02-28-2015, 10:06 PM
Having had a chance to muse over all of this in my terrifying bird-ridden mountain paradise, pondering the implications of this episode whilst I fell off the ladder, stepped on my painting, fought a wasp, lost, etc, I'm afraid I'm still not feeling particularly enlightened.
But a few things I DO know. Seeing as this sibling business keeps being mentioned...
Eight years in, having them mouth this little cliché never before mentioned, simply doesn't stick. Particularly when the scene is played out in the most UNBROTHERLY fashion imaginable by Jim Suave-Bastard Parsons. If you're going for sibling warmth, try not to sound like an adult phone chat. Maybe drop the whole "bedroom eyes" thing as well, I don't know...
If there are sisters and brothers gazing at each other in that fashion all over America, then I stand corrected. Corrected and slightly disturbed. But they don't, do they. Partially because brothers generally don't engage in love experiments with their sisters, and with the full expectation of said sisters falling in love with them at the end and thence driving them to Garycon.
As a vague comparison...I have a tall, terribly (and irritatingly) handsome and brilliant friend with a tall, terribly beautiful sister, both of whom I've know for years. Over which time I have seen them engage in prank wars, and bitching and also express deep affection towards each other. Not having either a brother or sister myself, I have relied on their interaction for knowledge of the sibling scenario.
NEVER, in this time, have I seen one sneak into the other's room at ungodly hours in scant attire, nor does my friend string his sister's panties up on a wire, peek at her naked, talk repeatedly about her genitals, ask her on a date, fondle her breast, know intimate details about her sex life, spend his spare time with her willingly, or refer frequently to her attractiveness. She, in turn, does not wrestle her brother, pin him down and kiss him, and would rather stab herself in the kneecaps with plastic cutlery than gaze into his eyes for four minutes, and I think would turn green if she had to joke to his girlfriend about "tearing his clothes off and taking him right there on the table". I've never seen her implore him to dance with her whilst she's prancing around half-naked making French Toast either. Quite simply, they have a wild aversion to all such things, because they are siblings. They do not engage in love experiments. They do not sing to each other in bed.
If you've noticed any trend in the things I've mentioned my friend and his sister DON'T do...Yes, well done.
I'm not saying TPTB are planning on going anywhere with Sheldon and Penny. That's been quite clear for years.
But BY GOD IN ALL HIS FURIOUS AND VINDICTIVE HEAVEN - THEY DO NOT BEHAVE LIKE SIBLINGS.
Here's a startling thought - Maybe a man and a woman can actually be FRIENDS? Fucking call the police! Inform the authorities! Hangmen, pitchforks! Etc.
Although, I might add, friends behave in the above mentioned, panty-stringing fashion only if they've got a bit of a "thing" for each other...
But why does this "thing" have to go anywhere? And why also, did someone in CBS feel it had to be "stopped"? If that's indeed that the intention was. But who knows. Personally, it didn't strike me thusly.
The old "I think of you as a brother" is one of the hoariest chestnuts of the romantic comedy. The best friend, never considered romantically viable, who magically becomes a love interest when everyone else fails the protagonist, or a volcano is erupting, or some other malarkey.
"Clueless" is an excellent example. I believe they were ACTUALLY related in that, technically. Blondy big-eyes falls in love with her previously utterly UNTHINKABLE step-brother.
Point is, this concept precedes the big love epiphany so bloody often, that all I hear when one attractive, vivid main protagonist tells another, vivid attractive main protagonist that she "thinks of him like a brother" is the sound of goddamn wedding bells or bedsprings in the end game.
The other setup which precedes a hook-up is the old "mistaken for a married couple" schtick. Sheldon and Penny have also had this happen to them. (And let's not even BEGIN to get into everything that was going on in Season 2 and 3...That Vegas episode has more undercurrents than the gulf stream...)
The writers and producers of Big Bang must be familiar with this trope. They know television (and films presumably) inside and upside down.
ERGO -
a) They're planting the seed for the classic "erupting volcano, discovering true love was already there, right where you least expected" scenario, and Sheldon/Penny has been their subtle, classic and marvellous endgame all along.
b) It's a throwaway line, much like the Mexican Peso stuck up Sheldon's nose. There's no "weight" to it (not the Peso), it's merely a set-up and scenery for the following jokes; Sheldon thinks he's "warm and soothing" (he isn't), and Penny doesn't care for his escalating his comparison from sister to mother. Because that's a bit "much". Especially when engaged in a stare-athon with an ostensible adult.
Incidentally, there's no human I've met with whom I could feasibly get through even 30 seconds of direct eye contact, let alone four minutes. My immediate family I think would be almost impossible. The fact that Sheldon and Penny managed this with such ease, after the initial disconcertion, and indeed even enjoyed themselves, I think says quite a lot in itself.
Anyroad, I've talked myself out on this topic for the meantime, mercifully.
As charming as it was to see Jim act so intimately with Kaley, and how startling and heartening to see a Non-Shamy (i.e., non-cloying, non-infantile) adult version of Sheldon, and how genuinely warm and sincere those last scenes were...I would have infinitely preferred the old innocent alien Sheldon and Junior Rodeo Queen Penelope.
The character we loved isn't around anymore. He lives only in Season 1-4, endlessly weaving ponchos, breeding luminous fish, learning Finnish, battling Wil Wheaton, singing sea-shanties with Penny or knocking eternally on her door...
I think instead of trying to catch glimpses of the fucker amidst the baffling hormonal couple-miasma of these last seasons, we should maybe set our sights permanently on the original creation, brilliantly done by the same brilliant people, but perhaps driven by a different duende. We should look at conservation of old concepts not reanimation of lost ones. After all...
The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,
Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit,
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it.
As far as I'm concerned, as long as the moving finger doesn't start rewriting its early work I'm grand with it buggering off and writing a bacchanalian space opera...
tl;dr - The sibling line is lip-service to a concept whilst simultaneously proving that concept wrong, by the very MANNER in which it's played out. To wit - they don't ACT like brother and sister.
But a few things I DO know. Seeing as this sibling business keeps being mentioned...
Eight years in, having them mouth this little cliché never before mentioned, simply doesn't stick. Particularly when the scene is played out in the most UNBROTHERLY fashion imaginable by Jim Suave-Bastard Parsons. If you're going for sibling warmth, try not to sound like an adult phone chat. Maybe drop the whole "bedroom eyes" thing as well, I don't know...
If there are sisters and brothers gazing at each other in that fashion all over America, then I stand corrected. Corrected and slightly disturbed. But they don't, do they. Partially because brothers generally don't engage in love experiments with their sisters, and with the full expectation of said sisters falling in love with them at the end and thence driving them to Garycon.
As a vague comparison...I have a tall, terribly (and irritatingly) handsome and brilliant friend with a tall, terribly beautiful sister, both of whom I've know for years. Over which time I have seen them engage in prank wars, and bitching and also express deep affection towards each other. Not having either a brother or sister myself, I have relied on their interaction for knowledge of the sibling scenario.
NEVER, in this time, have I seen one sneak into the other's room at ungodly hours in scant attire, nor does my friend string his sister's panties up on a wire, peek at her naked, talk repeatedly about her genitals, ask her on a date, fondle her breast, know intimate details about her sex life, spend his spare time with her willingly, or refer frequently to her attractiveness. She, in turn, does not wrestle her brother, pin him down and kiss him, and would rather stab herself in the kneecaps with plastic cutlery than gaze into his eyes for four minutes, and I think would turn green if she had to joke to his girlfriend about "tearing his clothes off and taking him right there on the table". I've never seen her implore him to dance with her whilst she's prancing around half-naked making French Toast either. Quite simply, they have a wild aversion to all such things, because they are siblings. They do not engage in love experiments. They do not sing to each other in bed.
If you've noticed any trend in the things I've mentioned my friend and his sister DON'T do...Yes, well done.
I'm not saying TPTB are planning on going anywhere with Sheldon and Penny. That's been quite clear for years.
But BY GOD IN ALL HIS FURIOUS AND VINDICTIVE HEAVEN - THEY DO NOT BEHAVE LIKE SIBLINGS.
Here's a startling thought - Maybe a man and a woman can actually be FRIENDS? Fucking call the police! Inform the authorities! Hangmen, pitchforks! Etc.
Although, I might add, friends behave in the above mentioned, panty-stringing fashion only if they've got a bit of a "thing" for each other...
But why does this "thing" have to go anywhere? And why also, did someone in CBS feel it had to be "stopped"? If that's indeed that the intention was. But who knows. Personally, it didn't strike me thusly.
The old "I think of you as a brother" is one of the hoariest chestnuts of the romantic comedy. The best friend, never considered romantically viable, who magically becomes a love interest when everyone else fails the protagonist, or a volcano is erupting, or some other malarkey.
"Clueless" is an excellent example. I believe they were ACTUALLY related in that, technically. Blondy big-eyes falls in love with her previously utterly UNTHINKABLE step-brother.
Point is, this concept precedes the big love epiphany so bloody often, that all I hear when one attractive, vivid main protagonist tells another, vivid attractive main protagonist that she "thinks of him like a brother" is the sound of goddamn wedding bells or bedsprings in the end game.
The other setup which precedes a hook-up is the old "mistaken for a married couple" schtick. Sheldon and Penny have also had this happen to them. (And let's not even BEGIN to get into everything that was going on in Season 2 and 3...That Vegas episode has more undercurrents than the gulf stream...)
The writers and producers of Big Bang must be familiar with this trope. They know television (and films presumably) inside and upside down.
ERGO -
a) They're planting the seed for the classic "erupting volcano, discovering true love was already there, right where you least expected" scenario, and Sheldon/Penny has been their subtle, classic and marvellous endgame all along.
b) It's a throwaway line, much like the Mexican Peso stuck up Sheldon's nose. There's no "weight" to it (not the Peso), it's merely a set-up and scenery for the following jokes; Sheldon thinks he's "warm and soothing" (he isn't), and Penny doesn't care for his escalating his comparison from sister to mother. Because that's a bit "much". Especially when engaged in a stare-athon with an ostensible adult.
Incidentally, there's no human I've met with whom I could feasibly get through even 30 seconds of direct eye contact, let alone four minutes. My immediate family I think would be almost impossible. The fact that Sheldon and Penny managed this with such ease, after the initial disconcertion, and indeed even enjoyed themselves, I think says quite a lot in itself.
Anyroad, I've talked myself out on this topic for the meantime, mercifully.
As charming as it was to see Jim act so intimately with Kaley, and how startling and heartening to see a Non-Shamy (i.e., non-cloying, non-infantile) adult version of Sheldon, and how genuinely warm and sincere those last scenes were...I would have infinitely preferred the old innocent alien Sheldon and Junior Rodeo Queen Penelope.
The character we loved isn't around anymore. He lives only in Season 1-4, endlessly weaving ponchos, breeding luminous fish, learning Finnish, battling Wil Wheaton, singing sea-shanties with Penny or knocking eternally on her door...
I think instead of trying to catch glimpses of the fucker amidst the baffling hormonal couple-miasma of these last seasons, we should maybe set our sights permanently on the original creation, brilliantly done by the same brilliant people, but perhaps driven by a different duende. We should look at conservation of old concepts not reanimation of lost ones. After all...
The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,
Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit,
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it.
As far as I'm concerned, as long as the moving finger doesn't start rewriting its early work I'm grand with it buggering off and writing a bacchanalian space opera...
tl;dr - The sibling line is lip-service to a concept whilst simultaneously proving that concept wrong, by the very MANNER in which it's played out. To wit - they don't ACT like brother and sister.
"WHERE THE HELL'S MY PARACHUTE?"