a trident is for ruling the seven seas

Let’s talk about The Big Bang Theory. My family has been giving me nothing but rave reviews about it and after Jim Parsons won an Emmy last week, I finally decided to check it out. Then I promptly mainlined all three seasons, finishing last night. So, (spoilery) thoughts!

1. I’d say that for the last two years I’ve been going through a rather intense bout of great, now I hate everybody that makes it increasingly difficult to enjoy or accept a lot of movies or TV shows. BBT is not an exception to this in that it does a great job of showing how four male nerds can be just as obnoxious and sexist as anyone else in television. This depresses me, of course, but is it supposed to bring hope to nerds the world over who are convinced of their own alienation that they’re actually just like everyone else? I doubt this is the intent of the show, of course. I googled “big bang theory sexism” and got heaps and heaps of results, so I don’t feel compelled to rehash any of those arguments as many other people have done a more thorough and exceedingly better job than I ever could.
2. Howard made me want to punch things for quite some time when they kept him as a one-dimensional sex crazed maniac but I’m increasingly enjoying him as they flesh him out a bit more. I rather liked him with Bernadette, but maybe that’s just because I really liked Bernadette (who I was delighted to realise is also Summer on True Blood). I also do not like the ongoing jokes about his relationship with his mother, which I find tiresome and unfunny.
3. Raj’s schtick of not being able to talk around women grew tiresome after about, oh, three episodes. I like Raj in general, but they need to drop this.
4. Sheldon and Leonard have a combined IQ of 360. Sheldon’s alone is 187. Am I really supposed to believe that Leonard’s is 173? Because I do not.
5. What I like about Penny is that although she’s definitely supposed to be a contrast to our fearless four in that she knows how to respond to social cues and can function outside of theoreticals, she seems to genuinely enjoy hanging out with the self-described nerds. It kind of amazes me every time they have the gall to mock her about something considering how genuine a friend she’s been to them.
6. Like a lot of other people (I assume), I thoroughly enjoy the Sheldon/Penny dynamic. I kept getting really happy every time they’d hang out. Maybe because it’s because Penny’s known him for the least amount of time out of anyone and thus hasn’t become thoroughly irritated by every little obnoxious thing Sheldon does, but she seems to be much better at managing his personality than his other friends. I was kind of appalled when they tricked Penny into taking care of Sheldon when he was sick; with friends like those, who needs enemies? This isn’t to say she isn’t going to call him on his bullshit when he’s being completely ridiculous, but she seems a lot more sympathetic to him than the douchewaffle Leonard.
7. People, I hate Leonard. I hated him the second Penny moved in next door and my hatred grows with each successive episode. The second he started to ingratiate himself onto Penny under the guise of being her friend and neighbour but with the intention of getting into her pants, that was it for me. Then he coerced a date out of her by pretending it was a group outing. Leonard exhibits classic Nice Guy™ behaviour that leaves me with an incredibly foul taste in my mouth. Wolowitz is disgusting, but at least he’s upfront about it; he’s very easy to reject because he makes no attempt to hide what he’s after.

   I think my least favourite moment was when drunk Penny shows up after they’ve broken up and tells him she wants to have sex with him, so they do. The next morning Penny tells him it was a mistake (obviously), which naturally derails Leonard’s vision of them getting back together. Solution? Get totally drunk and bang on Penny’s door demanding sex. She naturally turns him down. What does he do? He stands in the hallway yelling about double standards. Oh Leonard. Leonard, Leonard, Leonard. Penn did exactly what you should have done the night before: she turned down a drunk person who obviously could not adequately consent to sexual activity. This isn’t a double standard. This is you failing to make the correct decision the night before and that’s entirely your own fault.

   Unhappily, this is just the tip of the iceberg of all the things that are wrong with Leonard. He is whiny and has the hugest sense of entitlement I’ve seen on TV in ages. He does several unforgivably mean things to Sheldon that go beyond just being frustrated with a friend and not knowing how to express that. I’m crossing my fingers for him to have an intense moment of clarity in Season 4 where he realises how awful he is, but I’m also not holding my breath.

8. It’s funny to me that Sheldon is so reviled by his friends when I feel a lot of empathy towards him. Obviously he lacks any social graces and is completely unable to tell when he’s being obnoxious in all the myriad ways that you could think of, and yet I do appreciate how particular he is about things and how even though his friends seem to frequently try to make him feel guilt or shame for his level of nerdiness (pot, kettle), he absolutely does not care one iota because is quite happy with who he is. Which reminds me of Bill on Freaks and Geeks, who was coincidentally also my favourite character on that show just as Sheldon is on this one. At any rate, I admire his attempts to appeal to logic in the face of every single problem in the world. I wish more people were Vulcan in real life.
9. The geek humour and science humour is really great. If I read comic books, I’d probably enjoy it even more.
10. Is Wil Wheaton a phenomenally bad actor or is he just terrible when playing himself? I can’t judge him based solely on Star Trek: The Next Generation since that’s the only other thing I’ve seen him on, but I feel filled with the desire to yell “Shut up, Wesley!” at the screen every time he appears.
11. Every time Sheldon consciously tries to smile at someone, he looks alarmingly like the love child of the Grinch (animated, not Jim Carrey) and Rowan Atkinson.
12. I thought it was really sucky of Leonard to not take Sheldon to Switzerland. Yet another way that Leonard is a bad friend! This guy, I tell you.
13. In summary: soft kitty.