One of my favorite things about The Big Bang Theory — the thing, in fact, that got me officially hooked on the show in the first place — is the way on occasion it casually breaks certain steadfast sitcom rules. Exhibit A: Sitcom characters are never supposed to laugh at a funny situation, even when the natural response for most human beings would be to break down in hysterics. But every so often, Penny will actually laugh at something Sheldon or Leonard has done that’s genuinely funny, and not one of those forced sitcom-y laughs, either. (This example is as it happens the aforementioned catalyst for my now rather serious Big Bang addiction.)
Exhibit B: Last night, Wolowitz actually called Sheldon on one of his countless mini-lectures on arcane scientific trivia, i.e. Sheldon’s insistence that the cricket chirping within earshot was, due to the length between chirps and the ambient temperature in the room, a snowy tree cricket. Instead of letting it pass by as a rote character tic used as a throwaway punchline, Wolowitz insisted instead that the insect had to be your run-of-the-mill field cricket. So with respective rare copies of Fantastic Four (#48, first appearance of the Silver Surfer) and Flash (#123, the classic Two Worlds issue) on the line, Wolowitz and Sheldon spent the rest of the episode hilariously trying to prove the other wrong and/or distract us from the milquetoast romantic fumblings of Penny and Leonard.
(Excuse me, Koothrappali, but some of us think the fourth Harry Potter movie was one of the absolute best in the series. The sixth Harry Potter movie, on the other hand…)
Yes, it appears some sitcom clichés remain unwaveringly intact: Penny and Leonard’s sex life is merely “fine,” a problem Sheldon promptly blurts out in front of Penny, which causes the new couple to careen into a night of forced inebriation in an attempt to get foxy in the boudoir. Instead, they get pukey in Penny’s loo, and the next day try to call things off and just be friends, only to get all hot and bothered again once the pressure of sexually performing had been lifted as artificially as it had been created in the first place. Which is to say, the writers dragged things along for another episode, it what appears to be a tap dance to get us to November sweeps, when Penny and Leonard will, one hopes, finally call things off for good. I love me some Kaley Cuoco and Johnny Galecki, both separately and together, but when Sheldon shrugged off this couple’s worries with a brusque “Ah, who cares,” I had to wonder if he wasn’t speaking for the audience too.
Far more satisfying was the Howard Wolowitz/Sheldon Cooper showdown over whether their captured arthropod was Toby the common field cricket or Jiminy the snow tree cricket. After spending the night seeking out the insect in question — during which they actually made use of the permanently out of order elevator, forging yet another bold new frontier on the show — they took their bug to the university’s recently canned top entomologist Professor Crawley, played by guest star Lewis Black with his inimitable brand of abject fury. I mean, only Black’s aneurism-triggering line ridings could effectively sell an iffy joke like “We’re not talking Oxnard at the beach. No! We’re talking Oxnard in the onion fields!” Crawley’s verdict made history once again: The cricket was indeed Toby, not Jiminy, and Sheldon had to face the epochal event of being proved wrong. I have to say, I thought our bean poll genius took the blow rather well, all things considered, which makes me wonder if we haven’t actually heard the last of “The Jiminy Conjecture.” Then again, Sheldon also didn’t completely blow a gasket when Leonard brought home Indian food from Mumbai Palace instead of Tandoori Palace, so maybe the man who was once chased into a tree by the neighbor’s chicken is actually evolving? Slightly? Maybe?
Favorite exchange:
Sheldon [Holding Flash #123]: “I lost this to Wolowitz in an ill-conceived cricket wager.”
Penny: “What, do they have Wii Cricket now? Well, that can’t be very popular.”
Favorite call back: “Ooo, big talk from a man who was once treed by a chicken.”
Least favorite moment that should not happen ever again: Extreme close-ups of massive creepy insects without proper pre-show warnings. Some people may still have nightmares about that one scene in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, thankyouverymuch.
So, Big Bang theorists, how’d you enjoy last night’s episode? Are you tiring of the Penny/Leonard shenanigans already? What other long-standing elements from the show would you like to see get called out and questioned? Like, for example, isn’t it time someone asked Wolowitz just how long it takes him to color coordinate his wardrobe?
If the writers are reading, please consider the following:
you can make the penny/leonard situation interesting by showing them outside the regular group, i.e. they go meet penny’s friends, penny’s family. Make them try and do normal couple things and show how leonard’s social quirky-ness and penny’s non-so-scientific brain
yes! great idea!
I agree, too! I’m looking forward to that!
Superluli, great idea. Hope someone associated with the show read these. Sorry writer ADAM VARY, but I love the Penny and Leonard coupling. It’s so cute! They’re so cute!! And for a standard sitcom, having a natural, Jim and Pam relationship (instead of the standard Ross and Rachael type), would be refreshing. I look forward to some of those awkward, true-to-life moments and hope the relationship develops naturally. I hope the writers do too.
Agreed, great idea!
Yeah, Koothrappali’s right-both the 4th HP movie AND book suck majorly.
Goblet of Fire was a GREAT book. Third fave behind DH and OotP. The movie, however, I agree with Raj. It was just fine. The 6th movie by far was the best. It felt way more like the book.
And great moments in this episode. I like that Penny and Leonard don’t just fit together easily. That’s way too cliche to do.
I can’t ever finish Goblet of Fire (the movie). Harry’s hair is terrible and distracting. True story.
The book, however, is my favorite in the series.
I agree with Harry’s hair in the 4th movie. It was horrible.
If a character’s hairstyle throws you off of a movie, then your opinion shouldn’t count. Leave it to the people who were able to actually concentrate on the story being told and the manner in which it was achieved.
The fourth movie was just fine. The excellent book was far too long to be turned into a stellar picture.
I disagree. The 5th book is the longest of the series and the movie was fantastic! My personal favorite too. The length of the book is a weak excuse for a mediocre movie like the Goblet of Fire when the Order of the Phoenix was done so well.
I love this show so much! Monday night’s episode was so funny. Sheldon trying to figure out which line he crossed…
I don’t know – the jokes fell a little flat, the comedy was a bit forced to me. In comparison to last year. Different writers?
I agree. I don’t know if it’s just that the Penny/Leonard stuff bores me so much that I can’t enjoy the episodes as well, or if something’s different.
I agree. It seems a little off so far this season. Maybe I feel it’s too much Leonard and Penny focused- I’m not sure. However, it’s still so much funnier than the two shows on after it though.
Too much Leonard and Penny? Only people who don’t want them together would say that. If there’s anything wrong (and I’m not saying there is and am only humoring everyone’s bizarre insistance that there’s something wrong in the first place) is TOO MUCH SHELDON! I love Sheldon, my favorite character, but there are four other main characters on the show. Trying to wedge Sheldon into everything has the potential to be annoying.
sooo i agree with mark. i love sheldon to pieces, he does make off with the show, but the other four getting more airtime is greatly needed. They sometimes deliver the best lines, especially one-liners. I really feel Johnny Galecki totally carries the best supporting actor role…
Yeah I felt that too. I dont know why, some jokes were like dull or a little forced. Im a biggest BBT fan, and I dont think its the Leonard- Penny issue (Superluli´s idea sounds great to work on it); I hope they fix it soon, cause The Jiminy Conjecture was not very much fun to me. Oddly enough, the 1st episode was as good as the rest… Hmmm maybe the guys are just recovering from their north pole stay
by the way, I LOVE Penny and Leonard together! (am I the only one?) So cute:)
You’re not the only one. I like Leonard and Penny as a couple. Granted, I’d hate it if the show became Adventures in Leonard and Penny’s Dating Life – I like it as an ensemble focused on the four guys – but I’m cool with them together.
My penis wants them apart because he is very envious of Leonard.
The sixth movie in the HP series was awesome! Bite your tongue! Love TBBT!
Harry not being “frozen” for the big scene in the movie made it dramatically less effective than the book.
I love this show so much. It is one of the few shows that actually has me laughing out loud. The only thing that could make it better is pairing it back up with How I Met Your Mother. I have a free hour block of time between them. It’s annoying.
Agreed! The two shows between them are totally awful.
YES! They need to be put back together. HIMYM is also one of those rare shows that genuinely laugh at each others jokes.
Accidentally on Purpose sucks so bad I can’t even leave it on as background noise while doing the dishes
I’m with you there. But then I look at is as an hour I can walk the dogs, take a bath, iron tomorrow’s clothes, and do a few other small errands. Surely CBS doesn’t expect me to sit through the garbage that is 8:30 to 9:30 on Mondays?
I agree – BBT and HIMYM should be the 8PM and 8:30 shows (EST). I don’t know why they moved the shows around. Although sometimes, HIMYM is a teeny bit risque for the 8PM slot.
They moved them around because if they didn’t hammock Dharma’s new show between a good show and a very popular show, even less people would watch it.
Thought this was a great first outing for new writer Jim Reynolds, but some of the group dynamics were a bit off. Genuinely looking forward to what comes next from him because when he got it right, he got it so right. And honestly if the entire A-plot was just to get us to a Creepy Crawley joke, it was time well spent.
I’m so over the whole Leonard/Penny thing. They’re boring, or they’re drunk and boring, or they’re nonsensically making out and boring (am I the only one who saw that last 30 seconds as taking us right back to where we started with them last week? Although if it leads to more jokes at the expense of Leonard’s prowess, I am all about. Just about howled with laughter at the “floppy disk” joke, juvenile as I am). Let’s move on already.
Dude, I so agree on both counts. Penny and Leonard do not work together and time spent on their romance is time away from the much more satisfyingly hilarious shenanigans from Sheldon, Raj, and Howard.
I would rather they use Leonard’s self-loathing to spur plot movement. That’s a geek trope that hasn’t been seen much but it works well. The other three geeks are pretty comfortable with who they are but Leonard always seems embarrassed by everything.
The show is great. Since I only watched it occasionally last year, it’s still new to me. Actually Leonard is the most normal of the nerd herd. Best line? “I could throw three rocks in here and hit better friends” Ha!
on the whole, the episode was a little flat for me. But I did like that that the Penny/Leonard relationship was only a subplot and the cricket showdown was the main plot, because making it “the Penny-Leonard trajectory” every week would be boring. I want more Howard and Raj storylines. They rock. This is an ensemble show, and focusing too much on any one char. or pairing is bad for the show. You could tell it was a new writer, though. The interactions didn’t quite work. The actors pulled it off, but something was missing overall. But not every show is perfect, and this series is still overall the best sitcom on TV.
One of the things I love about The Big Bang Theory is these charaters all have their flaws and they are nerds that are lovable instead of sterotyped. It’s really one of the most wonderful shows on television. I remember thinking to myself “Anyother sitcom would of had this scene take place in a coffee shop. Instead, they are talking about a actual relationship…in a comic book store.”
…my favorite parts of the episode were when Sheldon, Wolowitz and Koothrapali are stuck in the closet looking for the cricket and then try to get out, all at the same time…and also when Sheldon says to Koothrapali “Lady bugs must render you into a catatonic state” LOL!…but the Jenna Elfman show and Charlie’s and Alan’s girlfriends have got to go…
Loved that silly joke!
Maybe it’s early or maybe I’m dumb, but shouldn’t it be “beanpole genius” and not “bean poll genius”?
you’re right.
also “Black’s aneurism-triggering line ridings” should read “Black’s aneurism-triggering line readings”
isn’t EW a professional corporation? where’s the editing/ spell check?
You’re not dumb – you are right: it should be “beanpole”. I was about to make the same comment and you beat me to it!
Thought Sheldon, Raj, Howard were hilarious in last night’s episode. That being said, something has felt off the last two episodes. I don’t know what it is, but the group dynamics have felt shifted to me, and I don’t think it is just because of the new Penny/Leonard relationship.
So I tried to give L/P a shot, but I am sorry, they do not work. I am glad they did not take too much time because they do not hold my interest. I am hoping it will end soon, and for good. They just bore me.
I think the episode was best as it was…if Leonard’s character would have been free to interact with the other 3 he would have basically told them how dumb they were being, would have lasted 5 minutes and then on to another plot – as it was we got raiders of the lost cricket and a character (I have to say favorite) being made to admit he’s wrong..
Love this show. The best on TV togetherwith HIMYM. I gave a second chance to the pregnant-chick show but it is awful. Please pair BBT and HIMYM. the hour in between is a waste of time.
I like Penny and Leonard. It will be interesting to see them together in a “normal” relationship. Love all the nerds!
Accidentally on Purpose is positively painful. Can we start a petition to get HIMYM and BBT back to back?
agreed about AOP — watched the first one – ho hum — watched 5 minutes of the 2nd one – changed channels and won’t be back