Much like Sheldon Cooper found himself impossibly stuck in last night’s The Big Bang Theory trying to puzzle out a physics conundrum, the show has, I fear, found itself a bit stuck in a conundrum of its own: How to keep its breakout character from overwhelming what has been a delightful, gut-busting ensemble show? Unlike Sheldon, however, it’s going to take a lot more than a quickie stint as Penny’s Cheesecake Factory quasi-co-worker for the show to elucidate this very real concern.
I don’t mean to oversell my frustration; this was still a pretty funny episode. Leonard, for instance, had a great opening line after noticing Sheldon’s frantic early morning behavior: “Penny, I told you, if you don’t put him in his crate at night, he just runs around the apartment.” And the show’s subplot — if you can call it that — involving Howard and Leonard taking their ladies out for a double date of disco roller-skating got off to a strong start with Raj’s lament that his buddies stole the idea from him: “No, it’s okay, I don’t have to go. I’m happy just to guide you and your ladies to suitable entertainment choices. I’m a walking brown Yelp.com.”
But beyond Howard’s insane lycra pants, the women’s mild embarrassment at their men’s boogie abilities (or lack thereof), and the inexplicably silly mini-scene at the end of the episode of Raj and Howard (those pants!) spinning in the rink, said subplot was rather thin in the plot department — more like a sub-distraction, or sub-digression.
Nope, this was yet another Sheldon Cooper Show. Bumfuzzled as Sheldon was by his efforts “to figure out why electrons behave as if they have no mass when traveling through a graphene sheet,” all the other characters still remained in his increasingly powerful orbit, and it pains me to say that I’m concerned the whole gravitational balance of the show is beginning to fall seriously out of whack. Jim Parsons is a gifted actor and damn hilarious physical comedian, and I think I’ll always chuckle at the sight of him popping out of a colored plastic ball pit exclaiming “Bazinga!” But did we really need the scene between Sheldon and Yeardley Smith (a.k.a. the voice of Lisa Simpson) in the employment office as he looked for a menial job to help goad his brain into decoding his problem? For one, it boiled down to yet another Sheldon-cluelessly-drives-someone-crazy scene, a trope that’s maintaining a rapidly diminishing half-life. For another, the best moment in the scene — Smith “checking” her computer to satisfy Sheldon’s desire for a job best described as Ancient Egyptian Pyramid Building Slave — had already been done much better in the “Computer Says No” sketch on BBC America’s Little Britain. Instead, why not use that screen time to show us Howard and Leonard’s allegedly — and, one would presume, hilariously — lame dancing? I mean, the show’d already gone to the trouble of a location shoot for that throwaway ending button with Howard and Raj, so why not make full use of the roller rink and show us what life is like sans Sheldon Cooper?
Ack, there I go overselling my discontent. I promise, I really do love this show, so much so I want the best for it and its characters. I wish Sheldon really had been hired at the Cheesecake Factory, so the show could’ve taken advantage of all the possible comedy from Penny having the upper hand on Sheldon for a change. And the masterfully motherly way Bernadette handled Sheldon’s sleep-deprived freak-out — “OK, Sheldon, what happens to our neuroreceptors when we don’t get enough REM sleep?” — just makes me want to know much more about how her relationship with Howard really works. Balance, that’s all I ask for. Just a little balance.
Best comic alliteration:
Raj: He never went back to the university?
Leonard: Only to shampoo Prof. Shamberg’s Shih Tzu.
Raj: Sheesh
Piece of arcane trivia that I may actually use again in casual conversation:
Sheldon: The plural of coccyx is coccyges.
So, fellow Big Bang Theorists, have I gone off the deep end? Is there such a thing as too much Sheldon Cooper? And were you also horrified yet mesmerized by Howard’s skin-tight disco-roller-rink pants?
Image Credit: Sonja Flemming/CBS
I thought Yeardly Smith was the voice of Bart Simpson, not Lisa.
no, Nancy Cartwright does the voice of Bart
I like Barney’s voice
Nancy Cartwright is the voice of Bart.
It’s not Mike’s fault. Nobody saw him do it.
This show is being carried only by Sheldon and Howard. Leonard and Raj are seriously worthless characters.
Not true! Only the shallow would say this: Leonard is great as the self-deluded “ladies’ man” and Raj is, well, Raj. Worthless? You have got to be kidding! They fill out the show!
Woah, Raj was the MVP for the first half of this season.
agree – love the show – but it is slowlyg becoming the SHELDON show – just as Fonzie took over Happy Days (and not comparing it to HD – BBT MUCH better show) and did enjoy last night’s show – and agree – THOSE PANTS – the guy has to have someone help him get dressed/undressed!! Did enjoy the look on Sheldon’s face when Raj took back his lima beans – it was just a moment – but great.
Fonzie was cool, Kim. Sheldon has become more like Urkel, and annoying as all get out. Gimme more Raj plotlines — I don’t think anyone seems more “real” on the show than he does.
Why was Fonzie cool? Oh right, because he kept telling us he was. Sorry, nobody who is cool wears a leather jacket to the beach.
just saying they’re making the show all about only 1 character, instead of the ensemble
When Jim Parsons started getting award recognition I turned to my daughter and said “I hope he doesn’t become the Urkel of the show” and I feel it’s beginning to happen so I don’t think you are over-reacting at all Adam.
and Urkel was the only reason for watching that show
Urkel was the best reason NOT to watch that show.
who the hell is Urkel?
Jeff, I think you are confusing Leonard and Howard. Howard is the delusional ladies man, not Leonard.
I love this show but I agree, they can’t keep centering every episode on Sheldon. I think Jim Parsons is phenomenal in the role but there’s only so much Dr. Cooper I can take. That said, though, I adored the ball-pit Bazinga scene! It’s bits like that one that remind me why this show is so funny. Plus, next week is apparently a more Leonard oriented episode…so fingers crossed they’ve gotten the message.
I liked seeing it again at the very end. I don’t know how they both kept a straight face!
That whole bit was hilarious. I can’t believe he was able to swim in that stuff, lol.
I feel the same way about Sheldon…I really enjoy his character, but the other cast members are great too. My particular hope is for more attention for Raj, besides Sheldon, he’s my favourite character. I hope the show runners have gotten the memo on the Sheldon issue, it would be a shame to ruin a great character by having him take over the show (ala SNL’s Kristen Wiig).
To succeed, this show must remain an ENSEMBLE show. All the character count and are necessary for the chemistry of the relationships, even the two “lesser” characters of Leonard and Raj (according to at least one). Tonight’s episode was a little disappointing, but still superior to anything else out there.
She’s the voice of Lisa. Nancy Cartwright is Bart.
I agree they need balance, but I have to say, my wife and I were rolling at Sheldon popping out of the balls and yelling “Bazinga.” We could have watched that for a half hour and been satisfied, so we were VERY happy when it came back again at the end.
I had to stop watching because I got so irritated with the never-ending bazinga scene.
It went on too long.
My biggest complaint with this show has always been that Sheldon’s character is too often just played for laughs and doesn’t seem “real.” I mean, you can listen to his cadence and hear him delivery lines and not delivering dialogue. There is a difference. Still, in a sitcom, line delivery is usually the norm, and an oddball character like Sheldon will always be the King of the Line Delivery. That said, it was a funny episode, I laughed quite a bit, and I wasn’t overwhelmed by “too much Sheldon.” Yes, it would have been funnier to see Leonard and Howard at the rink, and that might even have made the final cut scene funnier, but on the whole the episode was a win. BTW, Kaley did a very nice job in her few scenes this week, and she looked GREAT at the Grammys.
I agree they are running the risk of wearing out the Sheldon character. But I still laughed like a crazy person during this episode. Ball pit, roller boogie, and labeling Apple Genius as a menial job. Funny stuff.
Agree, I loved this episode. I kept it on the tivo to watch again later. Something’s gotta be done about Raj though. He’s definitely the odd man out since he cares; Sheldon doesn’t so he’s fine flying solo. How about a drunken Vegas binge where Raj wakes up married?? That’s really the only way he’s ever gonna have any kind of consistent female companionship. He’ll be forced to interact with her while sober.
Have you rebooted him?
No, we think it’s a firmware issue.
lol
I disagree. I think last night’s show was the funniest I’d seen in a while.
Agree on both counts here: It was a hilarious show (best in a while), but the Sheldon stuff is getting into jump-the-shark territory.
I was crying during the ballpit scene. “Bazinga!” LMFAO!!!
My Kids and I were in hysterics!! I don’t know why everyone’s complaining, I loved the episode.
For the first time in a long time, I agree totally with this blog. I still love the show. To me, it’s the funniest sitcom on TV. But I’ve been getting just a tad annoyed by seeing how so many recent episodes have been centering on Sheldon, and how the others have to react to him–or worse, please him–to keep him satisfied. I fear the “Fonzie Syndrome” may be looming on the horizon, wrecking the wonderful ensemble. I feel for Johnny Galecki, who must be feeling like he’s fast becoming a whiny second-banana. And the others now treat him as if he’s actually some underachieving failure (he’s still a genius, remember).
Why can’t the writers try a Sheldon-less episode (or at least keep him limited to a cameo appearance) and come up with a great, funny story featuring the other characters? Any combination would do. Time to give Sheldon a “time out.”
Best sitcom on TV? You seriously need to get a life. Not even close. It’s your typical laugh track vanilla sh!tcom like 1000 others in the past.
Yes, because nothing says “I have a life” better than going on a show’s forum and making fun of people who genuinely like it. I’m sorry we couldn’t measure up to your tastes.
Ain’t it the truth. If freak dislikes it so much, why is he devoting time complaining about it.
And your life is SO very full that you’ve posted twice on the first page.
Laugh track? I think not. Having attended tapings I can tell you that, if anything, they tone down the audience’s laughter.
I can’t stand it when someone makes a comment just to be a d—.
And he didn’t say it was the best show *ever*, just the funniest one on TV right now. Considering there’s only about 3 other shows that are funny at all (to me), BBT could be the funniest on TV.
It’s an interesting dilemma. None of us want BBT to devolve into the Sheldon Show, but the episodes like tonight’s are so funny that we ultimately don’t complain. I do hope they balance things out with the other characters, but the show is still better than 90% of anything else on TV.
Completely agree with this. On the one hand it seems Sheldon is now the main character and most plots are folks reacting to him, on the other hand it’s funny so…
And therein lies the conundrum–we all love watching the Sheldon character and the writers of BBT know it, so they give us more. It’s like eating too much of your favorite food, Fonzie-Urkel syndrome or any other analogy you want to use. That said, I too liked last night’s episode. My only pet peeve comes during the closing credits. I have the Comcast DVR and whenever I pause the screen to try and read Chuck Lorre’s whimsical signoffs the DVR key pops up at the bottom of the screen and blocks out the last couple of sentences. I suppose this is part of their marketing campaign for fans to buy the DVDs so they can pause as long as they need to read the screen.
TMB, I doubt if you’ll ever read this, but there are two ways you can read the last few lines. (1) Hit the OK button on your remote, and the DVR key will go away when you pause the screen. (2) All of the signoff cards are available on the Chuck Lorre website…
Its been becoming the sheldon show for awhile. Which is a shame because that supporting cast is killer. A little Sheldon goes a long way. Bernadette is great but they are having a what do we do with Raj problem . The need to odd couple Raj and howard.
I love Big Bang Theory. I liked last nights episode because it wasn’t so much what I consider “smart funny” it was just outright hilarious. I feel like BBT is still just as funny if not more so than it was on day 1. I don’t understand why all of the show recappers on EW feels the need to bash the shows that the review. Why not write about a show you like. Are you trying to spark conversation? I would rather read someone’s article that actually appreciates the show.
I think Adam does appreciate the show, but he is free to voice his discontent with “The Sheldon Show”. It appears that many fans here feel the same. I love Sheldon but would like to see more of the other characters, too. My husband, who doesn’t usually watch the show, often comments on how much Sheldon is shown.
I don’t like it when reviewers compare American shows to BBC shows. Not everyone watches BBC. It’s fine to voice discontent – that’s what reviewers are supposed to do, take the good, take the bad, etc. But in comparing them to BBC shows, you get the inevitable “BBC does it better, look at The Office, look at Coupling.” This isn’t comparable, so why do it?
I just kept rewinding to the final shot of Sheldon and Leonard in the ball pit when, with the final “Bazinga!” Sheldon finally started to crack up.
FINALLY! I kept looking for someone besides me who noticed that it is indeed a laugh on his face in the final scene!!! l o v e d it !
me too!
Yeah I saw it too.
I want more Bernadette! The way she handled Sheldon was perfect, and I think she has really evolved into the sixth cast member. I love Sheldon and Raj, but Bernadette is quickly rising up my list of characters I want to see more of.
I second that notion! She comes off so vapid, but then with a smile reels off something incredibly brainy or insightful, like last night’s Sheldon handling. I want to know more about her.
Yes, more Bernadette! I love watching her interact with the other guys in the group besides Howard.
Yep, totally agree with Adam’s review. I LOVE this show as well as the adorable and talented cast that supports it but it is becoming too Sheldon centric. I was just re-watching the first season recently and it’s very obvious how far the show has moved from more balanced episodes to Sheldon taking the lead in almost every plot line. While it’s still hilarious, the first season was quite funny and a little Sheldon went a long way and worked just fine that way. I really hope the writers start seeing the risk they are taking with too much Sheldon. Although, the one story plot line works much better for this show so I hope they stick with it and put Sheldon as supporting role in some episodes. He can still foster just as many laughs. And like most of you, my concern is that too much Sheldon is going to start getting old very soon for viewers, especially those that have been watching it from the beginning. The show has been lucky in that they’ve gained a lot of new viewers this season who don’t know what a quality and funny show this was the first two seasons/season and 1/2. Let’s hope the writers redeem themselves in the next episode.