Mladen Posted February 2, 2014 Share Posted February 2, 2014 I tend to argue that Stuart is an illustration of late-stage capitalism's individualistic consumption-centric identities and their pitfalls. But I reasonably may be alone on that one. :bowdown: :bowdown: :lmao: :lmao: Although, certainly there is that factor, i doubt that producers are that smart... More likely, he represented the outsider to the gang... That poor nerd guy who can't be friends with the "cool nerd gang". There is such irony in that, and so much sadness... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Datepalm Posted February 2, 2014 Author Share Posted February 2, 2014 Well, yeah, but I think it's telling that he's someone that is trying to make 'geek' into a business...and failing. Also that he's someone who is often framed in terms of selling something to the other characters, or needing money from them, etc. They are friends, but there is also that financial aspect in the background. It wasn't Kripke or someone else who is their complete peer in a class/collegiate way who's character grew to fill that role of outsider. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaxom 1974 Posted February 2, 2014 Share Posted February 2, 2014 Datepalm: Re: Leslie Winkle. She's both a horrible person and a horrible character. I felt she was overdone on too many levels. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seventh Pup Posted February 2, 2014 Share Posted February 2, 2014 Penny is very hit and miss. This episode she missed. Though I did laugh at "you talk to your mother like that?" line. I feel like when they highlight the bully side of Penny (laughing at an old man who fell), it often falls flat. Loved the Sheldon story line of this episode, but the guys story line, and the girls story line both felt kind bland. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Datepalm Posted February 2, 2014 Author Share Posted February 2, 2014 Loved the Sheldon story line of this episode, but the guys story line, and the girls story line both felt kind bland. The girls in particular felt kinda...cheap. That no one ever really feels like an adult is pretty standard, basic stuff. It's not that there's any problem in bringing it up, but that the conversation they had was somehow generic. It did little to further or illustrate those three specific characters - or the relationships between them - in any way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ser Scot A Ellison Posted February 2, 2014 Share Posted February 2, 2014 DP,I wasn't crazy about the artist chick, because she just seemed like such wish-fulfillment material. Geeky and smart and talented and adventurous and crazy hot? (my god but she was hot.) What alternate universe did she even stumble in from?Nope not beyond belief. I went out with a woman a few times while I was in law school who was very similar to that character. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buckwheat Posted February 2, 2014 Share Posted February 2, 2014 Her breaking up with him over a disagreement on quantum theory ("How will we raise the children, Leonard?") is still one of the funniest things the show has ever done. She was (admittedly, hilariously) awful to Howard though. Howard may have deserved that back then, though. :blushing: He was quite awful character himself. I liked her exactly because she was not afraid to say anything and she was the only person who kind of challenged Sheldon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Datepalm Posted February 2, 2014 Author Share Posted February 2, 2014 Howard may have deserved that back then, though. :blushing: He was quite awful character himself. I liked her exactly because she was not afraid to say anything and she was the only person who kind of challenged Sheldon. She challenged him on the level he wants to be challenged on though - at physics and self-confidence and anti-sociability. Sheldon decided they were feuding, and she went with it. She was willing to step into Sheldon-land (or possibly Leslie-land is just equally nuts) where people have feuds over quantum physics, use grant money to garner sexual favours and romance comes with detailed schedules. Amy and especially Penny challenge Sheldon too, but on stuff he's actually uncomfortable with - like his routines or his sexuality - precisely by simply not accepting his premises. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fiddler Posted February 2, 2014 Share Posted February 2, 2014 I have to admit, this was the first episode in which I really disliked Penny. Her ridicule of the guys was just over the top and mean. Even if she doesn't understand or like what Leonard and the guys were doing, she has been with Leonard long enough to understand how important it was to him and to not insult them like that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jace, Extat Posted February 6, 2014 Share Posted February 6, 2014 Just saw Penny on 'Prison Break' buying beer from a crazy escaped convict. I didn't know what to do with that information, so I'm sharing it here. :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greywolf2375 Posted February 6, 2014 Share Posted February 6, 2014 I have to admit, this was the first episode in which I really disliked Penny. Her ridicule of the guys was just over the top and mean. Even if she doesn't understand or like what Leonard and the guys were doing, she has been with Leonard long enough to understand how important it was to him and to not insult them like that. Why? I think she is in a better position now to make commentary like that than she was when she called Howard pathetic & called MONTE just a toy and upset Sheldon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Datepalm Posted February 6, 2014 Author Share Posted February 6, 2014 I thought this time was more in the spirit of tolerant mockery - not the nicest, perhaps, but still just teasing between friends - than the genuinely hurtful, 'you're pathetic and your robot is pathetic', stuff in the MONTE episode. (Which is still maybe my favorite of the whole show.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greywolf2375 Posted February 6, 2014 Share Posted February 6, 2014 I thought this time was more in the spirit of tolerant mockery - not the nicest, perhaps, but still just teasing between friends - than the genuinely hurtful, 'you're pathetic and your robot is pathetic', stuff in the MONTE episode. (Which is still maybe my favorite of the whole show.) Exactly. Especially since it was given sort of as the color commentary/play by play of the scene - she wasn't just calling them out as has been done in the past. "Did you not just see his robot have angry sex with a mid size car?" One of the funniest lines in the series. Saw the Professor Proton ep last night and that is one of my favorite episodes both from the character development - showing Sheldon actually DOES have an emotional/tender/caring side and the fact that Newhart still is funny. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Datepalm Posted February 6, 2014 Author Share Posted February 6, 2014 And the robot itself was just the cutest thing ever. And Howard breaking down on Penny's shoulder and his damaged little "look at me," was just...dude. I couldn't believe he had said it. You're not supposed to say stuff like that on television. I was thinking that the second half of season 6 or so was just a really good run of episodes - great strides of character development but keeping it really hard-earned and uncomfortable all around without any schmaltz, and also just really funny. Sheldon and Proton, Sheldon and Amy, Sheldon and racism. Raj's Lucy arc, Howard's dad stuff, Bernadette and kids and Penny going back to college and even Leonard had his moments. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaxom 1974 Posted February 6, 2014 Share Posted February 6, 2014 Thinking back over the James Earl Jones appearance. Was it meant to be a case of "Nerd Man, be careful what you wish for?"...? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sci-2 Posted February 6, 2014 Share Posted February 6, 2014 :bowdown: :bowdown: :lmao: :lmao: Although, certainly there is that factor, i doubt that producers are that smart... More likely, he represented the outsider to the gang... That poor nerd guy who can't be friends with the "cool nerd gang". There is such irony in that, and so much sadness... I think the writers wanted to keep using old, laugh at the nerd type jokes, while still forcing themselves to bring in some growth for the characters. Sadly the more I think about it most of this show can be explained by playing it safe and laziness - or if not laziness reluctance to change a high ratings formula. eta: Of course DP will write another essay and I'll be thinking how good the show is. So either DP is convincing or the show is a sneaky masterpiece... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Myrddin Posted February 6, 2014 Share Posted February 6, 2014 Maybe DP is a sneaky show writer convincing us of the glorious masterpiece. :lol: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Datepalm Posted February 6, 2014 Author Share Posted February 6, 2014 I think the writers wanted to keep using old, laugh at the nerd type jokes, while still forcing themselves to bring in some growth for the characters. Sadly the more I think about it most of this show can be explained by playing it safe and laziness - or if not laziness reluctance to change a high ratings formula. eta: Of course DP will write another essay and I'll be thinking how good the show is. So either DP is convincing or the show is a sneaky masterpiece... Well, i'm just into that kind of stuff to start with - I bring my Railsea review from before I ever saw an episode of TBBT as proof. (My sister just accused me of going through intellectual acrobatics to justify the fact I just like crap stuff because I have no taste. No, I insist - I have always loved stories about sad, obsessive people and their emotional and thematic relationships to trains.) I don't think it's a lazy show, I have to say - I think It's really mean. It's sufficiently cruel to disregard various codes of niceness and decent conduct, like - not laughing at fat people, not laughing at geeks, not laughing at race, not laughing at failure. Or the bullies lose at the end. Or it's whats on the inside that matters. Or everyone is special in their own way and they're happy that way. (Or even: everybody is comfortable with sex.) Most of those are aspirations, not reality, so strip them away and you get something interestingly subversive and a little closer to reality than most media narratives, at least to my mind. Also, there's just some good writing and acting. I don't think there's anything lazy or formulaic or by the by to Sheldon admitting he's always had difficulty with human touch or with Howard avoiding finding out about his father or Penny's dejected, rejected proposal. (I don't really think anyone is claiming it either, that i've noticed. The one thing the show does get praised for is it's ocassional character development - I think my weirdness is just that I see it as totally part and parcel with the crude jokes and repetition rather than she show somehow rising above itself. Especially in light of Mom, Chuck Lorre's new show, which is very clearly and deliberately dark, and which Lorre has a writing credit on like every episode of. so far. I'm as tempted by the bad-movie as anyone - it's actually crap, it's only the audience (or, you know, me) that is making it interesting - but I think that's a stretch, really. Credit where due.) Maybe DP is a sneaky show writer convincing us of the glorious masterpiece. :lol: I'd probably succumb to temptation and just write all the solutions, likely by turning it into a portal fantasy. (A fanfic I totally did not write the first chapter of once, at all.) I don't have the show's restraint. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fiddler Posted February 6, 2014 Share Posted February 6, 2014 Why? I think she is in a better position now to make commentary like that than she was when she called Howard pathetic & called MONTE just a toy and upset Sheldon. I'm not sure. In other episodes I felt she was being the "mean girl" because she was more of an outsider. Now, being she is with Leonard and has been for a while, it felt like she should be more understanding. Or some such thing. It was just a vibe I got from the scene for some reason. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Datepalm Posted February 7, 2014 Author Share Posted February 7, 2014 Awwww. Does Leonard making fun of Penny's drinking make up for the last episode? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.