would not be so irksome. But he says it in a smug, complacent, blasé manner, and the tone of his voice (coupled with some recent history of intentional malice) could in no way be construed as "innocently baffled". He comes across as just an unusually self-satisfied, egocentric man being an asshole.

Not a genius. Not an eccentric. Not endearing in any fashion.

It's a combination of this peculiar change in Parsons' portrayal, a decrease in Sheldonian intelligence, and a bizarre shift in focus, away from science and the universe, towards merely having a normal relationship like everybody else, which has utterly destroyed the character.

It's like Chuck Lorre said, what made Sheldon unique and wonderful was his detachment from the normal human obsessions of sex and relationships. He wasn't interested. Here was a character who was focused on something ELSE.

So naturally, if this made him unique and wonderful, they had to change him immediately. Particularly as he'd been an iconic character for four years. Can't have him CONTINUE to be iconic...


So again, I'll happily watch Parsons in anything else. He's a brilliant actor. But this Parsons/Sheldon hybrid is a terrible mistake. I feel like the character should be called Barney or something...or Bruce...

[devilbk]

I think they truly believe that the "softening" of Sheldon implies growth as a character when it actually means that they don't have to work very hard on getting him. And the continuing awards and accolades for Parsons prove to them that the audience by and large can't tell the difference. And while Parsons may be a wonderful chap he has shown no pride of ownership in his creation, allowing Sheldon to become Amy's straight man (pun intended).

[Tuesday Pajamas]

I just watched 8.03 and it was really bad. Sheldon bigging up the Shamy (as if) and really unfunny mass humiliation of Howard. *sigh* The only thing I kind of liked was Leonard and Penny admitting they have nothing in common and are terrified of marrying. At least it was honest. Buy why do it at all? They are still not even sure about one another 7 years in.

The poll is up, please vote...

[devilbk]

I want more dirty socks. Three isn't enough.

[Berliner]

And here I thought it couldn't get any worse. What a stupid episode. The downfall of TBBT has reached its peak, so it seems.

[devilbk]

And here I thought it couldn't get any worse. What a stupid episode. The downfall of TBBT has reached its peak, so it seems.

The word you're looking for, Berliner, is nadir.

[Berliner]

The word you're looking for, Berliner, is nadir.

Well thank you. I knew there was something off ... Didn't know "nadir" before.

[Nutz]

So I guess we are now to believe that Sheldon Cooper who HAD to be the Captain/leader for everything (paintball, Physic Bowls, car trips, etc), now is quite happy to be the "waterboy" for a team? Have any of these writers actually seen an episode of BBT? I'm starting to wonder if Lorre has some sort of mind wipe contraption for when the writers leave after a scripts finished.