9.02 The Separation Oscillation

[FlyingSolo]

116,000 views of the Shenny kiss on their official YouTube video compared to the 6K and 7K of the "canon" couples scenes. I'm so giddy right now!

[Kimk26]

116,000 views of the Shenny kiss on their official YouTube video compared to the 6K and 7K of the "canon" couples scenes. I'm so giddy right now!

Whoa, that's HUGE!! 

And, as of 9:00am: 71,000 Likes on the FB page, with 5,300 Comments. ALL on the dot. Can we consider this a good omen?  

[FlyingSolo]

Whoa, that's HUGE!! 

And, as of 9:00am: 71,000 Likes on the FB page, with 5,300 Comments. ALL on the dot. Can we consider this a good omen?  

By a landslide!! 

[Jomi25]

From TBBT's YT channel:

Raking in the views.

[Kimk26]

From TBBT's YT channel:

Raking in the views.

HA, and "The Vows" only has 14K!  

[Louise]

Vintage Howard?:

This is IC Vintage Howard. With a wife and a credit card.

This sounds better than it could have been, certainly, and I'm glad you enjoyed it, but it still doesn't make me happy. This "Howard is bad with money" thing drives me batty.  1. He would/should be making enough money that he can buy random weird stuff if he wants to, without having any negative impact on his/their finances. These people aren't living paycheck to paycheck.  2. A person's not obligated to discuss every purchase with their "partner."  Buying a house or adopting a dog without telling your spouse? Problem.  Buying random personal items and collectibles?  Not a matter for discussion or negotiation.  "Howard is oversexed" has a grain of truth to it, "Howard is bad with money" does not.  This idea that H. has been waiting and salivating for the chance to spend someone else's money came out of left field in S5.  I've written several *very* detailed posts about why this is inconsistent and illogical characterization. If he were looking to mooch off someone else's money, he would've surely tried that with Raj, who is supposedly so wealthy, or with Sheldon, who was so willing to loan money to Penny.   This is just a gender-reversal of the old "Lucy spent too much money on a hat and now Ricky is gonna get mad!!" thing.  IMO it's also uncomfortably close to "Jews are money-grubbing" territory.

Howard being sneaky and smug is always cute, (and yes, "impish" is totally a word that I use to describe him, too) but this idea that he views spending B's money as an awesome perk of being married is icky and OOC.  This character did not spend the first three or four seasons searching for a sugar mama so that he could become a shopping addict.  This is totally my hill to die on.  It's just such a WTF, to me, and they've been hammering this concept *repeatedly.*   I like the very youthful S1 Howard, not "complacent middle-aged married guy" Howard. Coyote's no fun after he catches the Roadrunner. I want to watch people trying and striving and hoping, not people who've arrived at the finish line and sit down and put their feet up and fall asleep.  If your spouse is so controlling and picky that spending your own damn money on something insignificant and "getting away with it" feels like a victory, that's still pretty sad.   It's also possible that behaviors which would seem cute in a younger person start to seem a bit "off", now that the actors are aging. I love "sneaky and scheming", I don't love "sneaky and scheming for the purposes of being lazy and feckless."  

I've spent so much energy defending Howard, but the ironic thing is that Recent!Howard sometimes *does* feel sort of base and loathsome to me, in ways that the supposedly-creepy Vintage Howard never did; so once again my perception is out of sync with the prevailing one.  Yeah, Bernadette's a huge bitch, but I wouldn't want to be married to this guy, either.

IDK.  I'm about the same age as these characters, but I feel very alienated by this stuff. I don't relate to any of it.

I need to stay out of this thread.   (Yes, I am Eeyore, basically.)

ETA: I'm not attacking you, Kim. Far from it. I'm just very hard to please, and I've reached the frame of mind where I have completely written-off this show, rather than looking for the occasional good moments or taking a glass-half-full approach.

ETA 2:  "The guys all chip in and buy a Time Machine" is funny. "Howard spends too much money on something stupid in almost every episode"  is not, to me.  What bothers me even more than the money factor is this transition from "Howard builds things" to "Howard buys things."  IMO if Howard wants something, he builds it.  Real!Howard would've *made* a 3D printer.  Howard is creative and inventive and resourceful. Building something is active, buying something is passive. There's no *scientist* in New!Howard. He wants the path of least resistance, whereas Vintage Howard sometimes seems to do things the hard way, out of sheer contrariness. I think he wanted excitement and adventure, not a cushy, uneventful life. I would frankly find it funnier and more IC even if he outright *stole* something, than this "I spent the grocery money on useless crap" concept. There were several examples of him "borrowing" equipment from shady sources, in the early seasons, and that was a recurring joke I liked. There's "clever yet morally shady" behavior, which is fun, and then there's just "dumb, short-sighted decisions."

[Idle Miscreant]

Great idea! Maybe they should start scouting here.. Wonder how Gripe would feel about being an American screenwriter..  

[Jomi25]

Here's a cap of the most viewed videos from TBBT's official YT page. #1 most viewed video is the first S/P 'Soft Kitty' moment. I like how the majority of the most viewed clips are vintage scenes. And then there's the kiss vid.   

[Tuesday Pajamas]

That's impressive, the kiss only has three days on the clock. I'd like to know where it is on the list in a month.

[Tuesday Pajamas]

By teenysnicotinegum