10-30-2014, 10:02 AM
It occurred to me, watching the first scene of this ep, when H & R are talking about Raj's supposed encounter with a green-costumed guy, that this was sort of a recurring thing with their characters, early on: H and/or R always have some wild story that we only get to hear about second or third-hand. It's an interesting technique, because it keeps their characters slightly mysterious. It's fun when they'll casually drop some reference to some bizarre adventure they had, and the audience can only guess at what really happened.
For a while, we were sort of kept at a distance from Howard and Raj, and the only things we knew about them were what they told us. IIRC, it's not until 1.07 that we see Howard at home with his mother, and we only see Raj's parents twice in all of S1 and S2; these two don't have much backstory at first.
That might've been an interesting direction to take, with them: H &R as the slightly mysterious "other guys" who have a world of their own that the audience isn't privy to, and we only get little glimpses of it, through their own, probably embellished, reportage.
One thing I find kind of tantalizing about this show is that the most interesting stuff often seems to be happening off-stage and we only get to hear about it, not see it.
While I don't love the idea of H & R being *only* the onlookers to the Penny-Sheldon-Leonard drama and never having an episode of their own, that would've been an interesting narrative technique and I'd certainly prefer it over what came later.
Maybe I'm reading too much into it; it's probably just that H&R were supposed to be minor characters and that's why there wasn't much focus on them, but IMO a bit more separation between S-P-L as one "group" and H-R as another "group" could've opened up some interesting possibilities. "Hey, guess what Raj and I did, this weekend..." followed by some tall tale, would've been a great running joke.
ETA: Raj's mutism, and the fact that our experience of him is often filtered through Howard, adds another interesting layer.
For a while, we were sort of kept at a distance from Howard and Raj, and the only things we knew about them were what they told us. IIRC, it's not until 1.07 that we see Howard at home with his mother, and we only see Raj's parents twice in all of S1 and S2; these two don't have much backstory at first.
That might've been an interesting direction to take, with them: H &R as the slightly mysterious "other guys" who have a world of their own that the audience isn't privy to, and we only get little glimpses of it, through their own, probably embellished, reportage.
One thing I find kind of tantalizing about this show is that the most interesting stuff often seems to be happening off-stage and we only get to hear about it, not see it.
While I don't love the idea of H & R being *only* the onlookers to the Penny-Sheldon-Leonard drama and never having an episode of their own, that would've been an interesting narrative technique and I'd certainly prefer it over what came later.
Maybe I'm reading too much into it; it's probably just that H&R were supposed to be minor characters and that's why there wasn't much focus on them, but IMO a bit more separation between S-P-L as one "group" and H-R as another "group" could've opened up some interesting possibilities. "Hey, guess what Raj and I did, this weekend..." followed by some tall tale, would've been a great running joke.
ETA: Raj's mutism, and the fact that our experience of him is often filtered through Howard, adds another interesting layer.