9.18 The Application Deterioration

[HomoNovus]

Bernadette was manipulative as always with Wolowitz.

[Nutz]

There were a couple of things I liked from tonight's show and surprisingly it was all dealing with Raj. 

It's no secret here that I would rather have someone shove Bamboo shoots under my fingernails then watch Bernadette, Amy & drunk Penny have one of their passive-aggressive, by the numbers "girls night/council of ladies" and it looked like this was just another forgettable session. Ask about Bernadettes morning sickness...check. Make sarcastic joke...check. Watch Penny pouring ANOUTHER glass of wine to get through it...check. One of the boys comes in for advice...check. However, once Raj puts Emily on speakerphone was where things got interesting. Socially smart Penny was back and her reactions listening to Emily's "I just really miss my best friend" and her knowing telling Raj "to say hi to Emily" after he said it was over with Emily and starts leaving was actually funny.

The other scene that amused me was Raj in the car playing phone tag with Emily and Claire. Where Emily would say say something it get him to come over, Raj would call Claire and say he's going over, Claire saying Emily's manipulating him and then telling him exactly what Emily said to prove it, Raj calling back Emily saying he can't come over, and it starting over again was funny. It reminded me that these guys were once funny when dealing with outside influences like Kripke, Leslie, Wil, and Gabelhouser before they Stepforded them to the point there's no conflict. It made you root for our boys to come out on top against them. Unfortunately they ended this whole setup by going with the overused cliche of Raj and Emily in bed together 


The other story was..well it was frustrating. Sheldon, Leonard & Howard go to Patent their idea and are surprised that The University will own most of it. Really? First these guys would all be making between 80 to 140 thousand dollars a year...each. So the desperate need money angle is just stupid. Second, after all this time they thought they owned the intellectual property that they come up with and are shocked the University would own most of the Patent? I thought they were supposed to be bright. BTW, the University letting them have 25% is damn generous and they would've been within their rights To simply take all the notes, math, etc they've done and given it to another Scientist to work on if the guys got pissy and said they just wouldn't build it then.

We also got Sheldumb getting an erection over making contracts. Sheldons a bully jokes, Penny doesn't care about me jokes from Leonard, Sheldon/Penny is dumb jokes, a completely throw away Sheldon/OCD joke (I guess to remind people he actually used to have OCD for an upcoming episode) and other filler crap.   

What really makes me sad about this episode: When vintage Sheldon was putting people down, he was socially clueless, and was genuinely confused why people were mad at him telling the truth (as he saw it) Now, Sheldon knows exactly what he's saying, and just doesn't care. Vintage Sheldon could be forgiven and even loved because he didn't understand social niceties and could get away saying things we wished we could say. Sheldumb can't be forgiven because he's just an arrogant prat. Growth my ass.

[Tuesday Pajamas]

"Growth my ass." 

Just had to highlight that sentence in your post Nutz.

Decided to watch this because I’ve not watched any of the episodes this season all the way through and I thought I'd dunk in a toe. And wow talk about borrrrrrring.

Sheldon is just the tiny little brat child whose not even remotely funny. The rest of the characters are the same but not carrying the shows humour at all. “Once I found a stash of contracts under his bed, It was weird.” I’m assuming “it was weird” was the punchline here. It’s so weak.

On another note: They have stopped giving Amy a few hair extensions and her hair looks really scraggy again.

The big AWWW moment, the 25% to Howardette's hell spawn. Dribblingly cringeworthy.

[HomoNovus]

"Growth my ass." 

Just had to highlight that sentence in your post Nutz.

Decided to watch this because I’ve not watched any of the episodes this season all the way through and I thought I'd dunk in a toe. And wow talk about borrrrrrring.

Sheldon is just the tiny little brat child whose not even remotely funny. The rest of the characters are the same but not carrying the shows humour at all. “Once I found a stash of contracts under his bed, It was weird.” I’m assuming “it was weird” was the punchline here. It’s so weak.

On another note: They have stopped giving Amy a few hair extensions and her hair looks really scraggy again.

The big AWWW moment, the 25% to Howardette's hell spawn. Dribblingly cringeworthy.

You're absolutely right. The humour is so cheap this season. Karaoke contests (when you're using karaoke in a sitcom you're really scrapin' the bottom of the barrel) , and such week lines in general.

[Tuesday Pajamas]

Little Shenny looks...

[Idle Miscreant]

And Leonard and Amy looking long-suffering, the poor martyrs...How DOES their perfection put up with Penny and Sheldon?

[Ratman77]

They act as beautiful conspiratorially as in old days. A little, but cute scene.    

Amy and Leonard...........gnome.


I still stand by my opinion regarding the producers: Blind and deaf.

(At a german forum, a member has written that now (during season nine) she has viewed the first seasons again and decided that the best was the second one. And it is true. The stories were good, the humor really funny and the characters manifest. Personally there I have nothing to add.......only one question: "Is it coincidence that the second one was the "Shenny"-season too?    )

[CassandraElise]

I just want to point out that any exchanged look, regardless of whether it was initially ad-libbed by Jim and Kaley, has to go through several different people before we see it on our TV sets. First the director has to approve it. Hell, maybe the director told Kaley to be amused by all of Sheldon's jokes. We don't know. Then the cameraman had to set up several shots of this exchange: some from Sheldon's angle, some from Penny's. The cameraman only films what he wants us to see, so he wanted us to see Sheldon hamming it up, and nobody being amused except Penny. Finally, the editors decided which takes were the best and edited them together. We don't know what those alternate takes looked like, but the editors thought Penny being genuinely delighted by Sheldon while Leonard and Amy give their typical reproving glares was the best shot.

So what am I getting at? ALL of these subtle looks from season 1-9 are painstakingly designed. Nothing is an accident. This proves to me that the crew KNOW which relationship (Shenny) is genuine and healthy and they KNOW which relationships suck. They've shown us this time and time again through carefully crafted camera angles focusing on the facial expressions and the body language of the characters. They've shown us this through all the little nuances that completely go over the casual viewer's head. We can talk about the producers and vast majority of fans being blind and deaf, but I think everybody else has jumped onto the Shenny ship.