[Spoilers] Discussion Topic: Season 9

[Gbb]

6 hours ago, Einstein Von Brainstorm said:

People before the taping: "I just want a fun group episode..."

*the TR indicates a cute group episode*

People: "Wtf?! No big movements plot wise?!"  

 

Welcome to the forum!  

I think it sounds fun and funny. And the people who saw it seemed to love it. As for why bring back Leslie Winkle, I think it's because it was episode 200 and they wanted to include some of the people who've been a big part of the show. I think she's hilarious and I'd love to have her back as a regular a la Kripke, but I don't think he schedule will allow it.

[A.D.A.]

29 minutes ago, FortCozyMcBlanket said:

I think the main reason Penny went in to retrieve Sheldon (lol because he's "their dog") was because the big point tptb were trying to make about Sheldon hating birthdays was because he was always let down by his sister, and now he has Penny as his surrogate sister to make up for the past hurt/trauma Missy caused. It's pushing another "look how the group is bringing Sheldon out of his childhood" moment. That's what I think the writers were going for anyway! 

you got to it first, whoops! lol

yep, same here! until I started following TBBT discussions online it never occurred to me that Sheldon and Penny could be someone's OTP! Same with Sherlolly and Johnlock (which I find to be exactly like Shelnard) on Sherlock -- I'm not seeing what these non-canon shippers are wanting to see! lol 

Just as a tangential aside to your post, I always found it funny that TBBT is literally the only fandom I know where canon shippers pretty much rule supreme in discussions. I think there's nothing wrong with shipping Sheldon with Emily and Leonard with Kripke or whatever and producing fanworks for them. I don't ship on TBBT, but I do in other fandoms, and I find it very limiting to only restrict my imagination to the writers' gospel - I actually often prefer to see if a good fan artists can make something believable that the show hasn't already handed them. However, I think peaceful co-existence is the key there. The claws come out when non-canon shippers want to push their ship over another in the show, and canon shippers start worrying the writers might actually be listening (as the very faint hints of panic whenever Shenny scenes are made known shows).

However, I don't think there's much reason for pairing wars anymore. It's a given that TBBT has their endgame couples set, aside from Raj, and Emily's status as a regular makes me question even that. I agree with you that they are setting Penny up as his big sister-character even more, and that fits the scene where two characters who might be more passionate about their connection with him (girlfriend and best friend) are for a moment outdone by someone who supports him with the level-headed, natural attitude of a sibling. That doesn't make Amy and Leonard worse people or less important, their relationships to Sheldon are just different.

[Einstein Von Brainstorm]

2 minutes ago, Gbb said:

Welcome to the forum!  

I think it sounds fun and funny. And the people who saw it seemed to love it. As for why bring back Leslie Winkle, I think it's because it was episode 200 and they wanted to include some of the people who've been a big part of the show. I think she's hilarious and I'd love to have her back as a regular a la Kripke, but I don't think he schedule will allow it.

Yeah the guest stars were for them and to a certain extent, us.

Joe Regular_Viewer^TM won't know this is the 200th episode will they? It won't be a significant episode for them at all, would I have liked Leonard to move out? Yes. Am I butt hurt there was no significant plot movement? No. - if this was the season final I would be flipping my desk right now but it wasn't.

A good fun group episode with extra added guest star on the side sounds delightful to me  

[Gbb]

4 hours ago, JE7 said:

I took a quick tour of the net and found a few things

1. almost everyone is disappointed in the 200th episode, I saw one positive comment

Have any of the disappointed people actually seen the episode?

 

[wannabechef07]

6 minutes ago, Gbb said:

Welcome to the forum!  

I think it sounds fun and funny. And the people who saw it seemed to love it. As for why bring back Leslie Winkle, I think it's because it was episode 200 and they wanted to include some of the people who've been a big part of the show. I think she's hilarious and I'd love to have her back as a regular a la Kripke, but I don't think he schedule will allow it.

Thanks for welcoming me! :D

Yeah I does sound like a good ensemble episode which we haven't had in a while. Those are probably my favorite types of episodes. Yeah it'd be nice to see Leslie back more often but didn't the writers say that she wasn't on the show after the Season 3 finale because they didn't know what to do with her character? I hope they have more story lines for her now. She was fun and put Sheldon in his place very early on which I guess from the 200th episode seems to have changed huh. Oh well, we'll leave it to you guys then TPTB.

[ShamyBabboos]

10 minutes ago, Gbb said:

Have any of the disappointed people actually seen the episode?

 

I've seen the episode, and while it was funny and a good episode, it wasn't exactly (in my opinion) 200th episode good. I think the previous episode (Positive Negative Reaction) was better in terms of plot and humor.

[hokie3457]

Here is my take (for what it's worth...).

I think the large amount of dissappointment is a feeling of being letdown.  Much was expected over time from the 200th episode.  When you compare it to the 100th, where there was a reset of Leonard & Penny's relationship, along with extremely hilarious moments from Howard, Raj and Sheldon; and the 150th, which featured a milestone in Sheldon & Amy's relationship (along with very, very funny lines from Bernadette and a satisfying on many levels sub-plot with Leonard, Penny, Raj, Cinnamon and the one-shot appearance of Yvette the Vet), you can understand that dissappointment.  However.....When you look back over the years at other sit-coms, many used an irritating trope for episodes that were milestones, or featured a wedding, a funeral or a character leaving.  Flashback!  I did not enjoy this method, but that is sort of what the writers/producers did here---without acutally doing it.

They brought back most of the major recurring characters.  The main one missing was Mary Cooper.  (Perhaps Laurie's schedule did not permit an appearence.)  I think that was what this accomplished.  It was a great chance for them all to pat themselves on the back and to bring back characters that have not been there in a while (Leslie and Beverly--I know, Bev was there last year....;) as well as Wil, Barry and Stuart who have played major roles this year.  The real event here, I'm sure was the after party.  All the Instagram posts were fun to see (did anyone see Anne Wheaton's post?  she was standing in Penny's kitchen with a fantastic vantage point that we had never seen before---go look for it!) and it looked all had a great time.

I think we need to look at it for what it was: a pause in the action.  They deserve to give themselves kudos.  We love them all so much and it is good to see them (appearing to be anyway) happy.  My extremely humble opinion.....

[Judith]

1 hour ago, Boonaroma said:

That being said, I think the 200th episode revolving around only one character is a little jarring.  And I say this as someone who likes the Sheldon character.  At least episode 100 revolved around two of the main characters.

 

I agree...I was hoping it would be more Shamy-heavy (I know it would be overkill after all the Shamy heaviness of the previous eps, but at least it would mirror 100th)...also, I'm biased 

[mirs1]

43 minutes ago, hokie3457 said:

Here is my take (for what it's worth...).

I think the large amount of dissappointment is a feeling of being letdown.  Much was expected over time from the 200th episode.  When you compare it to the 100th, where there was a reset of Leonard & Penny's relationship, along with extremely hilarious moments from Howard, Raj and Sheldon; and the 150th, which featured a milestone in Sheldon & Amy's relationship (along with very, very funny lines from Bernadette and a satisfying on many levels sub-plot with Leonard, Penny, Raj, Cinnamon and the one-shot appearance of Yvette the Vet), you can understand that dissappointment.  However.....When you look back over the years at other sit-coms, many used an irritating trope for episodes that were milestones, or featured a wedding, a funeral or a character leaving.  Flashback!  I did not enjoy this method, but that is sort of what the writers/producers did here---without acutally doing it.

They brought back most of the major recurring characters.  The main one missing was Mary Cooper.  (Perhaps Laurie's schedule did not permit an appearence.)  I think that was what this accomplished.  It was a great chance for them all to pat themselves on the back and to bring back characters that have not been there in a while (Leslie and Beverly--I know, Bev was there last year....;) as well as Wil, Barry and Stuart who have played major roles this year.  The real event here, I'm sure was the after party.  All the Instagram posts were fun to see (did anyone see Anne Wheaton's post?  she was standing in Penny's kitchen with a fantastic vantage point that we had never seen before---go look for it!) and it looked all had a great time.

I think we need to look at it for what it was: a pause in the action.  They deserve to give themselves kudos.  We love them all so much and it is good to see them (appearing to be anyway) happy.  My extremely humble opinion.....

100% agree! I think also that the writers willingly decided to break the pattern, and they made a big twist in the story, the first baby on the show, happen in Episode 198/199 instead that in Episode 200. It is not the big twist we all were waiting for, of course, living arrangements are still the elephant in the room, and also the plot they chose was a bit predictable, it's been a while that in here we were speaking about Sheldon's birthday party as a possibility, even before the photo from the set. But it was a chance to have people that are away from the show and that maybe for a "normal" episode wouldn't have been available to join the cast for a celebration. Looking forward some insight of that after party, though!

Edited February 10, 2016 by mirs1

[kerrycec03]

11 minutes ago, hokie3457 said:

Here is my take (for what it's worth...).

I think the large amount of dissappointment is a feeling of being letdown.  Much was expected over time from the 200th episode.  When you compare it to the 100th, where there was a reset of Leonard & Penny's relationship, along with extremely hilarious moments from Howard, Raj and Sheldon; and the 150th, which featured a milestone in Sheldon & Amy's relationship (along with very, very funny lines from Bernadette and a satisfying on many levels sub-plot with Leonard, Penny, Raj, Cinnamon and the one-shot appearance of Yvette the Vet), you can understand that dissappointment.  However.....When you look back over the years at other sit-coms, many used an irritating trope for episodes that were milestones, or featured a wedding, a funeral or a character leaving.  Flashback!  I did not enjoy this method, but that is sort of what the writers/producers did here---without acutally doing it.

They brought back most of the major recurring characters.  The main one missing was Mary Cooper.  (Perhaps Laurie's schedule did not permit an appearence.)  I think that was what this accomplished.  It was a great chance for them all to pat themselves on the back and to bring back characters that have not been there in a while (Leslie and Beverly--I know, Bev was there last year....;) as well as Wil, Barry and Stuart who have played major roles this year.  The real event here, I'm sure was the after party.  All the Instagram posts were fun to see (did anyone see Anne Wheaton's post?  she was standing in Penny's kitchen with a fantastic vantage point that we had never seen before---go look for it!) and it looked all had a great time.

I think we need to look at it for what it was: a pause in the action.  They deserve to give themselves kudos.  We love them all so much and it is good to see them (appearing to be anyway) happy.  My extremely humble opinion.....

perfectly said!  And I see both sides, as every episode shows, that half are happy and half are sad.  I actually don't find it bad (I love it a lot) and really didn't expect anything major in this one.  Even 100, which yes Lenny had a sorta big moment, I don't mark that down in a huge episode.  JMO.  I agree it did what it accomplished.  Its celebrated the show albeit though Sheldon's birthday.  It was a way to get a huge ensemble episode and bring back the favorite guest stars we know & love.  (and yes, Laurie is still on broadway and was not available).  So if you take the episode as a celebration of 9+ years, a celebration of 200 episodes, a celebration of not a lot of cast changes (even the fact they have so many recurring guests too), then it was very well done.  I am surprised so many went in expecting something huge.  Even once the party pics were revealed via social media the boards kinda had the same feelings, its a party, nothing major.  So not sure why this is all coming out now.  But I think its a fun group ensemble episode which we've been dying for (me at least--I have really missed the ensemble feeling).  And Feb's episodes are fun.  After such a dramatic first half, they are filling Feb sweeps with good old comedy, from Valetino, then to the Karaoke, and now this.  Solid funny, drama free episodes. 

And the writers LOVE Shenny so I'm not surprised one bit that Penny & Sheldon had a moment.  Hands down, those are the favorites of the crew, and they do have such a sibling chemistry. 

Now its clear enough groundwork has been laid for them to start on some more arcs with the characters.  And that will be the focus for the remaining episodes into their finale.

Edited February 10, 2016 by kerrycec03

[Tensor]

I think it best for me to simply not comment.  

[SRAM]

I see the rest of this season building to the Shamy engagement, to either happen in 9.24 or be suggested for 10.01.  Season 10 will build to the wedding.  I also see season 11 being decided this summer or at the beginning of season 10.  The writers will 'wing it' with season 11, like they always do, except now they will have to write three and a half married couples.

[Tensor]

5 minutes ago, SRAM said:

 except now they will have to write three and a half married couples.

Well, two and a half. 

[veejay]

14 minutes ago, Tensor said:

I think it best for me to simply not comment.  

I’m pretty sure meka will deal with this.

[Strawberry PopTart Fan]

55 minutes ago, hokie3457 said:

Here is my take (for what it's worth...).

I think the large amount of dissappointment is a feeling of being letdown.  Much was expected over time from the 200th episode.  When you compare it to the 100th, where there was a reset of Leonard & Penny's relationship, along with extremely hilarious moments from Howard, Raj and Sheldon; and the 150th, which featured a milestone in Sheldon & Amy's relationship (along with very, very funny lines from Bernadette and a satisfying on many levels sub-plot with Leonard, Penny, Raj, Cinnamon and the one-shot appearance of Yvette the Vet), you can understand that dissappointment.  However.....When you look back over the years at other sit-coms, many used an irritating trope for episodes that were milestones, or featured a wedding, a funeral or a character leaving.  Flashback!  I did not enjoy this method, but that is sort of what the writers/producers did here---without acutally doing it.

They brought back most of the major recurring characters.  The main one missing was Mary Cooper.  (Perhaps Laurie's schedule did not permit an appearence.)  I think that was what this accomplished.  It was a great chance for them all to pat themselves on the back and to bring back characters that have not been there in a while (Leslie and Beverly--I know, Bev was there last year....;) as well as Wil, Barry and Stuart who have played major roles this year.  The real event here, I'm sure was the after party.  All the Instagram posts were fun to see (did anyone see Anne Wheaton's post?  she was standing in Penny's kitchen with a fantastic vantage point that we had never seen before---go look for it!) and it looked all had a great time.

I think we need to look at it for what it was: a pause in the action.  They deserve to give themselves kudos.  We love them all so much and it is good to see them (appearing to be anyway) happy.  My extremely humble opinion.....

My "like" was your tenth for the win!  Dr. Hokie made it feel so much better "....we do love them so much...."

[vasu]

Sheldon's birthday one full episode... leonard and penny wedding...not even half of the episode and we don't even get to see it because shleodn and amy are fighting......... lol ... some main 3.....

and leonard has to be the most pathetic character in the history of sitcoms...... his wife who clearly settled for him constantly belittles him.... his roommate constatnly belittles him.....his wife almost always shows more affection to his roommate then himself....... hell she does'nt even care enough to remember his birthday....but tells others how imporatnt birthdays are........ his mother does'nt give a shit about him...but looks like she cares enough to come for his roommates birthday........... 

[djsurrey]

5 hours ago, bbtfan07 said:

Funny that Adam West says that he wants to be paid. If you don't buy one of his autographs after standing in line for two hours, he won't even speak to you and just stares. Not a very friendly fan oriented actor.

I have never gone after autographs but if he has been signing them for more than two hours at his age he might have run out of smiles and giggles.

[hokie3457]

13 minutes ago, Strawberry PopTart Fan said:

My "like" was your tenth for the win!  Dr. Hokie made it feel so much better "....we do love them so much...."

Thanks Strawberry....I should add that even though I sort of understand what the big-wigs were doing with this episode, I think making it Sheldon-centric was not the best way to go.  They could have very nicely done a congratulations party for both the newlyweds and the expectant parents and still feature Sheldon as much as they like...... 

[djsurrey]

5 hours ago, JE7 said:

I took a quick tour of the net and found a few things

1. almost everyone is disappointed in the 200th episode, I saw one positive comment

2. Many are upset Penny talked Sheldon out of the bathroom instead of Amy including "Penny needs to stay the hell away from Amy's man"

3. Bill Prady is being tweeted.... Again

Ssssshhhhh, be vewy vewy qwiet.

It has not aired yet.

[ashleyo85]

So off topic, but some guy wrote a "script" for TBBT, featuring himself, and has tweeted it a few times to Bill. 

I couldn't actually get through more than a few pages, but it's pretty hilarious if anyone wants a look. The entire script seems to revolve around this guy being a guest star LOL

The Theory of Surprise

[Tensor]

i guess we should only be able to talk about aired episodes. 

[veejay]

32 minutes ago, vasu said:

.....

and leonard has to be the most pathetic character in the history of sitcoms...... his wife who clearly settled for him constantly belittles him.... his roommate constatnly belittles him.....his wife almost always shows more affection to his roommate then himself....... hell she does'nt even care enough to remember his birthday....but tells others how imporatnt birthdays are........ his mother does'nt give a shit about him...but looks like she cares enough to come for his roommates birthday........... 

 

[stardustmelody]

The problem with the episode is it is predictable.  You have a cast of many honoring Sheldon and feeding his already big ego.  Yes I love Sheldon, but honestly he has an ego that constantly needs feeding and it is getting a bit tiring even for this fan who adores him.  I also feel that while it was nice to tribute the cast members from the past, there are many other creative ways they could have accomplished that and would have made it more interesting.

As far as the Penny relationship with Sheldon, yes they are friends and yes she is like a big sister.  We get it.  But what is sad is when you look at the grand scheme of things, it becomes pathetic.   You have her married to man that she insults openly in front of him, that she can't remember his birthday, and that she would rather think and talk about his best friend.   She acts like she has to "put up with" Sheldon, yet she is the one that always caves and mothers him.  She has a desperate need to be the one in charge and the one that makes him feel better, even at the expense of ignoring her best friend's need.  Amy clearly wanted to comfort Sheldon and Amy has always been good with reasoning with him.  So why did she ignore Amy's wish to comfort Sheldon?  Because she cared more about her own need to comfort him.   

I do get that they were trying to show that a sister betrayed him and his pseudo sister made thing all right again.   But was that really necessary?  Is Penny more important than Amy to him?   Wasn't it all just a plot ploy to get Sheldon and Penny in scenes together anyway?

Yes they were showing Leonard/Amy face off because there is a transfer of who will be Sheldon's future roommate (hopefully), but still it just comes across annoying that Penny cares and thinks about and tends to Sheldon more than she shows any care or concern for her husband (or her best friend for that matter.) 

I have never been a fan of Sheldon/Penny relationship since S6.  I loved them as frenemies in S1-5.  They were loads of fun to me then.  But once they brought them close and made them supposedly understand each other and no one else supposedly understands them, it just changed their dynamic to one that I have never been a fan of.   This is yet another example.  She supposedly gets him more than Amy so she has to comfort him.  Really?  Amy wasn't even given a chance to prove she gets him in this case.   It just was annoying.

The writers continue to do a huge disservice to Leonard and Penny as a couple and honestly Leonard as a character.  It is frustrating for those of us who have watched since S1.   

What made it worse was Penny never even considered when she offered to stay in the bathroom with Sheldon if he didn't want to go out to the party until it was over what that would look like to Leonard and Amy and how it would likely spread some gossip.   Seriously would that happen in real life?  Not likely without a lot of ruffled feathers coming from their significant others. 

I get that males and females can be close and good friends....but I guarantee you that my husband would not be at all happy if I went off tending to my male friends all the time and tried to comfort them and take care of them when they were sick, etc. . Likewise I would not be keen on him doing that for his female friends either.  

I feel like they have not given any boundaries in this friendship and that is the issue.   It crosses the line many times and thus the reason it becomes unsettling to me.   Friendships need boundaries and so far Penny has none with Sheldon and he with her.   He walks in the bathroom while she is in the shower (even though married to his best friend) and that is disturbing.   She offers to spend the entire birthday party in the bathroom with him and that too is disturbing.  Sure you can trust them in this case because we do know that Sheldon has no interest in her sexually and vice verse, but it is inconsiderate to their significant others and weird in general and crosses boundaries.   

I feel that because there has been a lack of Leonard and Penny story and they really haven't been on bad terms, but not exactly acting like newlyweds either, that this episode was just another kick in the gut to Lenny fans and honestly it is frustrating even for a fan that likes Lenny but is more a Shamy fan.   It just shows lack of consideration for the couplings they supposedly established and again, gave far too much attention to Sheldon when he has pretty much owned the entire season.   

Hopefully going forward we can see some changes made in living arrangements and dynamic and some boundaries start to appear in the Sheldon/Penny friendship.

[djsurrey]

13 minutes ago, Tensor said:

i guess we should only be able to talk about aired episodes. 

I think we have all been around the mill a few times where lots of people are flipping tables and then the episode airs and near everyone is saying it turned out a lot better than they had imagined. I guess this time the problem is more what did not happen. It seems TBBT writers like to defy expectations.

[Gbb]

2 hours ago, hokie3457 said:

15 minutes ago, stardustmelody said:

15 minutes ago, stardustmelody said:

What made it worse was Penny never even considered when she offered to stay in the bathroom with Sheldon if he didn't want to go out to the party until it was over what that would look like to Leonard and Amy and how it would likely spread some gossip.   Seriously would that happen in real life?  Not likely without a lot of ruffled feathers coming from their significant others. 

 

 

I doubt there's a single person at that party who would think there was anything physical going on between Sheldon and Penny

(sorry for all the extra quote boxes - it defeated me this time)