10-03-2014, 05:03 AM
I agree with OCD getting worse the more his world is unbalanced, but I still think that there has to be some kind of core thread through all of his defense mechanisms that remains the same. His germophobia, the twitch when he's lying, his spot, his knocking, the cleaning. I haven't really read up on it so I can't claim to know much about real life OCD and defense mechanisms, but even if there is quite a lot of room when it comes to just how often these defense mechanisms can change IRL, these do need to be sort of rounded up for an invented character, because otherwise he/she becomes too confusing and unrecognizable for the reader/viewer. You can't have a character that is a germophobic neat freak in most episodes, but when it suits, this character doesn't know how to properly clean laboratory equipment (specifically speaking about that one episode when Sheldon helps Amy out in the lab; I just can't believe that someone who cleans up the pitcher he uses for checking his own pee and poop enough that he is comfortable keeping it in the kitchen with the dishes he uses for eating, as is seen in the Pancake Batter Anomaly, that this person doesn't know how to properly clean petri dishes and eprouvettes, so that Amy has to tell him she'll wash everything again because he's too stupid to do it himself).
Induced situations are a story unto themselves, because they feature Sheldon pushed outside the perimeter of his comfort zone (and yes, Penny's usually the one responsible for it, although the difference between her and Amy is that she doesn't do it to change him, but rather because she simply refuses to abide by his rules and thinks that he'll be better off loosening them), but everything else needs to be consistent, which I'm finding has stopped being the case until all his ticks are now just footnotes for writers to use when they think it might fit - it's become the case where the story drives the characters, rather than the other way around (as should be the case). That's why I don't think that the writers are idealistic, just uncaring, because they not only use characters as it suits them, but they do it to promote an idea that's either deliberately debilitating or just really not thought out properly, this being the idea that average is the best, and that individuality and intellect should be stamped out and destroyed in pursuit of the average.
As you said, TBBT is now a traditional sitcom. The sad thing is that they didn't start out that way; if they had, I never would have watched the show in the first place, I have very little interest in American sitcoms in general. What they did was have a good idea for something a little out there, and they moved towards the traditional because the casual viewership numbers rose.
Induced situations are a story unto themselves, because they feature Sheldon pushed outside the perimeter of his comfort zone (and yes, Penny's usually the one responsible for it, although the difference between her and Amy is that she doesn't do it to change him, but rather because she simply refuses to abide by his rules and thinks that he'll be better off loosening them), but everything else needs to be consistent, which I'm finding has stopped being the case until all his ticks are now just footnotes for writers to use when they think it might fit - it's become the case where the story drives the characters, rather than the other way around (as should be the case). That's why I don't think that the writers are idealistic, just uncaring, because they not only use characters as it suits them, but they do it to promote an idea that's either deliberately debilitating or just really not thought out properly, this being the idea that average is the best, and that individuality and intellect should be stamped out and destroyed in pursuit of the average.
As you said, TBBT is now a traditional sitcom. The sad thing is that they didn't start out that way; if they had, I never would have watched the show in the first place, I have very little interest in American sitcoms in general. What they did was have a good idea for something a little out there, and they moved towards the traditional because the casual viewership numbers rose.
A story is not finished until it is read, and the readers finish it through their life experiences, prejudices, world-views and thoughts. Any writer who has to explain their story is no writer at all.