and BAM! Howard Wolowitz

[Louise]

You don't make a unilateral purchase like that without consulting your partner regardless who makes more money.

I don't disagree with that, what frustrates me is that it's OOC for Howard, who was never shown to be irresponsible with money until that episode, or at least not *more* irresponsible than the other three guys. I've seen even Canons acknowledging this.

The pre-Bernadette Howard and the post-Bernadette Howard are really and truly two different characters, starting as early as S3 or 4...

My main point, in this huge post, is that they made Howard MORE immature and childish once Bernadette came on the scene, so as to set up these contrived conflicts. He was always a Mama's boy, but we don't hear about him wasting money, or needing someone else to cut his pancakes, until at least S5 or S6.

It's contrived, it's a retcon, it's OOC and it's just more of this "wise wife, foolish husband" crap.

I love absurdist humor, but this show did not spend 7 seasons establishing a pattern of that type of absurd, intentionally nonsensical humor, luminous fish notwithstanding. When engineers don't make any money and a waitress enters the medical field overnight, we are in bizarro land. We've gone through the Looking Glass, now.

---

I think alot of the story line around Howard is just them having fun with their own traditions. Just cliches with some basis in reality.

The problem is, it's not fun or entertaining to watch, it's cringey and awful. They've dumbed-down his character in much the same way as they've dumbed-down Sheldon.

I have no objections to portraying women as successful and powerful, but this "wise wife, foolish husband" stuff is older than dirt and beyond boring. It's a waste of SH's talent.

Howard is arguably supposed to be the most practical of the four guys: the other three are theorists, and he's more hands-on. He's clever and resourceful, he's a problem-solver. He's pragmatic, at least in comparison to the others. I think that scene with Gablehauser that I posted is a perfect example; he's supposed to be the rather cynical counterpoint to a lofty thinker like Sheldon.

Now he's utterly lazy and powerless and can't even be trusted with pocket-money? That's not the same character, period. It's simply not. That's just Dumb Husband #101, it's not the bright young guy from S1, who was full of ideas and inspiration.

He obviously bought a lot of collectibles and comics in the early seasons, but it didn't seem to cause any problems, then. All four guys have lots of collectibles, but it was never shown to be a problem or a shopping addiction or a source of conflict. It was never "The guys bought the Time Machine and now they can't pay the rent.." or anything along those lines.

If he was prone to wasting money, then I'm sure we would've heard his mother scolding him about it, because she's outspoken and doesn't mince words, to say the least...

There is no possible way for THAT guy to evolve/devolve into THIS guy. They've thrown his characterization out the window. This isn't Howard, this is Generic Sitcom Husband, with a side order of Lorre's favorite messed-up themes. It's just "King of Queens" or "Everybody Loves Raymond", with the addition of this really disturbing infantilization fetish, which has also been applied to Sheldon...

I know it seems like I'm constantly defending Howard, but what I object to is the *inconsistency.* All the characters have flaws and failings and weaknesses, and I'm fine with that. But the failings they have now are worse, and *different in nature*, than before. Vintage Howard is a lot of things,and not all of them are pleasant or admirable, but "slacker" isn't one of them.