Anthropology of the Big Bang
#41
The following is an excerpt from an excellent article I just happened to stumble upon today. It was written in Big Bang's second season, and I think, just perfectly captures the true essence that was Vintage Big Bang (with particular emphasis on Sheldon, and the important Sheldon/Penny dynamic). Goes to show that someone in the media, at one time, got "it": (Link to full article at bottom.)


While by far the most interesting dynamic of the show—Penny and Sheldon—the relationships between the others intrigue as well. Leonard and Penny’s frightened and unaccepted love for each other respectively is the most obvious connection, and, as a result, the least interesting. You can infer that one day they will finally get together, but watching the uncomfortable struggles each week can become redundant and cringe-worthy at times. I enjoy Raj’s inability to speak with women unless inebriated—it causes some good laughs—and Howard’s futile attempts at wooing women with his foreign languages, including the language of love, can cause a chuckle or two as well. In the end, though, it once again falls to Sheldon and how his three friends interact with him. Leonard, Raj, and Howard, while dorks, are not oblivious to the ways of civilized society. They have their idiosyncrasies building walls to separate from the “cool kids”, but they can overcome them. Even these nerds acknowledge the fact that Sheldon is of a different universe, teaming together when they know their friend is on an impossible train of thought. When he is ill, the trio have set protocol on how to avoid him; when he is going stir crazy after losing his job, they call the one person able to snap him back on course … his mother, (a wonderful cameo byLaurie Metcalf, one of two “Roseanne” alums to join Galecki, Sara Gilbert being the other); and when he refuses to join a physics trivia team, they gang up to destroy his ego and try their hardest to instill some sort of human failure in him.

I credit this all to the fact that Parsons’ Sheldon is the most extreme version of the “gifted”/genius this world has to offer. He is so far out there that everyone else must exist in contrast to him. Even those we come across on a daily basis deemed eggheads are “normal” when compared to this boy wonder. I wait with baited breath for the next time Sheldon dresses down an opponent unintentionally because that is where “The Big Bang Theory” truly excels. You may come into the show believing that Galecki’s Leonard is the main character, the star of the show, but I think that after a few viewings, you will discover that Parsons is actually at center stage. Like Metcalf says, “that science stuff … that’s from Jesus.” Sheldon is the epitome of divine intervention, the perfect mix of brain atoms to create a superior mind. The other characters live and die by their insecurities while he is the test subject control they all evolve from. Leonard, Raj, and Howard are slowly moving from Sheldon status to Penny status, mutating into these hybrid beasts of brains and social skill while Penny learns to deal with the fact that Sheldons exist in the world. The only person to never change, (Parsons), is therefore the show’s sun in its heliocentric universe, the other leads simply planets fluctuating away from, yet always being brought back to, the center after failure or insecurity reverts them to their starting points.

http://www.jaredmobarak.com/2009/04/18/t...ng-theory/
"The mark of mediocrity is to look for precedent."   Norman Mailer
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