SPOILERS: 9.04 The 2003 Approximation

[Louise]

This is cute and I approve, but do you see what I mean about SH's face looking sort of sunken and too thin, and the sleeves of his shirt being rumpled? Meh. Somebody give this boy something to eat...

[Idle Miscreant]

Wow. Somehow I feel like these are very significant points. I wonder if it has to do with the fact that JP was actually *told* to incorporate his own mannerisms. He was, wasn't he?  How do you even do that? I don't think I'm aware-enough of my own mannerisms to describe them to someone else. 

But yes, if it's a continuity problem, then that overrides the pro-Canon argument* about "development" or "evolution" or "growth."  This is a whole new angle from which to examine this issue.  People don't change this much because they met a girl.  They don't change this much unless they're Phineas Gage and they took a metal beam to the brain...

*unless you're someone who simply dismisses the early seasons or has never watched them, of course.

Oddly, Phineas Gage is precisely the argument I used to use elsewhere...How in reality, Sheldon's violent change in personality could only be attributable to a tamping iron through the head.

From basic observation (not just of scientific and literary biographies but of my bohemian bastard associates), people generally mellow as they get older, unless they're a genuine eccentric, in which case they tend to become more extreme. My problem with the direction and nature of the change chosen for Sheldon's character, is that I don't think it's in line with his original personality. He's gone from a focused, driven, passionate scientist, with neurotic tendencies and a strictly ritualised system of existence, offset by spasms of whimsy, to a malicious, dopey, childish, shouty/simpering mess. His egocentricity, misogyny, and dependence on others has increased horrifically, and his dignity has been reduced to fuckall.  Quite frankly, he's a pitiful character now, and that's a very far fall from his glorious height.

And that's just the character changes, ie, the script. Now, character changes can be justified by exposition, or subjective interpretation. They can say, well, in OUR view, this IS the way he would grow, and you can go stick it up your- etc. I know that on this forum, the theory that Sheldon is regressing and suffering a slow mental breakdown over a period of years, is rather popular as the only feasible explanation for his behaviour. But what CAN'T be justified is a change in voice, posture and mannerisms. And this, I suspect, is the chief problem some of us Purists are having with this latter-day incarnation of Sheldon. It's simply difficult to believe in him as the same character.

People change their philosophical viewpoints, sometimes. They change their hobbies, subtle aspects of their fashion, they might learn to put things in perspective, or become more tolerant, and so forth. But they don't change the way they speak, both the volume and accent, the way they stand, walk, sit, or their facial expressions, unless they've either had brain trauma of some description, or they're making a deliberate alteration.
 
Now if anyone wants to argue that Sheldon is deliberately slouching, talking louder and broader, slackening his face, twisting his mouth to the side, smiling in an odd artificial toothpaste manner etc, out of some attempt at Gestalt therapy, be my guest. But Occam's Razor would suggest it's the actor playing the part differently instead.

It begins in Season 5, Episode 1. I know, because, outside of my own observations, my housemate can hear Sheldon through the door in Season 5, but not in Season 1-4. He is a LOUD blighter from Season 5 onward. An obnoxious redneck toddler of a boyfriend. And the strange, sweet alien of Season 1-4 is lost.

I'd say some of it is simply attributable to youth, but we know from recent clips that Parsons can still do the alien marvelously. So obviously it's a directorial decision. And a disastrous one, if you ask me...or any of us here, obviously...

[Kimk26]

Sheldon needs to make a "Reassert Myself to Homo Novus Equilibrium Algorithm", even if only as an attempt to escape his current emotional predicament/suffering. Curious what that would look like..

[Idle Miscreant]

I should very much like to see that.

I always feel like a git when I bang on about Sheldon's changes so repetitively. We all know what I'm talking about, so why bother mentioning it? Sheldon's alteration is pretty much the central theme of this joint...I do TRY to pepper it with pleasantries...I did like the song immensely. I like the plots lately (sans the relationship bits). There's some very clever writing, as usual. I suspect it's because I'm plagued with my novel at the moment...more specifically, the necessity of keeping the characters' integrities intact, whilst I fling them haphazardly around.

It's just...you look at this promo picture, and you can clearly see the characters' personas.  These are quite specific, well-crafted and FINISHED creations.



(The latter promo shots just have them all standing unfeasibly close in an insane photoshop with identical smiles on their phizogs.)
But the Penny and Sheldon you see above simply don't exist anymore. The others are still recognisable, but the cheery, irreverent Penny and the observing, upright alien Sheldon have long vanished. And it's deeply upsetting on a level that's difficult to ignore...

*kvetch grumble gripe* etc

[Kimk26]

OR, he could recruit the rest of the guys to help him with it (constructing the algorithm). Kind of a support group kind of thing. But then, I'd see it more as him wanting to create some sort of method of getting over the heartache of his relationshit breakup, which they would more or less not take seriously (i.e. as in when Leonard went to Howard and Raj for support in his recent Penny/marriage dilemma while at work, and they kept exploiting it for their own amusement..)

Thing is, if Sheldon pressured the guys into helping him, and they knuckled under..well, that would be solving his problem halfway right there.. Maybe he'd get so caught up in the glory of successfully controlling everyone again, he'd be cured!

(Y'know, it never ceases to amaze me how differently we approach the character's problems on the show here, compared to what some other fans talk about. They're busy deliberating on how Sheldon and Amy could get back together plausibly. And over here, I don't know..it's like the brainstorming consists of ways of getting Sheldon back to being a step away from a super-villain. People need to get their priorities straight! Hut-hut!)

[SpaceAnJL]

I'm all for encouraging the supervillainy at this point. Holing up in a volcano with a white fluffy cat and an army of minions, and building a damn Death Ray would be infinitely preferable to this appalling crapfest. In that photo, I dearly hope that is an untraceable poison he's contemplating, and that the smug grinning little shit on the right is going to get something worse than moths in his food.

[Kimk26]

I'm all for encouraging the supervillainy at this point.  Holing up in a volcano with a white fluffy cat and an army of minions, and building a damn Death Ray would be infinitely preferable to this appalling crapfest.  In that photo, I dearly hope that is an untraceable poison he's contemplating, and that the smug grinning little shit on the right is going to get something worse than moths in his food.

A-fracking-MEN, sistah!

[Louise]

people generally mellow as they get older, unless they're a genuine eccentric, in which case they tend to become more extreme.

Yes, I agree. And there's nothing wrong with mellowing. I don't think anyone here is arguing that people never, ever change in any way. That's another Canonist strawman and an oversimplification, which is their stock in trade. The point is that 1. Fictional characters aren't real people and 2. The changes, if any, must be plausible.  You've identified the reasons why the changes in Sheldon aren't plausible, from either a real-person-psychology or fictional-world angle. 

I don't object to some mellowing. They'd already eased-off on the Penny-Howard conflict by the end of Season 2, which is long before Bernadette and makes this "Pervert to Husband!" redemption-narrative all the more dodgy. But as I've stated many times, I don't need a sitcom to cover a character's whole life-span. I hate this deeply-entrenched TV convention which says that 1 season of a show equals one year of real-time in the lives of the characters. It *would* be slightly strange if absolutely *nothing* had changed after ten years. But if the show had ended after four or five seasons, that wouldn't be a problem, especially if these four or five seasons represented just a year or two in the lives of the characters. I don't need to see the characters *aging.* The makers themselves create these continuity issues and these timeline-related complications by adhering to this literal interpretation of the passage of time. 

Now, character changes can be justified by exposition, or subjective interpretation. They can say, well, in OUR view, this IS the way he would grow

Like I've said before, what TPTB are very sneaky about, is providing Watsonian explanations for Doylist decisions. They want people to believe that the changes in the show happened organically, that these changes were made for artistic, storytelling purposes. In fact, the aim was make the show more mainstream and thus make more $$$.  What I see you saying here is there AREN'T any plausible in-universe for these changes, barring some catastrophic mental damage, and I agree. 

Let's suppose that somehow, the show had changed or "developed" the characters in a manner that I, personally, did not enjoy, but which was reasonably plausible and IC.  I don't know exactly what that would BE, or how it would be accomplished, but let's suppose.  In that case, I might've simply lost interest in the show and been mildly miffed instead of heartbroken. But the reason everyone here is so up in arms is because the changes *don't make sense.*  There's a difference between "these changes don't make sense" and "I demand to see my own personal headcanon and my own pet-ideas played out on the screen."  I don't care for the idea that Howard is eager to become a father, but I don't find wildly, unforgivably OOC, either.  

TPTB and the canons use the phrase "character development" incessantly, like a mantra, without truly understanding what it means.  "The characters are growing from a childish and selfish state into being mature and emotionally whole adults" is code for "We made the characters more mainstream so that the masses will watch and we will get $$$."  I'm guessing that if you asked any true student of media, any writer or dramatist or literature teacher, their definition of the phrase "character development" would not match the one used by the Canons. 

I am not at all sure to what degree TPTB believe their own line of bull. I really cannot tell to what degree this is just a cynical cash-grab and to what degree they actually think this is a lovely show about true love and personal development. And that makes it hard to analyze these issues.  How aware are they, of the disconnect between what they're saying and what they're doing? 

Howard is less of a clear-cut case than Sheldon, as you described. We've had some encouraging signs from him, so far, this season, but I'm picky and I've washed my hands of the show and my reaction tends to be "too little, too late" or "yes, that's the actors being cute."  I feel like I'm watching out-takes. I simply don't believe that he would marry Bernadette, even if her dark side hadn't been fully revealed at that point, and I simply don't believe he'd put up with this much abuse. The ratio of "attractive girl who claims to care about me" and "psycho bitch" is tilted in favor of the latter, and I don't see a mathematician liking those odds.  I think he might've dated her for a few episodes or even half a season, but that's all. If nothing else, Mrs.W would've perceived her as a threat or a rival and would've run her off the very first time she started getting mouthy, like she did with Christie. I'm sure it wasn't the first or last time Howard got involved with a girl that his mother deemed unacceptable and his mother intervened. (But even Mrs.W wasn't immune to the Character Devolution Tango.)  

I recently did an episode-by-episode demolition of this idea that "H/B was sweet during S3 and S4, it's only recently that B. has become obnoxious."  This is a commonly heard opinion. But that relationship consisted of conflict, misunderstandings, and misaligned values/priorities from Day 1.  I could do an even more detailed and specific analysis if I were willing to watch those scenes again, but I'm not. I use my memories and the Wiki.  S3-S4 Bernadette might not be overtly cruel, but her personality is totally uninteresting and she's inconsistent, high maintainence, demanding, flighty, hypocritical, a poor communicator, and sort of coyly dishonest, plus it's not at all clear WHY she's dating Howard or why she wants to be in a relationship at all. It only gets worse from there. In Alien Parasite she claims that she's "Much smarter than him." Why the fuck is she dating him, then, unless she has a need to feel superior? I think Howard would conclude that she's simply too much drama. He was able to perceive that Ramona was bad news, and he was able to perceive that the ongoing Leonard-Penny merry-go-round was absurd and futile and masochistic.

[Louise]

I always feel like a git when I bang on about Sheldon's changes so repetitively. We all know what I'm talking about, so why bother mentioning it?

Please don't feel that way. I'm the same. IMO that's the heart of what this site is about. We can't vent anywhere else, can we? There is literally NOWHERE. I'm never bored by your posts. 

"He's a human being, and a terrible thing is happening to him. So attention must be paid. He's not to be allowed to fall into his grave like an old dog. Attention, attention must finally be paid to such a person."

--Death of a Salesman. 

[Louise]

(The latter promo shots just have them all standing unfeasibly close in an insane photoshop with identical smiles on their phizogs.)

The S8 DVD cover HORRIFIES me. As you said, I don't think they were even actually photographed together, in the same room, and it's sooo generic. It looks like any generic sitcom from the '80s/'90s.  What is that brick backdrop supposed to be? It's like a Friends-Cheers amalgam. It just screams "standard sitcom about a group of not-so-young yuppies." It's almost like a parody of that genre. It looks cheaply done, it's like a flyer for a college-campus improv-comedy troupe. And the past few seasons' DVD covers have made SH look oddly girly and airbrushed. It's...airless and without a hint of the show's original premise, vibe, or aesthetic.