CBS hit us with a back-to-back shot of brand-new The Big Bang Theoryepisodes tonight as things pick up the morning, or I should say, afternoon after. If you’ll recall, the cliffhanger of last season had Raj and Penny having apparently slept together following a night of one too many glasses of wine. The scene at the lunch table was great as are most of their scenes in that oft-repeated location. It’s usually the place where the dynamic between the four main characters is at its strongest and tonight was no different as Sheldon quickly lost interest in personal matters in favor of concocting strategy for their upcoming inter-department paintball tournament.I’m glad that not only did the show quickly wrap up the did they/didn’t they between Penny and Raj but that they in fact…did not. Well it’s slightly more complicated than that, but I’m sure Sheldon would be pleased to ever find out the answer to the riddle he was pondering in the cafeteria of “It’s not what it looks like.’
It was smart to give Leonard something to get upset about because it shows that, current relationship with Priya or not, he definitely hasn’t stopped carrying his torch for Penny. But it also didn’t go on forever and encourage more tension in the group dynamic than the show could handle having. Having it handled in one episode is something that The Big Bang Theory is good at. This isn’t a show that cares to break the sitcom rules, they just want to have their talented cast tell geeky jokes and poke some fun at the boys, (and the constantly wonderful Amy Farrah Fowler) recurring issues at dealing with social situations and personal relationships.
When they have Penny say she’s going to move back to Nebraska because her acting career is on life-support and things are awkward with her friends, you know that she won’t be on a train by episode’s end.In the second episode, Sheldon comes to face with the worst enemy of someone who has a very set way of doing things aka he sits on a chair Penny found out on the street.
I loved seeing Leonard deal in both episodes with how freaking impossible it is to do things in real-time on Skype or any other program that supports web-cams. Constant freezing, buffering and audio going out of sync with video–not to mention unexpected other people in the room when you’re trying have a romantic private moment were all things Leonard dealt with. Ultimately I doubt that he and Priya will be together much longer. Anyone who remembers how they were last year can see that she wanted to change the Leonard we know and love into someone much more mature, sophisticated, and annoying.
The nice thing about having characters like Amy and Bernadette around more is it just shows that there are definitely girls out there other than Penny who would gladly spend time with the boys–I’m positive there’s a much better much woman out there for Leonard and wouldn’t be surprised if we met her this year. At least it’s giving Galecki more scenes away from the gang, I feel that he’s really one of the unsung heroes of this cast and hopefully his Emmy nomination this year will be one of many to come for this role. To play against Parsons’Sheldon Cooper the way he does while still remaining endearing and not bogged down in his character’s eye-rolling bouts of sarcasm is a tricky balancing act that he’s gotten quite good at handling.
While Leonard deals with relationship issues, Sheldon is pitted against Penny in a war over a comfortable red chair she just so happened to find out on the street. It was a great twist to have there actually be something inside of the chair cushions instead of it being another case of Sheldon’s quirky tics getting the better of him for no reason. And it provided a reason for Sheldon and Amy to have an all-too brief scene together in her apartment. Parsons and Mayim Bialik have perfect chemistry for playing such similar-on-the-surface characters. Mayim and the writers have definitely made Amy her own unique character, not just the ‘girl Sheldon’she started out as in the beginning. It also gave Jim Parsons some nice scenes of physical humor as the dreaded red ‘˜garbage chair’inspired both a bug-infested dream sequence as well as one of the best interruptions of Sheldon’s signature three-Penny knock to date. I’m glad someone (Amy) finally called that ritual out as the obsessive compulsive trait it is after all this time too.
Fav. Quotes and Moments (for both eps)
- Sheldon self-declares his paintball rank of captain much like ‘˜Kirk, Kangaroo, and Crunch before him.’
- Raj making his own ‘˜ship name for he and Penny’s hookup: Koothrapenny
- I have genitals, they’re functional and aesthetically pleasing–Sheldon
- One of the best things about having Christine Baranski in the CBS family for The Good Wife is she can sporadically show up on The Big Bang Theory as Leonard’s impersonal psychiatrist mother. ‘˜Buck up sissy-pants’, indeed Mrs. H.
- Absolutely any time Amy busts out her ‘˜secret language’Op. I hope that becomes recurring.
- You can’t ruin friendship with sex. That would be like ruining ice cream with chocolate sprinkles–Raj to Penny
- Jamba Juice is for heroes–Sheldon
- Geology isn’t a real science!–Sheldon before being pelted with a barrage of paint-balls in order to inspire his team to continue the fight in the tournament.
- Penny FINALLY getting a legit acting gig, albeit one for a hemorrhoid commercial. Preperation H: for ladies.
- The differing time-zones compromise of calling Priya and Leonard’s shared Skype meal ‘˜dinfast’.
- I miss the old days when your romantic partners could be returned to the video store–Sheldon to Leonard
- There’s a wet band-aid on the shower floor!–Sheldon after freaking out about where the new red chair he’s been sitting in came from and running into Penny’s shower.
- As a man with a keen sense of style, that chair does not work with the room–Sheldon trying to get Penny to throw the chair away.
- I’ll google how to do this and call you right back–Leonard failing at ‘˜dirty talk’with Priya over the webcam.
- The whole Howard/Raj main scene in the second episode was…certainly um interesting. Basically the only thing they got to do all ep until the end when they take the ‘˜contaminated chair’from the curb.
