If it wasn’t already abundantly clear, last night’s Big Bang Theory locked down this iron-clad axiom: Sheldon + Penny > Practically anything else on the show. This is no knock on Leonard, Howard, or poor Raj, who was especially MIA last night, and especially missed. It’s just that the improbable platonic friendship between this persnickety Texan and down-to-earth Nebraskan is undeniably the show’s beating heart, and any episode that advances that relationship is all the better for it. For one thing, through them, we learned that Fig Newtons were named for a small town in Massachusetts and not Isaac Newton. Go fig. (Sorry, I had to.)
That lovely factoid was the fruit of Sheldon’s agreement to teach Penny physics, so that she could actually understand what it is her boyfriend does for a living. Apparently, until Howard’s new microbiologist girlfriend Bernadette took a real interest in Leonard’s upcoming experiment, this cognitive disparity had never really bothered Penny, but I am beyond grateful that the writers didn’t use this moment to launch into the tired cliché of the-girlfriend-who-gets-instantly-jealous-of-female-competition. Nope, when Bernadette asked Leonard if he’s going to “try to set up the voltages using tunnel junctions” (ahem), Howard was the one with the little green monster — which is as it should be, really. READ FULL STORY »
Barry Kripke, you have made a new enemy. Not only are your bratty antics a permanent thorn in Sheldon Cooper’s side. Not only is your speech impediment transparently designed to make you more annoying, which therefore actually does make you more annoying in a kind of post-modern, meta way. Not only does your mere presence in an episode of The Big Bang Theory certifiably guarantee unremitting lameness. But last night, you almost single-handedly torpedoed the Big Bang episode featuring very special guest star Katee Sackhoff, known to sci-fi geeks everywhere as Kara “Starbuck” Thrace of the late, great 
I can’t say I’m a Sheldon/Penny ‘shipper myself, so I’m not entirely sure whether last night’s episode was cause to rejoice or not for those rather insistent Big Bang Theory fans who subscribe to the notion that the otherwise asexual quantum physicist should shack up with the rather sweet blonde Cheesecake Factory waitress who lives across the hall. True, Sheldon quite clearly, if accidentally, got to second base with Penny. And a drug-addled Penny did coyly joke at the end of the episode about Sheldon helping her to bed. But the vibe between them felt pretty much little sister/big brother all the way to me, right up to the climactic moment when Penny asked Sheldon to sing “Soft Kitty” with her. Then again, their in-the-round duet of Sheldon’s “when you’re sick” song did cause the studio audience to explode with such rowdy excitement that I can only attribute it to some serious pent up sexual tension.
Don’t let that sweet and cuddly photo from the end of last night’s Big Bang Theory fool you; this episode was packed to the rafters with one full bore fight after another, and, thank jeebus, the result was maybe the funniest ep of the season thus far. Which means I owe Pennard an apology. For weeks now, I’ve used this space to 
Poor Wolowitz and Koothrappali — or, as I’ve taken to calling the inseparable duo, Woloppali. With Leonard and Penny (Lenny? Pennard?) soaking up so much screen time — or rather, with their relationship soaking up so much of Sheldon’s time — Big Bang Theory‘s horny C-3PO and guileless R2-D2 were left adrift in a subplot that peaked at the very top of the episode. Namely, the mighty choice sight gag of Wolowitz walking in decked out like an Adam Lambert wannabe sporting a coif that was somehow equal parts emo and rockabilly.
