episodes 921 'The Viewing Party Combustion' (April 21)

[veejay]

11 minutes ago, luminous said:

Just for reasons of clarification. You mean Lenny should seperate from Sheldon, right?

Of course, I guess. 

[phantagrae]

I could tell while I was watching it what people would be ranting about this morning.

I don't think that Leonard being fed up with the RA is unusual and it was believable that he would finally try to take a stand, but I did think it was a bit of a stretch for Penny to be ready to go along with the meeting or whatever, unless you think about what Amy said later about how Penny was using the RA to manipulate the living situation to some degree.

I can see, though, how the petty disputes could end up splitting the viewing party, since it wasn't a major issue.  They were just convening to watch TV, and I think the GOT reference was timely, since "GOT is returning!" has been all over the internet, it seems.

Anyway, as Amy pointed out to Leonard, she didn't really care about the RA and the argument over it--whether or not Sheldon was right or wrong about the meetings, etc., but just that she took sides because of Penny and Sheldon siding together.  I knew people would get mad about that, and I do think it was kind of a lame refrain that we've heard before.  But in a way, the fact that she still sense it isn't that unusual among human beings.

I think that the writers are not wanting us to admire Raj and all his bragging, even though Leonard seemed kind of impressed.  I think that, except for Sheldon, the three others have always sort of bragged or been impressed or admired each other's dating escapades.  When Leonard picked up that Alice girl in the Comic Book Store, even though he was still involved with Priya, they all congratulated him and Stuart took his picture for the Wall of Fame.  They all wanted in on the sexcapades with Dr. Slut-bunny.  They were all kind of annoyed when Howard was bragging about his "friends with benefits" relationship with Leslie Winkle, and on and on.  As for Howard being fed up with Raj's bragging, Raj got annoyed with Howard for bragging about is relationship with Leslie, so turn about is fair play.

I am wondering if the implication with Raj is that both girls know he's dating both of them.  He and Emily broke up, but I don't think he's pretending they're back together.  I don't remember him saying anything about hiding one from the other, just not getting them mixed up in terms of who he's with or whose bra he has...

I do think that his situation is going to come to a head at some point, but since the girls are not really regular characters, we're not likely to see much of them.  Will they deal with it for the next few episodes?  Maybe, but if the finale is going to be about a redo of the Lenny wedding, they might not want to take time to go down that trail.  Or they might use it as a B story in the background--maybe he wants to invite one of them to the wedding?  Dunno.

One question people have raised is about Leonard knowing about the stuff on the sandwich.  Why would he know?  He says he didn't really think about or know about all the ingredients.  I wouldn't expect a deli sandwich to have any kind of nuts on it.  I wouldn't know what mortadella is.  Leonard's not Italian, so how would he know?  He ordered an Italian sub and didn't expect it to have nuts--and neither did Howard.

Someone actually complained about Amy eating her sandwich with a fork?  Maybe she didn't want to try to lift a big unwieldy piece of sandwich by hand.  I've eaten such things with a fork.  And I'm sure that for practical purposes in the scene, it makes more sense.  It's also a reason that they often don't really put much food in their mouths during dinner scenes.  They don't want to get caught with food in their mouths when it's time for their lines. 

As for Stuart, him walking in in costume reminded me of a scene from the old Gene Wilder movie "Start the Revolution Without Me" where King Louis the 15th(?) is tricked into wearing a big rooster costume to a fancy ball and he walks around kind of pathetically saying, "I thought it was a costume ball!"

Anyway, it was kind of a typical Howard prank.  As for the bicycle gag, he said at the beginning that his cape kept getting caught in his bike on the way over, so the gag at the end was in keeping with that.  And I think that the guys hanging out the window teasing him was partly to show that they had all mended their differences, and giving Stuart a silly hard time.  Maybe it wasn't all that nice, but it wasn't really more than the kind of teasing they do to each other.  They weren't down there pulling on this cape or knocking him over or doing anything truly harmful.  I don't think he felt that they were no longer his friends or anything like that.

I don't know to what extent this episode is a building block for major changes.  I think Jim used to say that Chuck would talk about how watching for any major changes among these characters would be like watching paint dry--there were not likely to be major changes sweeping through the characters in big ways.

I think it's true that the characters have changed, but little by little.  Just because Leonard and Penny got together at first didn't mean that they were going to be together right away from then on, or that they would have no stumbling blocks.  So they broke up, and their eventual journey to get back together was slow and uphill.  But they eventually got back together.  And then they progressed slowly uphill toward engagement, then marriage.  I think that many people have expected big dramatic changes in everything just because there is small progress in other things.

I agree with those who have said that it's not really Amy's place to demand changes in the living arrangements in the big apartment.  The decision about who lives where is not really up to her.  She could try to demand that Sheldon move in with her or whatever, but if he's not ready, then he's not ready, even if he might be more ready than he knows.  I think that having Leonard (and Penny) move out for good would be a big enough step for him, but then trying to force him to have Amy move it, when their sexual relationship has just begun, isn't really fair to him.  Just as it wouldn't be fair for Amy if the shoe were on the other foot.  Not everyone is ready to live with a boyfriend/girlfriend just because they're "together".  Not everyone goes or wants to go down that path at the same pace.

I think that they aired some information about the living arrangements, about petty annoyances, but I don't think that it means that this is the foundation for major changes.  I think that it could be seen as something of a place-holder in terms of the changes that people keep demanding.  But it's also simply an opportunity for the characters to vent a little over things that have been going on.  Whether or not it leads to immediate change depends on what the writers want to do.  Maybe Leonard's parents will bring up the situation, maybe Sheldon's mother will say something about it--though I don't believe she would suggest Amy moving in with Sheldon.

I am not bothered by the continuation of the status quo in the apartments because I don't see how a change would change anything about how Leonard and Penny relate to each other in terms of their relationship.  Their relationship is not threatened by their proximity to Sheldon.  They still sleep together, eat together, live together.

As for Raj and his women, I think he's enjoying what he never had before, finally feeling like the "playa" he always imagined himself to be.

And I also think that they haven't really given us enough information about Claire to show which of them is better for him.  She's an amateur sci-fi screenwriter and a bartender.  She kind of imagined that Emily might have been playing his emotions when she was crying about wanting to get back together with him, but that was potentially kind of self-serving on her part, because she had broken up with her boyfriend and now wanted to get together with Raj (whom she barely knew.)  So of course she's going to want Raj to break it off with Emily.

As I said, I don't remember him saying that he's lying to either of them, or just that he's "juggling" them.  If they both know about the other, then it's just as much up to them to break it off if they find it demeaning or if they're unhappy with the situation.  If he's pretending to be exclusive with either of them, then, yes, he's in the wrong.  But there are men out there who date and sleep with many women, without committing to anyone, and I think that's what Raj often wanted to imagine himself doing.  I think that like the others, he has had no real experience with women and dating, and he would either go over the top or not know what to do at all.

So now he has gotten some confidence and met two girls who like him for whatever reasons and are both willing to sleep with him--so he's living it up.  Bragging about it to the guys is what most of them would do (except Sheldon, for obvious reasons), at least to some degree.  "See how far I've come from the lonely nerdy guy I used to be."

Although it probably wasn't the funniest, or most "important" episode they've ever done, I don't think it's a awful as some are saying.  I still enjoyed it.

I think they're saving any real developments for the last two episodes.

[camelliayao]

36 minutes ago, SRAM said:

Well to be honest hasn't Sheldon had to be forced into every major change in his life, kicking and screaming the whole way.

 

Not really. To me it's more like he was inspired by something or had some kind of epiphany because of an incident, but eventually he made those decisions on his own. Besides Sheldon wanted Lenny to get married and to move out and he was going to propose to Amy in season 8 finale, no one forced him into that.

[phantagrae]

7 hours ago, paulusar said:

This show has been very disappointing this season since the cast got their big fat raises. It seems to have jumped the shark. Maybe the writers should have got raises too.

What do cast salaries have to do with the quality of the episodes?  Are you trying to suggest that the writers wouldn't do their job just as well simply because the actors got raises?

Edited April 22, 2016 by Tensor
Negative comment directed at another poster interpretation removed to comply with rule update.

[5Mississippis]

A few things I liked:

This episode was not Sheldon-centric or Shamy-heavy like the writers have insisted on giving is for the past two seasons. It played out more as an ensemble piece which I very much appreciated.

I very much liked the 'Batman/Manbat' conversations. Just like the guys theoretical Battle of Gettysburg if Godzilla, Orcs, Superman, and Hindu Gods were participants, this was a nice nod to those times when we would be treated to the guys extrapolated musings, debates, and arguments. Although the Gettysburg conversation was far superior, this was a very nice throwback. 

So very glad that Leonard didn't back down. He looks a whole lot taller with a spine. 

Even though she said she didn't really care about it and was just using it as leverage to show how annoyed she was with Sheldon's and Penny's relationship, I like that Leonard had some superficial support from Amy. I really like when Leonard and Amy interact with one another. To me they were always the same two peas waging the same battle -- loving a commitment-phobic/clueless partner. 

Liked Leonard's and Howard's dual realizations and the resultant 'son-of-a-bitch' at their epiphanies. 

Liked Leonard taking his displaced anger out on the innocent potato salad container. 

Raj being denied Amy's spinach dip. 

What I hated:

Raj. Pretty much any scene with Raj.

The Shenny. Again. To the TPTB -- we know. We know. We get it. Penny and Sheldon have a 'twisted brother/sister/ET/Elliot' type of relationship. We know. We get it. You can stop writing entire scenes about it and clobbering us over the head with it. Multiple stories and scenes this season. We know. We get it. How about dedicating some of that Shenny time to the actual canon couples. That would be refreshing. And, IMO, Season 1-3 Sheldon and Penny were much better, much more entertaining when they were written as mutual combatants. This admiration society that they are now invested in writing has taken away a whole lot of fun from the show. 

Penny. I absolutely hate that I really don't recognize Penny this entire season. My God! Like Thyanic3 noted, the woman can memorize the Roommate Pledge but not her husband's birthday?! She is pissed about her toilet paper fines so the solution to that is to cozy up to and manipulate Sheldon into altering the Roommate Agreement to her benefit? I have a better idea -- move out! Move out with your husband! I can guarantee there will be no toilet paper fines, Roommate Agreements, Roommate Pledges to memorize, or Roommate Meetings coming from Leonard once in 4B. And her snarky bitchiness continues -- 'if you lost a stick, I know where it went'. Really? WTF?! She, more than anyone, should really understand why her husband is annoyed. From the first season, we know that Leonard has been trying to get out from under Sheldon's oppressive thumb. They almost made it too until Penny herself kaboshed the move in 9.3.  And now she sides with Sheldon in the ridiculousness of the Roommate Meetings. 

Kaley. IMO, Kaley has been sleepwalking this season and just phoning in her lines. I am completely unconvinced by her acting and any emotion she is trying to convey. Last night, she did sound a bit hoarse so she might have been ill. But, to me, that doesn't explain her performances in the other 20 episodes. 

Defending:

7 hours ago, mirs1 said:

 [ -- SNIP -- ]

BTW, as an Italian, I'm very disappointed Leonard didn't know mortadella has pistachios, what did he think the green stuff on it are? 

I'm not Italian but I married one from a very large extended family in 1983 and since that time, I have been given/eaten mortadella on a few occasions. This was news to me because I thought the green bits in Mortadella were little slivers of green olives. 

7 hours ago, Lionne said:

Leonard came off pretty awful this episode in general. He's surprised and impressed Raj is dating two girls at once

[ -- SNIP -- ]

I really don't think Leonard was impressed at all. It looked more like shock/disbelief/stunned surprise to me. After all, it was news to him. He evidently didn't even know that Raj was dating two girls. 

7 hours ago, Lionne said:

Leonard [ -- SNIP -- ] just decides to throw a tantrum over the RA meeting for no reason and if he is that sick of it all stop whining about it and MOVE OUT

[ -- SNIP -- ]

I don't think it was tantrum for no reason. He did give the example that they were going to discuss the merits of the two different raisin brans especially when Sheldon was the only one who was going to eat it. Why you have to have a meeting for that is ridiculousness. And he mentioned that the Roommate Meetings were just another tool for Sheldon to get his way … again. Not knowing that his wife was using this a measure to manipulate and get her way with Sheldon, Penny sided against him. I think he had good reason to be upset. FWIW, he did try and move out but his wife effectively ended that in 9.3. Leonard staying in 4A is just supporting his wife's decision and action. 

7 hours ago, Lionne said:

[ -- SNIP -- ]

and then he taunts his friend Stuart over his "girly bike." Really not a great Leonard episode whatsoever. 

 Raj, Sheldon, and Leonard were all taunting Stuart to different degrees. This bullying onus just does not fall solely on Leonard. 

8 hours ago, Lionne said:

[ -- SNIP -- ]

Some of the random worst parts - Why does Amy eat a sub sandwich with a fork? 

No. To me, it looked like she was eating the potato salad with the fork that was nestled behind her piece of hoagie. 

[Zma]

I liked Leonard and Howard 'son of a bitch' laughing at others pain scene 

[Oldnavy]

I agree with SRAM. It was not a real good episode. I thought what was done to Stuart was mean, not funny. 

I get tired of the Penny always siding with Sheldon theme. Sheldon and Amy's relationship has not changed that much. Sheldon still takes her for granted. As for Raj, he is just annoying. 

 

[phantagrae]

Raj is SUPPOSED to be annoying in these scenes.  That's the point.

[Chrismo]

1 hour ago, phantagrae said:

I could tell while I was watching it what people would be ranting about this morning.

I think they're saving any real developments for the last two episodes.

As I could tell that some would praise it no matter what happened. At this point if Lenny is not living in 4b in the finale it seems the season has been a total bust.

[djsurrey]

9 hours ago, mirs1 said:

As for Stuart, I guess the reasons for the guys reaction to his costume is that being in costume when everybody is it's very cool, being the only one in costume in a no dress-up party makes you...a looser. It was the beginning of the guys being mean to Stuart, which was the other part that bothered me. It was bullying, no other term fits with their behavior.

How does one square this with the Bakersfield episode?

My theory is that this is a reflection of the man-bat talk at the beginning. This was not a The big Bang Theory episode. It was the evil twin episode.

Edited April 22, 2016 by djsurrey

[Stephen Hawking]

8 hours ago, Jonny83 said:

Stuart is a pretty decent guy, a bit weird but his heart is in the right place.

But, as Amy can testify, sometimes his hand isn't.  

[Zma]

penny's act was just ancillary, felt like purely for the sake of story written for the episode; not funny at all.

Edited April 22, 2016 by Zma

[Carm6773]

5 hours ago, phantagrae said:

Someone actually complained about Amy eating her sandwich with a fork?  Maybe she didn't want to try to lift a big unwieldy piece of sandwich by hand.  I've eaten such things with a fork.  And I'm sure that for practical purposes in the scene, it makes more sense.  It's also a reason that they often don't really put much food in their mouths during dinner scenes.  They don't want to get caught with food in their mouths when it's time for their lines. 

That and Mayim Bialik is vegan, so whatever she had on her plate wasn't a sub sandwich...

[Itwasdestined]

Seemed more like a sketch comedy show tonight rather than an episode. Seemed very disjointed in the telling of the story, whatever it was. Strangely, my wife found it hilarious and thought it one of the funniest for a while so go figure, the casual viewer vs the angry forum mob. I did laugh during several scenes but I always do. It was the lack of cohesive story telling that annoyed me.

Raj and Howard was just a comedy sketch in which Raj was the annoying bragger and Howard the annoyed friend. Bernie was just there. Story - not resolved!

Stuart was just a comedy sketch in which he was the butt of the jokes. The boys picking on him was puerile and completely out of context with the preceding scenes. Story - none!

Leonard was the once/twice a year sketch inserted into every season that shows that sometimes he hates living with Sheldon. Story- as always, unresolved.

Penny and Sheldon - yeah we know, they have this special relationship. Do we really need an infomercial inserted every season to inform us of this obvious fact. Story - same as always!

Hospital/sub nut allergy Howard fiasco - sketch comedy scene which seems to have arisen because someone must have found the left over anaphylactic reaction makeup used on Howard in Season 1's Leonard's birthday episode. Story - forget what was happening before this scene, everyone is happy Howard's OK, Bernie gets on camera again and all the fighting is over. Yeah!!

Tag scene - well, Lenny fans, they're still sleeping together and Sheldon still talks to them through the door. And Penny gets involved in their weird comic book conversations!?! Story - it's a Lenny fight, we never really resolve their problems but they always end up together and still in love so just accept everything's fine, OK?

I still got to laugh enough to sort of enjoy watching it but seriously the actual story telling in this episode wouldn't have made the cut when I was teaching Grade 2 Kids in the 90s!

Here's hoping this was a set up for what others had mentioned because it certainly didn't play out as a completed narrative tonight. 2 stars!

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Tensor]

Heheheheh, Sketch comedy, that's a good description. 

[Shelldon]

-Travel Gavel.

-Didn't understand a single Game of Thrones reference because I've never watched that.

-Stuart's comment at least lampshaded how stupid it was for all the conflict to be forgiven just because Howard had a peanut allergy attack from their giant and unnecessary party sub. (Which Sheldon was right about, boom)

-*yawns at Stuart abuse*

-This was all a bit contrived without really giving any importance or depth to all the various issues. They just wanted the group to fight with a lot of Game of Thrones promotion as a backdrop.

-When are Emily and Claire going to stop being used as props and used more like actual characters? They've waited too long and now don't know how to make another girl as integral as Amy or Bernadette.

-The manbat word play joke goes on too long and relies on the audience to find it as nothing but confusing gibberish that sounds complicated.

-Leonard is around Sheldon every day, why was a brief meeting another tipping point? Hate to side with Penny, but there really needed to be a better justification for Leonard's temper tantrum other than the usual hijinx which he should be understanding of by now.

[SRAM]

The thing is this is not the first time he has complained about the roommate agreement, so this is not a tipping point it is just another time he gets aggravated with Sheldon and the agreement.  Really he has done more drastic things before, remember the episode when he went to live with Penny in season 6, he told Sheldon he could stick the roommate agreement.  Also in season 5, after Sheldon kept him up all night with a drill, he signed Sheldons pad to nullify the roommate agreement and Sheldon turned the apartment power off to get him to resign.  There were other times also Leonard complained about the agreement so this episode really didn't touch on anything new, Leonard's has throughout the show had problems with the agreement.  The thing that was different and weird, is Penny never liked it either and asked Leonard why he agreed to it, so this 180 flip by her is a huge continuity error in the show.

[joyceraye]

On ‎22‎/‎04‎/‎2016 at 4:14 AM, Chrismo said:

 

I just didn't get the point of the scene. I wouldn't consider the guys professionals although they dress like they did in college. Also I can't picture them doing that while they were younger. On top of that it just wasn't funny. The episodes are short enough you think the writers could of come up with something more creative(and funny).

They are all academics, which makes them professional men. Even Stuart is a graduate.

Sheldon didn't get the chance to be a teens-and-twenties college student. I suspect you're right in that the others didn't  shout out of upstairs hall of residence windows to tease friends below either. To me this behaviour is an example of catching up with themselves, doing what they didn't do fifteen years before, such as going to a prom and playing D and D.

I agree that going headfirst over bike handlebars isn't funny. People getting hurt isn't my idea of humour. I can't imagine what purpose that was supposed to serve.

[joyceraye]

2 minutes ago, SRAM said:

The thing is this is not the first time he has complained about the roommate agreement, so this is not a tipping point it is just another time he gets aggravated with Sheldon and the agreement.  Really he has done more drastic things before, remember the episode when he went to live with Penny in season 6, he told Sheldon he could stick the roommate agreement.  Also in season 5, after Sheldon kept him up all night with a drill, he signed Sheldons pad to nullify the roommate agreement and Sheldon turned the apartment power off to get him to resign.  There were other times also Leonard complained about the agreement so this episode really didn't touch on anything new, Leonard's has throughout the show had problems with the agreement.  The thing that was different and weird, is Penny never liked it either and asked Leonard why he agreed to it, so this 180 flip by her is a huge continuity error in the show.

I'm surprised Leonard hadn't told Penny earlier that he didn't want to go to the meeting. He should have discussed it with her so they wouldn't have to be on different pages in front of other people. Penny said the R A was something they had agreed to and so ought to keep to. I can't fault her on that. She also said it meant  lot to Sheldon without saying it made Sheldon easier to live with, which is what she probably meant. There were going to be amendments on the agenda that she'd thought of to make her life easier so she was going along with the process, like it or lump it.

 

[Tensor]

Well I suppose he just thought his wife would support him, there shouldn't be a need to discuss it with her.  Especially as she has, on more than one occasion told Leonard to not do something based on the RA, because it's stupid.  Not only that, she's married to Leonard, not Sheldon, there should be no question who she supports.   And I just don't understand why it's OK for Penny to get pissed at Leonard when he doesn't support her, but it's OK for her to get pissed at Leonard when she doesn't support him.   

So, it means a lot to Sheldon, so she obviously thinks it doesn't mean anything to Leonard.   It must be more important to keep Sheldon happy, instead of her husband.  Yeah, amendments that she went to Sheldon with, without talking to Leonard.  It must be nice for Penny that Leonard should have discussed going to the meeting with Penny, but she is free to go behind his back and set things up with Sheldon, without talking to her husband.

Penny, this entire episode, was nothing but a crappy wife.   Let's all pick on Leonard for lying to Penny about the bank account some more, shall we?  

[Stephen Hawking]

14 hours ago, Carm6773 said:

That and Mayim Bialik is vegan, so whatever she had on her plate wasn't a sub sandwich...

You can have vegan sandwiches.

13 hours ago, Itwasdestined said:

Raj and Howard was just a comedy sketch in which Raj was the annoying bragger and Howard the annoyed friend.

In fairness to Raj, it's just a bit of payback, for the times Howard had a girlfriend but Raj didn't, and Howard would go on about his girlfriend.

9 hours ago, joyceraye said:

To me this behaviour is an example of catching up with themselves, doing what they didn't do fifteen years before,

You mean in the same way Amy loved being in the middle, between Penny and Bernadette, in The Junior Professor Solution?

As Amy said:-

Because it’s taken 15 years, but high school is finally awesome.

Edited April 23, 2016 by Stephen Hawking

[djsurrey]

8 hours ago, Stephen Hawking said:

In fairness to Raj, it's just a bit of payback, for the times Howard had a girlfriend but Raj didn't, and Howard would go on about his girlfriend.

While that might be the intent these guys are in their 30s and educated. They are not in their teens. Payback to Howard can't justify treating women like objects. If TBBT converts to TAHM I will be out.

Edited April 23, 2016 by djsurrey

[4everlenny]

Just watched it again with my wife, still not as bad as I expected, but still cringeworthy. Leaving everything unresolved still makes it real  bad. I could watch it 100 times and it would still be in the bottom 10 episodes ever.

[Tonstar17]

Just watched it again with my wife, still not as bad as I expected, but still cringeworthy. Leaving everything unresolved still makes it real  bad. I could watch it 100 times and it would still be in the bottom 10 episodes ever.

I'm not even going to comment on the episode. I have made my feelings known what I thought of episode before it was aired and I still stand by what I said.

Sent from my SM-G928F using Tapatalk

[AllyAnne]

Raj did come off like a jerk but if Emily and Claire know about each other, he's not technically doing anything wrong.  I think we know that Claire knows about Emily, but who knows if Emily knows about Claire.  What either of these women want to do with the Raj we saw in this episode is the biggest mystery.