Nogravitasatall

I understand it’s a bit tricky, being, I think, that it’s a consequence of having slavery as a national institution. Hard to untangle, I believe. That’s not so common elsewhere. Again, whole other country.

Or...

From 12,000km away, it lookes to me that discussing a visit to Family Planning might have been challenging for the show. I could be wrong. It might have gone swimmingly. But they were not behind a subscription service, where apparently the grown-up conversation are safe to go on. It wasn’t a potential pregnancy, they could have been having a “go, no-go” conversation. I’d have been for that conversation but it may not have been funny, though it could be with excellent writing, but the show didn’t do much messaging of that type. Unless it was coded and I missed it. A member here once told me Chuck had an agenda, but they didn’t explain what it was.

One’s thinking does crystallise when it’s not a hypothetical. I’m glad they’re happy with their unforced error. I’m sure it’s not uncommon. And at least Leonard didn’t have to stick to a roster to get there. That’s nice. Again, the chafing. Edit. Re democracy. Um... well. Thoughts and prayers?

Gettin’ real there Tensor. It’s a dodge by the writers to have their cake (the dramatic conflict) and eat it too (a warm and fuzzy ending). It ain’t literature, are it. And yes, in a classically liberal democracy with no eye out for the lurking theocrats, that’d be a scene. Leonard and Penny sitting at the kitchen table discussing her choices. But for the pre-teens on the couch with mum watching alongside, maybe it’s thought to be too much.

Ask as well how many Americans think 6001BCE* isn’t a thing. But I don’t really know. It’s a whole other country. edit: and in Oz voluntarily postponing sex has been non-dominant since the 70’s, I believe. (Being invited can still be challenging, I understand - s1-3 Howard et al are still relevant ) edit 2: sigh * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Era?wprov=sfti1

It seems to me that the invention of reliable methods of controlling fertility have disrupted these traditional models. The effects are still shaking out. It’ll take awhile. There’s a lot of inertia. The cultures are still working through the new possibilities. TBBT is just a tiny part of the ongoing process. A nano-mirror of the new potentials This new technology has profound levelling implications. And the patriarchy (aided by adherence to tradition) will fight it all the way. It’s a long slow revolution. To me at least, “try before you buy” is sensible. Better to know than not to know? It looks to be the dominant norm in Oz now. And we all know people were doing that forever anyway, just with greater risks and greater consequences. Still, people have their own beliefs. It’ll be interesting to see where this is at in 2119. Assuming...

Yeah. That. And there’s the chafing.

It’s possible. She may well be able to tolerate him for a long time. Or forever. I’d hope that she would get more chance to be her own person than we ever saw during the show. But that’s me, and what do I know. Seeing that she said that Leonard going to the bathroom whenever he wanted was “like an an animal” she may like the idea of order and structure to a near similar degree to Sheldon. And if she’s happy with executing deceptions like “schedule the nookie, but don’t tell me that you’ve scheduled it, so I be able to deceive myself that it’s spontaneous, and you can stop bothering me with things that clutter my calendar” , then it’ll be all be great. Her meta-control over Sheldon’s attempts at controlling her may work. Then maybe he’ll work out what she’s doing and respond with another added layer of control. It could end up as four dimensional chess between the two of them. They’ll be so happy. Anything could happen. She might get assigned a hot post-grad student and suddenly start working late in the lab. Heheh. Who knows.

Yeah, well. It could play out that way for any of them. I’d think there’d be more stress on the Amy Sheldon deal. Amy has to fight hard for autonomy. Sheldon schedules everything they do to his benefit, from bowel movements to their nookie. Maybe she likes that, maybe it’ll become wearing. It’d be challenging long term. But for the moment they are all frozen in amber. Speculate away.

I’d have been happy if Leonard and Penny had just left him on his own across the corridor, and if Leonard had explained why. The lesson would have lasted longer. But I understand the sentiment. Penny also could have ju-jitsued him more by deploying his his mother. It wasn’t to be of course. And there won’t be a reboot. This is over.

I know what you mean, but in one framing it’s unclear that he would have understood why he got the beating. He had that discussion with his mum about being beaten up by “the neighbour kids”. He thought they felt inferior and threatened by his intellect. His mum knew it wasn’t that, and we laughed when she said it. He just couldn’t perceive it. He’s not aware of the consequences of his actions. Which then raises the question of is it moral to use his difference for humour, when he is unaware of the joke. Or he’s just an arsehole and is aware. In which case he deserves some consequences. I do favour that view. They played it both ways. Which maybe was a ethically challenged artistic dodge for the sake of getting a long run. Artistic or not, probably still dodgy. All the way to the bank.

For the sake of learning something from some rebuttal, I’m going to walk out on a limb and say there was a certain moral ambiguity or greyness, or else some crass exploitation at work, by not letting him be responsible for his actions. They let the diagnosis stand at “I’m not crazy, my mother had me tested”. So ok, not crazy. Therefore competent. Therefore open to consequence. I liked him better as homo novus. Or like a less benign Uncle Martin (which was on TV here yesterday - broadcast TV. WTF). The alien observer. As a person, if he’s not conscious of the effect of his choices, is it fair or right to make him the butt of the jokes. If they had labelled him, maybe it would have been morally better. Claim his status. Be a standard bearer. Maybe not a 12 season run in that, though. As a regular guy, he certainly wasn’t good to his friends; “mad, bad, and dangerous to know” as they say. As a sitcom content generator, obviously awesome.

... as a bloke who once went to an Australian comic-con and only later realised he could have passed as Leonard ( except for the hair). And I won’t describe my wife... other than to say she was blonde when I met her. Some people don’t like olives and some people like surströmming. It’s a big world. I would argue Sheldon was unique on TV. Then latterly he became like many other masculine stereotypes. We’ve seen lots of demanding men who exploit the goodwill and needs of those around them. Some even not characters on TV. When he decried relationships he was special. Then they changed him to chase the long run. That’s when he lost most of his appeal for me, though it was a gradual process. Later, when I saw him as just petulant, I lost tolerance. But I hung in, hoping for Leonard and Penny to best him. And, if you look at it without considering the accumulated bad acts, it is funny. The season 12 gag with the hot dogs in New York, that I have seen, was chuckle worthy. The unhappy new bride, working around him, not so much. She knew what she was in for. It wasn’t a surprise. But it’s all moot now. I’m just kicking through the ashes. It drives engagement to have teams. Cricket demonstration of batting techniques aren’t riveting at all. I’d say there are many ancillary payoffs to rivalries.

Before I withdrew myself from that thread for the benefit of all - because if you can’t say something nice, then stay on the series thread - I noted the various grasped straws detailed analyses, like the code embedded in the colours of tea cups (but maybe there was one; Howard’s alien pins had a deeper meaning, said a costumer, but I never discovered what) . In the long run it worked out fine for those fans but at the time (2013?) lots of extraordinary claims were made without the requisite extraordinary evidence. That’s fandom, isn’t it?