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8.23 The Maternal Combustion
#1
The promo are out for this one here

"While both Sheldon and Leonard's mothers visit to see their sons get an award, Bernadette wants more help around their new home from Howard and Stuart. "
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#2
Ah yes, we finally have the promo shots here:

[Image: 106469_WB_1217b_FULL.jpg]
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#3
It's about frackin time. I guess they figured they needed to boost the finale more.

I'll never figure out Why Penny wants to marry into that family ..... Oh that's right, booze and brainwashing
“There are no scenes more fun to do, I feel like, than the ones between Sheldon and Penny. They are such a wonderful odd couple.” - Jim Parsons
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#4
Pictures of Shamy kissing ain't going to do that! Tongue those two have zero sex appeal. There's way better shows, it is time that BB had a reality check about the choices it's making.
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#5
(04-29-2015, 01:14 PM)Tuesday Pajamas Wrote: "Bernadette wants more help around their new home from Howard and Stuart. "


If Bernadette supposedly has so much freaking money and isn't the home-maker type and is so busy with her oh-so-important career, why doesn't she just hire a cleaning service or a housekeeper? (warning, logic detected...)**

Oh, I forgot: Howie the Shopping Addict spent all her money on frivolous crap which Vintage Howard could've built MacGyver-style out of paperclips and watch batteries. Sarcasm

Why are they living in that house when B. supposedly hates it and everything it represents? Why is Stuart still there? Why is Stuart now a major character? Why am I even talking about Stuart? What day is it? Where am I? Who are you, again? Etc... (rhetorical questions, not looking for an answer.)

This sounds like a tremendous snooze. *falls asleep* Sounds like Three's Company or some shit.

The ep where Howard moves out of his room and takes his stuff down off the walls killed me. If he was moving to his own place, or to be roomies with Raj, that would be fabulous. But he wasn't, as we know. Not in *this* dark and cobwebby corner of the Multi-Verse, at least.

I hate the way they've treated that house, in these recent storylines. I feel affection for that house and for Howard's bedroom almost like I'd feel affection for a vintage character. They should've simply stopped mentioning that house, or Mrs.W, when they moved to a rom-com format. Even the inanimate objects on this show get ruined. It would be so much less painful if they'd made a clean break instead of these occasional half-assed stabs at continuity.

I feel like Rip Van Winkle sometimes, because my mindset and my concept of this show and its universe is still firmly rooted in S1-S2, but now everything is so different.

This dry-as-dust "Honeymooners" nonsense is REALLY the most exciting idea that a group of professional writers could come up with?

**silly me, B can't hire outside help; they might discover the bodies of her previous husbands...

Bernadette never has work-related storylines, in spite of supposedly being so smart, so sought-after, so highly paid, such a shining star in her field. It's all this 1950s domestic nonsense. And then the show claims that these female scientists are role-models.

She's "much smarter than Howard"---Puke--but she can't find solutions to simple everyday problems or conflicts or challenges without screaming like a demented street-corner vagrant. Does she try to solve a Rubik's Cube by calling it names and bullying it?
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#6
(05-01-2015, 03:23 AM)Louise Wrote: Why is Stuart still there? Why is Stuart now a major character? Why am I even talking about Stuart? What day is it? Where am I? Who are you, again? Etc... (rhetorical questions, not looking for an answer.)

Stuart is there, my friend, because they failed to create a workable bromance between him and Raj. They even tried to create a homo-erotic vibe which just didn't work. The problem being, that both Raj and Stuart were submissive, they had no Howard (alpha). BB thought they could just throw characters together and recreate the natural chemistry they had were blessed with, due to actor chemistry from the start. I like Stuart but much like Raj he's been left stranded without the framework of nerd-friends they once had. They need a solid friendship base but the couples don't allow the space for it.
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#7
(05-01-2015, 04:36 AM)Tuesday Pajamas Wrote: Stuart is there, my friend, because they failed to create a workable bromance between him and Raj. They even tried to create a homo-erotic vibe which just didn't work. The problem being, that both Raj and Stuart were submissive, they had no Howard (alpha). BB thought they could just throw characters together and recreate the natural chemistry they had were blessed with, due to actor chemistry from the start. I like Stuart but much like Raj he's been left stranded without the framework of nerd-friends they once had. They need a solid friendship base but the couples don't allow the space for it.


[Image: 294tq2s.gif]

You can't replace one duo with another.

Quote:I like Stuart

I like him too, as a minor character, as the guy who runs the comic-book store. It offends me that they would try to replace Howard/Raj with something else, in a buddy sense or a shippy sense, much as I'm sure it offends people that Shenny was supplanted by Shamy, or that the good parts of the Shelnard friendship were supplanted by something else.
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#8
Stuart stop had more chemistry with Penny than Leonard.
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#9
Before I start tonight's review I need a drink. brainbleach

Now then, where to begin. On paper, tonight's episode had so much going for it—Amy was reduced to the cold opener, Beverly and Mary made their return—and yet what we got was...well, I'll describe it and maybe you can tell me what I witnessed.

The theme of the A plot was 'pity me, pity me' or 'Now I Understand Why You Annoy the Hell Out of Me, Leonard'. First Penny takes a shot at him regarding his tepid relationship with his mother and then Sheldon suggests that Leonard is simple-minded. Then Beverly comes and thoroughly dismantles him in their climb up the stairs to the apartment. Then he puts up with Beverly's comments in the apartment. Basically, the writers are reminding us that despite all of the shitty things Leonard does HE is the victim. See how bad his childhood was? That's why it's okay he gave Penny a drill bit diamond ring. The logic is there if I only look hard enough. Only I can't see very well at the microbial level. And it is probably just as toxic as it is infectious.

When Beverly and Sheldon leave for a coffee they might have gotten a break from the whining but we sure didn't. Leonard went on—and on—and on about how horrible his mother was. The only thing which would have livened up the moment would have been if Mary had cold-cocked him in the head with a Bible and told him to shut his yap and quit whining or else she'd put him down like the family dog.

All of this whine meets its counterbalance when Beverly and Sheldon return to the apartment. A woman with forty plus years of psychiatric experience, multiple books and degrees has realized after meeting Mary that she had been rearing her children wrong and that love and affection are a viable option. She then tells Leonard that she wants a different relationship with him—one where she showers him with love and affection—and punctuates this with a hug.

That's when I threw up in my mouth.

When you look at Beverly it becomes obvious what's wrong with the writing. In the stairwell with Leonard we had a vintage quality to their banter—his trying to appease her while she is analytically demolishing him. Compare that to her speech about showering Leonard with love and affection and we've easily got the worst acted and written dialogue of the season. I found the contrast quite startling; It was like the original writer started the episode, had a stroke and then Molaro finished it for him. Like Sheldon, Beverly doesn't 'work' in the 'new BBT' so she had to change and by doing so, is completely ruined—which is no surprise given that the key to her character was the precision dialogue which is now lacking.

I guess to sum it up, what's disturbing about the Beverly debacle is that it shows that the writers can write vintage should they choose to—it's just that for some God-awful reason they choose to write pap. Beverly's ending hugging Leonard is preferable to the devastatingly funny dialogue delivered with precision timing.

This means that the crap we have seen since s5 is completely deliberate. Unless we can get the stroke guy to communicate new scripts with us through the straw in his neck we're stuck with this new 'vision' unless we choose to turn it all off.

Yes, that means those of you who have quit watching BBT are much, much smarter than me.

As for the Mary and Sheldon rapport I was ready to take a gravy boat to Jim with how manic he was. I've never had an episode where I winced whenever he spoke and actually shouted out 'shut up, Jim!' repeatedly at the telly. He was absolutely ANNOYING. All personality was gone. He was soulless, laughing at recycled jokes. For someone who loves Sheldon as much as I do it was absolutely horrifying to see. Truly, he's a reanimated corpse and I have no doubt the special effects department earns their money erasing the puppet strings from Jim's body.

Mary was forced to recycle her nuclear power plant story—which took enough time from the episode that I had the time to look up the original joke in Luminous Fish on Youtube. And yes, it was funnier there.

Then there's the B plot with Howard, Raj, Stuart and Bernadette. Let me take the time to give you the plot in its entirety: the guys cleaned the kitchen. It's really sad to see this because I remember earlier episodes like Panty Pinata where the writers took the time to plan out a B plot that was dynamic and interesting. What we saw tonight was a 'yadda, yadda, yadda—back to the A plot'.

In all, as dev so astutely summarized, tonight we have witnessed A list talent delivering D list performances—although to be fair perhaps their performances are in actuality works of genius as they managed to emulate the very essence of crap used to write the episode.
Let's go exploring!
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#10
This was the episode we've been waiting for since we first met Mary and Beverly. If only it had come sooner! As it is, neither myself nor most of HQ gets to watch it, because the damage that has been caused to our favourite characters is by now so extreme as to taint the entire show. I can't "believe" in Mary if she's standing next to an unbelievable Sheldon. It causes a reality disjunct. Well, as real as television gets anyway...

Anyroad, I haven't seen the episode, so cannot comment properly. Similarly, I admire WPP's reviews for their eloquence, but have no idea whether I'd concur with their reasoning or conclusion. History suggests I would, as I've concurred with all WPP's previous ones. But nonetheless I can't comment relevantly until I've seen the episode. And unless they fix Sheldon in Season 9, that won't be happening.

But I CAN say, as we mentioned in chat, that WPP's comment about there being two distinct writers, for comedy and for schmaltz, seems bang on. Fitting that TBBT is also filmed on the same lot as Casablanca, which also used different writers for different moods.

I'm glad Metcalf had some good lines, and both her and Baranski are of course deeply classy actors. So let's have some flashbacks!
Wine

Mary & Vintage Sheldon
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Vintage Sheldon & His Brain
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Vintage Sheldon "seducing" Beverly Big Grin (my mother loves this scene...very dubious)
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[Image: The-Big-Bang-Theory.jpg]

Beverly & Vintage Sheldon Being Incongruous (which is why it worked. If he was like this all the time, it wouldn't be funny, would it.)
[Image: Bigbang-315.jpg]

Something I don't understand...The denouement of episode 8.23 was Beverly hugging Leonard, and this was considered remarkable?
Er...
[Image: Christine-Baranski-5.jpg]

Has the audience forgotten this ALONG with Sheldon hugging Penny TWICE before Season 7? Or does this current audience simply not watch any seasons without relationships in it?
Baffling!

AND just for kicks...Wine
[Image: christine_baranski_christine_guest_at_th....sized.jpg]
"WHERE THE HELL'S MY PARACHUTE?"
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