Image Credit: Cliff Lipson/CBSSo, best episode of the season, right? Yeah, it was a smidge gimmicky to construct a Big Bang Theory story around the discovery of a genuine One Ring prop ring from The Lord of the Rings (ringy ring ring), but it easily netted a jackpot of full-body guffaws from this particular viewer, and I have a feeling most of y’all as well. Everyone in the cast had a showcase moment (or several), the story played beautifully off each character’s particular quirks, and Penny finally got to give Sheldon the knuckle sandwich he’s deserved for nigh on three seasons
It all started with a clever bit of we’re-a-fellowship-on-a-quest foreshadowing, namely Sheldon explaining to Leonard that in their “ragtag band of scientists with nothing to lose,” Sheldon is the Smart One, Howard is the Funny One, Raj is the Lovable Foreigner Who Struggles To Understand Our Ways And Fails, and Leonard is the Muscle. Hence why Leonard alone had to bear the burden of the box of geektastic tchotchkes they had just purchased for $60 at a local garage sale — a garage sale they discovered after following a man they thought was Adam West.
“Who’s Adam West?” asked Penny.
“Who’s Adam West?!” exclaimed Sheldon. “Leonard, what do the two of you talk about after the coitus?” (The coitus! Love it!)
Before Leonard could answer, Howard chimed in: “My guess is, ‘Hey, four minutes, new record!’” And immediately, I knew it was going to be a good night indeed. READ FULL STORY »
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.
First things first: My apologies for missing my Big Bang Theory recap last week, fellow Big Bang Theorists. You can blame the amoebae that have taken up residence in my tummy and fell me but good last Monday night. (I’ll spare y’all any further description other than to relay that, stemming from my best guess for the complicated scientific names for the little buggers based on what my doctor told me, my boyfriend has decided to call the amoebae Butch and Nana. Sheldon would so not approve.) I was especially bummed that I didn’t get to commiserate with you about last week’s Big Bang, too, since a night out as Raj’s wingman brought out a delightfully unexpected flirtatious side of Sheldon Cooper — even if Sheldon himself was completely unaware that he was, in fact, flirting with a co-ed with a rather improbable fetish for super-hero merch. (As opposed to Sheldon’s completely probable fetish for super-hero merch.)
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 
