04-04-2016, 06:42 PM
(04-04-2016, 03:37 PM)Idle Miscreant Wrote: The scenes and episodes which claw their way to the top of the polls, and are generally bandied about by Joe Schmoe, are always either the Sheldon/Penny ones, or those with an emphasis on the group, usually with a heavy geek element.
Yet the focus (if being repeatedly bludgeoned allows for anything as subtle as focus) for the past 5 years has been Sheldon and Amy's relationship, and though this, Sheldon's excruciating and depressing journey to normaldom.
I stopped watching in early Season 8, after the first few episodes showed the direction (a lacklustre one-way trip to the burbs, seemingly. I could be wrong), but every time I check in and read one of those oddly biased taping reports, it appears to be some variation of;
Sheldon does something Sheldonic, Saint Amy complains (as a bonus, sometimes Leonard complains as well), Sheldon learns the error of being Sheldon, and becomes a better boyfriend for Saint Amy (who has SUFFERED SO MUCH, or rather, was unpopular in high school O MY BLEEDING HEART!)
I have yet to find anything interesting in this.
Bizarrely though, it has been going on for five years. Presumably, at end, Sheldon will have been utterly replaced, cell by cell, like a mineralised fossil, with Amy's perfect boyfriend.
As an occasional fossil dealer, I would personally put this on the shelf next to the polished coprolite.
Part of the joy of the Sheldon/Penny scenes, other than the obvious comedy brilliance of the entangled and conflicting opposites, was that she didn't give a damn about trying to change him. She accepted him fairly early on (I'd suggest Pancake Batter Anomaly?), and then simply took great glee jousting with the fucker.
If he asked for advice, or needed solace, she was there. Otherwise she let Sheldon be Sheldon.
Similarly, Sheldon took as fact that Penny was ill-educated, and somewhat chaotic, and yet persisted in going to her for help in matters of social etiquette, or for sheer companionship. Her appearance was completely immaterial to him, and therefore the ONLY reason he valued her company was for her personality and nature. Something I've always doubted about Leonard.
Plot-wise, I wouldn't have gone for a Sheldon and Penny romance myself (except for at the end), simply because I'm not a fan of romance in general. Indeed, I enjoyed that there were two male/female characters that were ALLOWED to be friends, and not merely in the precursory stages of a relationship. But that said, if such a relationship had emerged, I wouldn't have been even vaguely surprised. Penny and Sheldon are positive and negative, attracting through their different charges, whilst remaining at core very similar. Sheldon and Amy however, strike me as a baffling effort to stick a magnet to a boiled potato.
I remain baffled, also, as to why Sheldon and Penny's friendship needs to be forced aside, limited to one episode per season (and not even that!) in order to give prominence to this magnet/potato dalliance, instead of functioning alongside it, as a much-needed kick in the entertainment bollocks.
These are clever writers, so I ponder...
This is so true. Watching Sheldon and Penny bantering is amusing and full of fun. Though I suppose there might be some hilarious moments if they were ever thrown into a romantic relationship, the romance itself isn't really needed to push things along simply because the air sizzles whenever Sheldon and Penny are in a scene together, something which the tptb ignores for no other reasons other than to please the rabid canon-shippers.
"magnet/potato dalliance" - I believe this has to be the ultimate description for Lenny and Shamy. It's absolutely brilliant.
What's worse is that because of this magne-potatoness, the friendship between Sheldon and Penny has to be sacrificed because, ermahgawd, we can't have a male and a female being friends when they have bf/gf/wife/husband/potatoes.