What Leonard Needs

[SRAM]

Very good synopsis on how the writers screw with the L/P relationship for laughs. It also left me cold when Sheldon was suppose to be teaching Penny physics while he only taught her to mock Leonard's work and she didn't understand what she did. Then you are right, they just leave the story there, sort of like they did in the last episode with the ILY and then the had to throw a laugh in at the immediate end with the Alex email, which sort of ruined the ending scene.

[koops]

First of all I'm a big L\P fan.

But still I feel that their relationship was not dealt properly in season 3. The focus that Sheldon's character got was so heavy that I felt the other characters and their story lines were mostly either wasted or incomplete.

Let me give an example

In the episode where Sheldon teaches Penny Physics

- The main goal of Penny was to impress Leonard (very nice story idea)

- So she asks Sheldon to teach her Physics which he does

- But in the ending scene where she tells the big Physics dialogue it looked like she was trying to mock him rather than trying to impress him.

- It looked like Sheldon and Penny won the match , but the problem was that Leonard did not know what was going on , he was not playing the match

- A good ending would have been Leonard recognizing the fact that his girlfriend tried to learn Physics for him and appreciating it. ( this was what I was expecting at the start of the episode )

- But the writers were like--who cares about all that, see Sheldon is so funny , see Sheldon is so funny

So as a result the goal that was set at the start was not accomplished.

The episode was very funny but still it felt incomplete to me

What actually baffles me was that the same writes were able to focus on all the characters previously

because a similar kind of storyline was done previously in season 1 - Leonard's birthday episode

- Penny wanting to do something nice to Leonard, S\P plot , L\H plot

But the difference was that sweetness was delivered at the end the episode . So as a result that episode felt complete as all the goals were accomplished

Another example : final episode of Season 3

- In the opening scenes Leonard was good to Penny and tried to be good to Zach

- Later that night Penny comes to Leonard which he assumed that they were back-together again

- After she tells him that it was a mistake , he gets upset and goes to her the next night....she shoves him away.... I mean really ????

How many times have we seen the writers make Penny shower her care and sympathy for Sheldon , this was the time they made her show some towards Leonard (she should have known the reason he was acting like that, she should've known that it was her fault)

I agree that writing seasons upon seasons for a couple is hard, but when you write a story specific to them they should be able to make it as complete as possible

Anyways Past is Past , So lets just hope that the ILY will remove all the insecurities of Leonard

Oh I totally get what you mean, that's why I said that they do make bad storytelling decisions at times, and yes, mostly just for laughs. But I think they do it with every single character, I don't think it's something specific about P/L. Just recently there were some commenting on how often when you think Sheldon has finally learned something they throw in a final scene for laughs just to show that he actually hasn't learned anything at all. And that that pisses people off. Which I can see why. But I think it's hard to strike the balance between being a funny sitcom and at the same time allowing your characters to grow and develop. Sometimes they get it (when they decided to use the Spiderman-speech take where Amy says "I'll take it" instead of Sheldon going on about "you didn't say whose heart it had to be from", which would have been horrendously mean), sometimes they don't (like in this case with Penny learning Physics or pushing Leonard away). I just think that overall their intentions for these characters are good, they're just in a tough spot in terms of writing because if you go serious and sensitive you have one half of the fandom getting annoyed that it's becoming Friends, if you don't you have the other half getting annoyed that they never take anything seriously.

I do agree the ILY followed by Alex's text was anti-climatic, but I'm sure later on in the season they'll go somewhere with that, they just take REALLY small baby steps.

[C-Trayne]

I think now that Leonard has heard the ILY from penny he should express a lot more confidence now both in his relationship and daily life. I think his insecurities have stemmed from years of unknowns when it comes to the women he's with... especially penny

[Shamyfan]

I want Leonard to get respect from Penny.

I hate that penny thinks she's Leonard should do what she says

I want Leonard to tell penny. That she isn't all that and not the beauty queen

Maybe then Penny will respect Leonard

[idrive65]

I want Leonard to get respect from Penny.

I hate that penny thinks she's Leonard should do what she says

I want Leonard to tell penny. That she isn't all that and not the beauty queen

Maybe then Penny will respect Leonard

 

Yes, that's what's missing - respect.  She loves him, but he's a sap to her.  She likes "take charge Leonard," she TOLD him so.  

 

My favorite scenes are when he speaks confidently, whether playfully or angrily   "You're right, I'm delightful" in response to her complaint that her Dad wants them back together, or "I knew you were going to do that - doesn't make me psychic!" when Penny grabbed her food and slammed the door in his face.