Wishful Thinking...

[SpaceAnJL]

The amount of mad business they could get away with on a show about FOUR GODDAMN SCIENTISTS (I mean, good grief, where do you begin!), and what do we get…a cloying, overly-masticated, formulaic romcom, that’s bitterly wasting the actors’ abilities.

They had the right idea straight from the gate, with The Nerdvana Annihilation, for example. The variations in the reactions to a potential Time Machine were splendid, and the Morlock dream-within-dream is unparalleled in the show thus far. In my opinion…

Yes. If Sheldon had actually ripped a hole into another dimension in the basement... Or they used a laser from space to fill someone's house with popcorn, a la 'Real Genius'.

Actually, the sheer number of shout-outs that have been missed in paintball scenarios alone boggles me. Maybe I watch too many films, but I'd have chucked in 'Rambo', 'Predator' and 'Apocalypse Now' for a start. 'Community' managed the pop culture nods much better. Heck, 'The Guild' did, too, and that was a five minute webcast.

[Tuesday Pajamas]

A possible explanation for the weirdness -

Early February, and in a basement in Pasadena, Bernadette prods carefully at a petri dish.

It isn't easy, being a mad scientist. Especially when you are still working your way through college. They don't exactly give out grants for her area of biochemical research. She has no patience with this wishy-washy liberal nonsense about human testing. She's making them happier, isn't she? She misses her old college tutor – dear Doctor Woodrue had been so understanding.

The scope of the experiment is simple. All she's doing is giving nature a little nudge. Helping along the hormones, amping up the pheromones, tweaking the dial.

Her initial chosen test subject was her co-worker, Penny. And circumstance gave her the ideal candidate, in the neighbour, Leonard. Watching them interact at the Cheesecake Factory, he was already hormonally enslaved to her, there was no need for intervention on his behalf.

But now it's time to bring out the big guns, a new approach. Holds up the vial, and the light gleams weirdly off her spectacle frames. If she can jump start Sheldon goddamn Cooper, then the world is her mollusc of choice. Shame about the degradation of intelligence, but sacrifices have to be made in the pursuit of progress.

I see this presented in comic strip stylee

[Wisp]

SpaceAnJL, that's utterly fucking terrifying.

This topic has obviously been bothering the hell out of a lot of characters here.
The amount of mad business they could get away with on a show about FOUR GODDAMN SCIENTISTS (I mean, good grief, where do you begin!), and what do we get…a cloying, overly-masticated, formulaic romcom, that’s bitterly wasting the actors’ abilities. Also wasted is the dark surrealism that I suspect lurks in a few of the writers, and CERTAINLY in Chuck Lorre. The man who wrote the spiel about painting the sacrificial chicken blood on the groin can do a hell of a lot better than some tepid pussy-footing around the marital and coital status of two brain-glazingly dull couples, as they putz around from one predictable scenario to another, shedding their brilliance with every tawdry step.

They had the right idea straight from the gate, with The Nerdvana Annihilation, for example. The variations in the reactions to a potential Time Machine were splendid, and the Morlock dream-within-dream is unparalleled in the show thus far. In my opinion…

Nowadays the Morlocks would probably go to bloody lamaze classes or something...

Oh, the amount of tricks they missed... I totally agree that they could have got away with some weird-ass shit. With the old writing, anyway. I wouldn't trust them with a bit of mild cosplaying nowadays. My favourite episodes are the ones that are self-contained and don't involve "We're geeky losers, we need girls" angst, or, as it is now, "we're geeky losers, we've got girls now, oh what emotional whiplash, day in day out" angst. The show needs some escapism from itself.

I think the reason why I have taken a serious liking to Community lately is because of the fabulously executed AU/just plain surreal episodes:

• A labyrinth of blanket forts
  
• Spaghetti Western Paintball Tournaments. A FIST FULL OF PAINTBALLS. ORGASM.
  
• Zombie-making Taco Meat
  
• Bottle Episode
  
• Christmas Stop Motion Episode
  And Abed's Dreamatorium for fuck's sake
  

Also A LOT of crossdressing. That's always a yes for me, providing said crossdresser pulls it off.
I can watch about 17 in a row and not get tired because some episodes are like a completely different show.
I could go on... I think I've got a crush on the whole show.

---

One way of looking at the show is that we've been watching a slow mental disintegration of one man when the core of his identity is stripped away from him.

That's what that has occurred to me too. Can it be that TBBT is in fact the tragic story of how the genius gets mocked, loses his mind and wastes away, with his spirit broken and his identity taken away from him, once he is put in the wrong place, associating with the wrong people, once he is made to doubt himself, made to become 'normal', made to fit in?

Not that I believe tptb are deliberately and consciously telling such a story, but the show these days indeed comes across, to me anyway, as one huge, tragic story of the genius and the different being defeated by - and made to show respect to - the mediocre and the "normal".

The moments in TBBT where the characters have self-doubt are often a tad unsatisfying to me, as the characters still seem bothered by themselves at the end of the episode, e.g. when Penny shouts at Leonard about his Time Machine. Although she apologises and was just mad, I still get the impression that she'll never truly "get it" and that will perpetually bother Leonard. In Community there are moments when someone has a moment of self-doubt, but they are reassured, and so am I, that they are fine how they are. TBBT has become increasingly ambiguous with its message; I'm no longer sure whether they care about their characters or not.

[SpaceAnJL]

I think 'Community' snuck up and collared the vein of surreal weirdness BBT could have had if it had been a little smarter. And Abed has the oddball observer of humanity role that Sheldon so nearly had - he might do the pop culture geekery, but you don't get the sense that he can't function in terms of day-to-day living. The show celebrates bizarre individuality, instead of demanding that everyone conform.

(Also, Danny Pudi is a beautiful man. Just to be shallow for a moment.)

Given that CalTech has seen the likes of Jack Parsons and the Suicide Squad - invocations to the God Pan before each rocket launch? - and Feynman (who did some of his work out of a strip club, and used to head off to play bongoes in the desert), the guys are pretty unimaginative. Also, the genuine prank rivalry with MIT could be exploited.

[Wisp]

I think 'Community' snuck up and collared the vein of surreal weirdness BBT could have had if it had been a little smarter. And Abed has the oddball observer of humanity role that Sheldon so nearly had - he might do the pop culture geekery, but you don't get the sense that he can't function in terms of day-to-day living. The show celebrates bizarre individuality, instead of demanding that everyone conform.

(Also, Danny Pudi is a beautiful man. Just to be shallow for a moment.)

Given that CalTech has seen the likes of Jack Parsons and the Suicide Squad - invocations to the God Pan before each rocket launch? - and Feynman (who did some of his work out of a strip club, and used to head off to play bongoes in the desert), the guys are pretty unimaginative. Also, the genuine prank rivalry with MIT could be exploited.

Oh yeah.



I think TBBT used to be celebratory of difference, but it lost its way come season 4... like I said, now it's ambiguous. I don't know who the joke is on, but there shouldn't be a joke on anyone. They're constantly pulling at the characters and trying to bend them around the writing, rather than letting the characters shape the story. Sheldon's "feelings" for Amy are not believable to me (And indeed probably everyone else on this forum) because they've just slotted in this notion out of nowhere that Sheldon would be bothered about a physical relationship, thus unravelling everything about the character that had been set up previously.

[Trust No One]

I think 'Community' snuck up and collared the vein of surreal weirdness BBT could have had if it had been a little smarter. And Abed has the oddball observer of humanity role that Sheldon so nearly had - he might do the pop culture geekery, but you don't get the sense that he can't function in terms of day-to-day living. The show celebrates bizarre individuality, instead of demanding that everyone conform.

(Also, Danny Pudi is a beautiful man. Just to be shallow for a moment.)

Given that CalTech has seen the likes of Jack Parsons and the Suicide Squad - invocations to the God Pan before each rocket launch? - and Feynman (who did some of his work out of a strip club, and used to head off to play bongoes in the desert), the guys are pretty unimaginative. Also, the genuine prank rivalry with MIT could be exploited.

Oh yeah.



I think TBBT used to be celebratory of difference, but it lost its way come season 4... like I said, now it's ambiguous. I don't know who the joke is on, but there shouldn't be a joke on anyone. They're constantly pulling at the characters and trying to bend them around the writing, rather than letting the characters shape the story. Sheldon's "feelings" for Amy are not believable to me (And indeed probably everyone else on this forum) because they've just slotted in this notion out of nowhere that Sheldon would be bothered about a physical relationship, thus unravelling everything about the character that had been set up previously.

I loved how different this show felt in the earlier seasons. Once the Lenny and then the Shamy started, everything felt forced and bland. no surprises and just following a tired old script.

[Tuesday Pajamas]

I think TBBT used to be celebratory of difference, but it lost its way come season 4... like I said, now it's ambiguous. I don't know who the joke is on, but there shouldn't be a joke on anyone. They're constantly pulling at the characters and trying to bend them around the writing, rather than letting the characters shape the story. Sheldon's "feelings" for Amy are not believable to me (And indeed probably everyone else on this forum) because they've just slotted in this notion out of nowhere that Sheldon would be bothered about a physical relationship, thus unravelling everything about the character that had been set up previously.

Totally! Everything is ambiguous but not in an intriguing way, like in Community. It feels to me as thought one half want to go all out slushy romance but the rest want the show to be unique and the disunity leans to nothing ever being convincing. I think someone hit the nail on the head when they said they don't seem to care about the characters.

Aaaah! Abed

[SpaceAnJL]

There was a definite schizophrenic feel to the writing, particularly in the earlier seasons. I always thought of it as a 'cavemen vs astronauts' thing, and unfortunately, the cavemen won. All the sharpness and cleverness got thrown out in favour of fart jokes.

The show is total product. It's just a job for the actors. I don't ever see it having that same kind of 'cast reunion' thing that something like 'Firefly' manages. I suspect there will be an increasing number of guest stars in throwaway cameos, simply because they can.

(...My secret wish is that they approach some Big Name Geek, who tells them to get lost and then makes a personal statement about not wanting to appear, because it's turned into offensive garbage. Sadly, it won't happen, because a job is a job, but.)

[Wisp]

I think TBBT used to be celebratory of difference, but it lost its way come season 4... like I said, now it's ambiguous. I don't know who the joke is on, but there shouldn't be a joke on anyone. They're constantly pulling at the characters and trying to bend them around the writing, rather than letting the characters shape the story. Sheldon's "feelings" for Amy are not believable to me (And indeed probably everyone else on this forum) because they've just slotted in this notion out of nowhere that Sheldon would be bothered about a physical relationship, thus unravelling everything about the character that had been set up previously.

Totally! Everything is ambiguous but not in an intriguing way, like in Community. It feels to me as thought one half want to go all out slushy romance but the rest want the show to be unique and the disunity leans to nothing ever being convincing. I think someone hit the nail on the head when they said they don't seem to care about the characters.

Aaaah! Abed

I'm sort of in love with Community at the moment. It's managing to do everything TBBT has failed at. They're handling their "delicate character" (Abed, and yes, I am purposely duplicating this gif) beautifully. So far. Dan Harmon understands his own characters. But I am NOT joining any forums for it, because god knows what sort of twats (among the good people) like Community...

Though I sense that the fanbase won't be quite as divided as TBBT...

I've said many times that I just don't care about the TBBT characters anymore. Because of what's happened with the earlier seasons, I don't enjoy watching the old ones anymore because it depresses me. I sit there thinking Oh, Sheldon. Little do you know what they will do to you. Relationships will no longer baffle and repulse you... I CANNOT BEAR SUCH HEARTBREAK...

[SpaceAnJL]

I made a passing note about liking 'Community' some place, and the anonytrolls screamed about 'incoming wank' and how I wasn't to be allowed on any forum because I was EEEvil. (?! :/) It's probably best enjoyed as a private thing.

I'm with you on the tainted nostalgia thing. 'The Adhesive Duck Deficiency' aired here the other day, and it was painful to watch with the foreknowledge. His current predicament certainly baffles and repulses me.