Sheldon
Cooper (Jim Parsons) of The Big Bang
Theory is the only character holding the franchise together. Odd,
dysfunctional and often downright rude and objectionable he is the lynchpin on
which the whole franchise now rests. No longer gripped by the off and on
relationship of Penny and Leonard, the not so subtle references to Raj being a
little “sweet” and the show even seems to be running thin on Jewish jokes to
throw at Howard it is now often up to Sheldon to save each and every episode
with his misunderstandings of the world and childish naivety.
It seems
that even the writing staff knows it. In episode Seventeen of season Four The Toast Derivation the group realize
that Sheldon is the one that holds their group together and without him nothing
really seems as interesting as it should anymore. It appears that now the rest
of the group from that moment on are simply supporting characters in “The Sheldon Cooper Half Hour”.
Although the
show has now moved on to try and become more of an ensemble piece: Raj now has
a girlfriend who is even more damaged than he is, Bernadette and Howard and
married and living together and even Stewart from the comic book store got an
outing when Howard was in space. The only real interest I now have is in the
development of the relationship between Sheldon and Amy. They’ve taken the
“will they, won’t they” to a whole new level of sexual tension, the closest
that the pair have come is in the latest episode The Love Spell Potential where the two retire to Sheldon’s bedroom
to let the die in dungeons and dragons do the talking taking their pieces into
some compromising positions, and often I find that the screen time that the two
share has so much more tenderness than that of the “normal” relationship
between Penny and Leonard. The writing is superb at these points where the team
find a double entendre in what is often something as simple as rubbing vapo-rub
on a chest, or dissecting monkey brains. It seems to hark back to the dialogue
in the great screwball comedies such as Bringing
Up Baby or Some Like it Hot. I find myself as a bystander in what must be
one of the oddest pairings of individuals ever (aside from Ryan Gosling and
Bianca in Lars and the Real Girl)
willing for Sheldon to see the light, or Amy to finally take matters into her
own hands and show him what he’s missing!
Also,
without Sheldon the show would not be devoid of giggles (it’s still a funny
show with some great gaffes and good set-ups) but the real roars and belly
laughs would be gone. As mentioned before while the other jokes are wearing
thin, we’ve already seen the “he must be hiding in the closet” character a
hundred times and there are plenty of other shows that give us a few good
Jewish on-liners; but as of yet no one has put whatever Sheldon is on screen,
there must still be a goldmine of situations to drop him in and just let the
character write itself. Let’s take Sheldon to the zoo, the swimming pool, God
forbid church and just see what happens.
Moving into
more general Big Bang terms – why is
the show so successful other than the character of Sheldon; because, it’s made
geeky cool. The nerd was becoming less as less of the bridesmaid and finally
allowed to be the bride; no longer simply the supporting character they were
now the protagonist. Over my lifetime it’s no longer a big deal if you collect
comic books, superhero’s are downright mainstream now and being overtly
involved in your favourite TV show is accepted (though blogging about them for more than 1000 words might be pushing
it a little!). The Big Bang Theory came
about just as it was becoming more and more acceptable to be a nerd riding the
wave of the zeitgeist, just as all good TV should.
Though, ‘Shouting
into the Viod’ (http://butmyopinionisright.tumblr.com/post/31079561065/the-problem-with-the-big-bang-theory) blogged this about the Big Bang
theory:
And here’s my issue, here’s why The
Big Bang Theory makes me feel uncomfortable. We aren’t laughing with Leonard,
Sheldon, Raj and Howard. We’re laughing at them. Chuck Lorre has given us four
exceptionally intelligent, nerdy main characters and he’s positioned us as an
audience against them. When I watch Big Bang it becomes more and more obvious
that I’m not supposed to relate to the guys (or more recently Amy
Farrah-Fowler). I’m expected to relate to Penny. You only need to pay attention
to the audience laughter to realise that TBBT relies on positioning us as an
outsider to the nerds, as someone like Penny who doesn’t understand their
references, their science, their vocabulary even, and who doesn’t care to
learn.
The lengthy
blog went on to explain that the author thought that Community was much more on the side of the nerds than TBBT (Thank you for that acronym!).
Although I love Community I think
that the show is far more concerned about being a self-referential post-modern
construct than it is about celebrating nerd culture and praising the character
of “the nerd” (although there is a healthy dabbling in it). The Greendale 7 are
not and can never be real people, they are far, far too out there. They are a
construct that can only exist in the world that the story has created, without
Greendale there can be no them. Although we care for them, and more importantly
for the school, there is no real interpersonal drama the group will always be
accepted and always be loved no matter what hijinks they get up to next. TBBT really absorbs you into the world
of what it means to be a geek because the four main characters, they are us,
they suffer the same problems that we do and we feel for them in their
struggles to be accepted in a world with little understanding of them. Shouting into the Void argues that we
are Penny in the series observing the group whereas I would argue that Penny
herself is more part of the group than we realise (she herself struggles to be
accepted and one could even argue that she is a closet geek herself) rather she
gives an outsiders perspective on the situations the group find themselves in
and we can all laugh together at the absurdity of behaviours that we too
demonstrate, it’s no bad thing. If you can’t laugh at yourself, who can you
laugh at?!
I often
wonder what it might be like to have a friend like Sheldon, although some of my
friends have some social dysfunctions none are in the same league as Dr Cooper.
Some viewers have asserted that Sheldon’s behaviour is consistent with Asperger
syndrome but the writers have flat out denied that was a basis for the
character. Series co-creator Bill Prady had this to say:
"We
write the character as the character. A lot of people see various things in him
and make the connections. Our feeling is that Sheldon's mother never got a
diagnosis, so we don't have one"
I think I’d like it.
It appears though that not everyone agrees with me, see the other side of the argument on why TBBT sucks so much here: http://www.sickchirpse.com/the-big-bang-theory-sucks/
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