9.06 The Helium Insufficiency

[Toad]

'The Helium Insufficiency' - Season 9, Episode 6

Airs Monday, October 26 at 8/7c on CBS.

In the midst of a nation-wide helium shortage, Sheldon and Leonard take desperate measures to get the supplies they need. Also, Penny and Bernadette download a dating app on Amy's phone to try and find her a new man.

Michael Rapaport guest stars.







Click here for more promo pics

[Toad]

Random Pointless Observation...

...but the white box with the somewhat incongruous "Mai Tai" on the side is a laser...thingy.

[Tuesday Pajamas]

Apparently....

"The Mai Tai® DeepSee™ Ti:Sapphire oscillator with our patented automated dispersion compensation1 has been specifically optimized for use in multiphoton microscopy. The Mai Tai DeepSee laser delivers the industry's highest peak power to the sample thus maximizing the fluorescence signal."

What would we do without copy and paste huh?

It reminds me of Red dwarf, when their computer Holly, invented the Holly Hop Drive.

[wellplayedpenny]

Tonight took me down memory lane to a time when Sheldon and Leonard were Shelnard--roommates, friends and scientists. They jumped into a problem together, dealt with it together and ended the program together in a delightful way.   

Normally, with the bent of humour leaning more towards the nasty, I was expecting the worst but am happy to report that Leonard and Sheldon weren't the butt of the joke. Their interaction with the Helium Broker started off rough but then became something wonderfully out of The Naked Gun (think the discussion about the boxers Frank Drebben knows). I had a genuine girlie-squee when my ears picked up the banter. It was light and it flowed; in fact the entire Shelnard plot flowed. Now I'm not a conspiracy theorist but perhaps this is so because the relationship crap was left to the wayside? The writers seemed to have FUN--y'know, the reason why I actually watch a sitcom. (And not for a moment am I thinking how wonderful it is that when Sheldon is focused on SCIENCE the show is actually FUNNY.   )

The Amy dating plot was just horrible. Everyone was OOC (at least to what I consider their Vintage Selves) and were extremely mean to the point where I was angry at them. I mean, what does it say when I actually agreed with Amy that the group was being petty? AND WHY IS AMY THE MORAL AUTHORITY FOR THE GROUP? Oh, that's right, Amy does no wrong now.

Essentially, the B plot humour was invective and cheap. It's hard to believe that both plots were written by the same writers. But then again it goes back to my initial premise that the writers can't write relationship pap to save their lives. And yet they continue to fulfill Molaro's agenda like he has compromising photos of them from that Christmas Party a few years back.  

It baffles me that these writers don't seem to be interested in their reputations. The writers who did the Shelnard plot have put together a solid sitcom plot. The ones that wrote the Amy plot must be the producer's nephews because the caliber of the writing is so sub-par it's embarrassing. 

I guess the money must be good but there are a lot of people with money. As can be seen in this instance, not a lot of people will have a positive legacy.

[Tuesday Pajamas]

Poll is up.

[Idle Miscreant]

Haven't seen it yet, but I shall.
Looking forward to this quality Shelnard writing and general vintage hijinks.

Of course Kripke has helium. Have we forgotten THIS?



I loathed that scene. Bunch of despicable treacherous bullies. 
Mercifully this followed.



Unfortunately, Kripke, the splendid comic book villain got the brunt of it, whilst the "nice chappie" Leonard, who not only laughed ("I fell on the floor") but then encouraged Sheldon towards revenge, where he otherwise would have merely brooded, got away with bupkis.


(Rather melancholy to be watching these episodes now, after deliberately missing Season 8. Because after they hook AFF and Sheldon up again, probably in the next taped episode, I shan't be watching another new episode ever again. Because that woman will be around forever, once they re-establish them. And she drains the soul and nature from Sheldon as surely as a Dementor drains happiness...)

[A.D.A.]

I agree with wellplayedpenny, it was a lot of fun to see Leonard and Sheldon on the same side again and the helium broker was a great addition. Plus, no stupid break-up plot!

Now, the dating subplot of course fell flat on its face. I think I would have been angry with the group for being petty, but at least I could occasionally cackle alongside with them. Amy "Wet Blanket" Fowler with her mournful voice and no-joke lines just isn't funny enough as a straight woman. Penny and Leonard at least always seems exasperatedly confused or resigned or something - it's fun to watch them despairing over their friends' antics. She just seems mildly worried and sad. Just looking at her takes the comedy out of the scene for me. I have no idea why they write her like that - she was funny once upon a time, but normalising her really hasn't done her a lot of good.

Oh, and even Shelnard's joke flirting was more convincing than any part of Shamy I've seen for the last three seasons.

[wellplayedpenny]

I'm having SUCH a hard time voting for this one. It's like the Burton Bat-Man 2 movie where it was a 4 star movie when Catwoman was on but a 2 star movie otherwise. I really, really liked the Helium Broker dialogue, it was silly and fun and worth a  or 2, and yet the absolute meanness of the second plot makes it an easy 2   . Do I balance it out and say 'Neutral'? I don't know if that's fair because my reactions aren't neutral. I really enjoyed myself and was really disgusted. How best to describe an episode beyond, 'if you tune out XYZ it's great!'. I'm gathering that's side-stepping the voting system. 

Perhaps I'll have to look at these episodes with a butter side up pov and focus on what enjoyment I do find (rather like a tasking game of 'Where's Waldo?' sometimes) as it's not really a surprise that a s9 episode will have a disappointing element to it. I still contend, however, that this season is infinitely better than s8.

[Nutz]

I am having the same problem. So I'm thinking about trying out a rating it scene by scene (opening, etc) and seeing if that works. As far as I'm concerned a neutral for this show just means you liked some things, but the bad just made it meh.

I guess the real question for you is Would you watch this episode again, Or will you only watch the scenes you liked on YouTube.

[wellplayedpenny]

I get what you're saying, Nutz. For me, it's that there's a lot I call neutral that I would label, 'no harm no foul' (no pun intended), and I think this episode should be separated from them. So does that mean my one   rating will become, 'some good parts but beware there's stuff that will tank the episode?' 

*snort* Could we get an *  to put beside our vote? 

Still have to mull over this one. ...