I know people want a "Big Bang Theory" post each week, but I don't have a ton to say about last night's solid but unspectacular episode, save that I've started to prefer episodes that shake up the character pairings over ones like this that has the more standard alignment of Raj with Howard, and Leonard moving back and forth between Penny and Sheldon. Talk about it if you want, though. What did everybody else think?
I wish they hadn't run the Cylon toast joke into the ground. It's much funnier if it's not explained.
ReplyDeleteHad some good laughs. I do understand the predictable blandness of going with the usual pairings with each subplot, but I didn't mind it so long as they provided a good 22 minutes of laughter. I actually do prefer the dynamic of all four guys (the kite fighting scene and the following car scene was golden), but I take what I can get with this show. I felt like crap yesterday after a bad day at work and The Big Bang Theory managed to pick my spirits up. Good episode.
ReplyDeleteOh, my favorite gag? Sheldon doing his patented knock on Penny's door even though it's open.
I thought it was a brilliant idea to have Sheldon teach Leonard football, and I was taken aback that they chose to have that happen offscreen instead of making a whole scene out of it. They had comedy gold and decided to bury it.
ReplyDeleteJon I agree. Wish they'd also shown more of Leonard with the Penny's friends. Seemed like they spent a lot of time with Leonard worrying that Penny was embarrassed by him (a fair thought) and not enough with the funny football stuff. Odd.
ReplyDeleteAlso it could've been really funny to see all four of the guys around Penny's friends.
I also have nothing specific to say about the episode...but because it involved my beloved Cornhuskers, I just have to say:
ReplyDeleteGOOOOOO BBIIIIIIGGGGG REEEEEEDDD!!!! GO BIG RED!
even in a fair episode like this you can always count on a good 2-3 minutes of belly laughs out of Sheldon. What was it? "after this I'll teach you how to shoot so close to a raccoon it'll crap itself"
ReplyDelete"Anonymous said...
ReplyDeleteI wish they hadn't run the Cylon toast joke into the ground. It's much funnier if it's not explained."
I totally agree. I found it funny till Sheldon mentions a "Battlestar called Galactica".
Good episode though. Third season of TBBT is far better than the Fifth of HIMYM.
I thought it was a brilliant idea to have Sheldon teach Leonard football, and I was taken aback that they chose to have that happen offscreen instead of making a whole scene out of it. They had comedy gold and decided to bury it.
ReplyDeleteTotally agree, especially where they instead flogged us with the awful "Leonard intricately explains the aspects of football he now understands" gag. I mean, everyone got the joke (which was barely even funny) the first time, did he have to do it twice more?
Definitely way more comedy to be gotten from Sheldon teaching Leonard. Missed opportunity.
I find the "ersatz homosexual relationship" between Raj and Howard to be a dry well for comedy. I try to write it off as just a sensitivity to ethnic stereotypes, but I can't help but think of it as just hackneyed and lazy.
ReplyDeleteWould have preferred Sheldon teaching Leonard football than Leonard showing how much he doesn't know about football. But yeah, it was a solid but unremarkable episode.
ReplyDeleteCannot wait for more Cylon toast! Best line was def when Sheldon planned to use the Cylon toast to replace regular toast on the Battlestar known as Galactica.
I want a Cylon toaster. And Sheldon's "everything except European football which they think is a communist conspiracy" was pretty funny to this Texan.
ReplyDeleteI like Penny when she's annoying Sheldon or when she's trying to get Raj to talk to her but Penny and Leonard when it's just them in scenes? It's so dull.
word verification: rerruver... Scooby would be so proud.
I agree that the joke about Leonard learning, but not understanding football rules went on too long.
ReplyDeleteHoward and Raj : TBBT ::
Jack and Karen : Will & Grace
Yeah... I kept thinking... would these supposed geniuses really need to resort to a football for dummies book, and still fail to understand the game?
ReplyDeleteI was expecting Leonard to understand the game so well, that he could predict the next play to the point of annoyance. Or at least do something annoying that exemplified understanding strategy.
Did anyone else notice that Leonard commented on the throwing of a red challenge flag which is an NFL rule that doesn't exist in college football. I liked the episode until that point.
ReplyDeleteI know that teevee shows often touch upon the same subjects or even concepts, but two shows focusing on the rushed learning of football to please a significant other, bookending two shows(this time on the same network on the same night) making the same hallowe'en jokes. Spent the day cleaning out the DVR and these all just bugged me.
ReplyDeleteSheldon's comic asides to his about father were funny though.
I hated the last scene: it was predictable, unfunny, and resorted to "Nerds are funny! We should laugh at them for being different!" Also, her friends suck and are boring.
ReplyDeleteAlso, Penny needs a real friend to interact with on a regular basis, rather than random people that show up whenever she wants to have a party.
Oddly, I thought HIMYM was better last night than it's been for a while, however, as for Big Bang - I was just happy to find out that Penny does, indeed have friends.
ReplyDelete(and Leonard reciting the laws of football - I was embarrassed for him, and I don't like that)
I think that even a somewhat unspectacular episode of Big Bang is these days better than anything HIMYM is offering up, and therefore if you're going to write about only one, it should be this Big Bang. Just my opinion.
ReplyDeleteHow far Penny has come from the dumb, small town bimbette to the girl cool enough to watch football with the guys while the girlfriends stand in the kitchen and drink.
ReplyDeleteI felt embarrassed for Leonard this episode. I hate that.
And yes, they missed a great on-screen opportunity for Sheldon and Leonard (though I loved that Sheldon knew all about football. This Texas concurs that NO ONE gets out without knowing something, like it or not).
It seemed almost incomprehensible to me that Sheldon's friends, knowing where he was from, wouldn't have expected him to know something about football. Even I, when one of them exclaimed at Sheldon's knowledge, shrieked at the screen: "He's from TEXAS, fer chrissake!" Moments later, Sheldon essentially said the same thing.
ReplyDeleteI agree with @Jon and all his cohort that watching Sheldon teach Leonard football would have been far funnier than listening to Leonard speak stilted gamebook rules. But given @Jay's observation on how the writers conflated the college and pro games, perhaps they weren't up to being able to write that kind of scene.
I still liked it, though. I agree that Raj and Howard get old, and that the BSG gag was overextended, and that Penny really REALLY needs to get real friends (what happened to that sweet girl she set up with Wolfowitz? I wanna see her again! Although I can't figure out what she and Penny actually have in common that would cause them to be friends in the first place). But geez, any scene with Sheldon just POPS.
It seemed almost incomprehensible to me that Sheldon's friends, knowing where he was from, wouldn't have expected him to know something about football.
ReplyDeleteI think that was so they'd have a way to explain to the audience why Sheldon knows about football to those who don't know that football is almost a religion in Texas.
On the other hand, it's not unlikely that these guys wouldn't know that.
Jay - The NCAA put challenges in around 2004-2006 (depending on the conference).
ReplyDeleteEven if your observation was correct, I don't see how this ruined the episode for you.
On a similar note, I noticed that they correctly had the college football version of intentional grounding.
I think that even a somewhat unspectacular episode of Big Bang is these days better than anything HIMYM is offering up, and therefore if you're going to write about only one, it should be this Big Bang. Just my opinion.
ReplyDeleteAnd my opinion is that, even when Big Bang Theory is the funnier show (which it often is of late), it's the less interesting one to write about. And so I'll write as much or as little about these two shows (or any other) as the spirit moves me.
I thought this ep was kind of a snooze, but did love Kaley Cuoco's delivery of the line, "Yep, that's my boyfriend. He is *really* smart."
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