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

[Carlos]

33 minutes ago, ATM said:

So Amy is now passive aggressive, needy, clingy, horny and on top of that tries to insert problems into her own friends relationship so that she could be more happy.

To be fair to Amy she's always been shown as horny

[SRAM]

8 hours ago, Carlos said:

To be fair to Amy she's always been shown as horny

I like to think of her as a butterfly who has been in her cocoon way too long and once she sprouts her wings there is a lot of catching up to do.  Amy seems to me to be the most tragic character of the show, the little girl with no friends, growing up pretty much alone and just closing herself off from the world to survive, using her brilliant mind to try and get some satisfaction and happiness in the world.  I feel she was more damaged than the guys and I think the big heart they gave Penny seasons ago, made her understand that, so even though she seemed weird, Penny didn't reject her.   I also think because she is Amy we notice when she says things about sex, but when it is just the others girls talking about sex we ignore it.  I mean look at Penny, everything Leonard has mentioned she has already done, we have just become use to her being like that, we are not with Amy.

What I liked best about this episode was how comfortable Amy was with the guys and honest they were with each other.  It really shows that Amy is just as important member of the group as anyone else and not just Sheldons girlfriend any more. 

[Jonny]

1 hour ago, SRAM said:

I like to think of her as a butterfly who has been in her cocoon way too long and once she sprouts her wings there is a lot of catching up to do.  Amy seems to me to be the most tragic character of the show, the little girl with no friends, growing up pretty much alone and just closing herself off from the world to survive, using her brilliant mind to try and get some satisfaction and happiness in the world.  I feel she was more damaged than the guys and I think the big heart they gave Penny seasons ago, made her understand that, so even though she seemed weird, Penny didn't reject her.   I also think because she is Amy we notice when she says things about sex, but when it is just the others girls talking about sex we ignore it.  I mean look at Penny, everything Leonard has mentioned she has already done, we have just become use to her being like that, we are not with Amy.

What I liked best about this episode was how comfortable Amy was with the guys and honest they were with each other.  It really shows that Amy is just as important member of the group as anyone else and not just Sheldons girlfriend any more. 

Extremely well said

Just highlighted for me why she is probably my favorite character on the show.

Edited April 26, 2016 by Jonny83

[ATM]

 

To be fair to Amy she's always been shown as horny

haha. Anyway I was just summing up all the characteristics of Amy which were displayed , not just in this episode. However this passive aggressive, knowingly causing trouble in her friends relationships do not make her character appealing at all. 

On the other hand in Penny and Leonard "relationship/marriage" , if Penny even puts half the amount of effort she puts to appease sheldon in her own marriage their marriage would'nt have been so much toxic.  

She has time to memorize pledges and go to meetings because she feels it is important for Sheldon , but does not care enough to memorize her own husband's birthday( which clearly should be very important to Leonard).

I see no reason for Penny to have not supported Leonard. She did'nt even try.

This makes Penny look very bad.  Leonard was always awful/bad to begin with but  Penny was never like this. Leonard's character has no story, but Penny's character has and is taking a wrong turn

Edited April 26, 2016 by ATM

[joyceraye]

 

I like to think of her as a butterfly who has been in her cocoon way too long and once she sprouts her wings there is a lot of catching up to do.  Amy seems to me to be the most tragic character of the show, the little girl with no friends, growing up pretty much alone and just closing herself off from the world to survive, using her brilliant mind to try and get some satisfaction and happiness in the world.  I feel she was more damaged than the guys and I think the big heart they gave Penny seasons ago, made her understand that, so even though she seemed weird, Penny didn't reject her.   I also think because she is Amy we notice when she says things about sex, but when it is just the others girls talking about sex we ignore it.  I mean look at Penny, everything Leonard has mentioned she has already done, we have just become use to her being like that, we are not with Amy.

What I liked best about this episode was how comfortable Amy was with the guys and honest they were with each other.  It really shows that Amy is just as important member of the group as anyone else and not just Sheldons girlfriend any more. 

Yes !

What highlighted her confidence and security for me was the way she was the one who invited Howard and Raj into 4a while Leonard was standing right there, as if it was her place too, although Sheldon had departed for 4b. She must be feeling very much at home there now.

[djsurrey]

The dissonance comes in part from the extremes. Raj can be both incredibly sensitive to the needs of others  at times and totally self-centred and unthinking about others at other times. Like the day Lucy agreed to go for a coffee. A different kind of bipolar. For me it is too jarring to be funny.

 

Edited April 27, 2016 by djsurrey

[Carlos]

 

Stuart?  He wasn't "defending" himself.  His comment about Raj's face wasn't a "defense"--it was just as much a schoolboy taunt as the stuff they were saying to him.

The point of the fall on the bike was, again, just a call back to what he himself had said earlier about his cape getting caught.  If it had really been such a serious problem, he wouldn't have been wearing the cape on the way home.  I think people are over-thinking this one moment because they seem to be determined to be negative about a scene that was essentially harmless.  How about when Sheldon and Raj were fighting over the desks and Raj gets "blown up" in the office.  Wouldn't that have been more serious?  It was a gag that was played as a gag, not as a serious accident.  Like I said, falling off a bike doesn't mean he was seriously injured.  And I think that was part of the point.

If he's being a "douchebag" to these girls, it seems to be with their consent.  A lot of guys date and sleep around with more than one girl.  The difference here is that Raj hasn't been a very successful dater in the past and now he's reveling in his "luck", and annoying everyone with his bragging.  Rubbing their faces in the idea of himself as that playboy he always seemed to aspire to be.

Yes, Emily had been his girlfriend, and SO MANY PEOPLE here were hoping that they'd break up.  So when he finally does, yeah, maybe he did it at the worst time, and not for the best reason, but he finally did it.  So, then he still has a soft spot for her when she calls back and seems to be really upset over the breakup.  That she wants him back in at least some capacity is pretty much on her.  Did she say, "I only want you back under ___________ circumstances"?  Or was she simply willing to have him back as a sexual partner?

And Claire was actually telling him not to fall for Emily's tears, even though she had never met Emily and barely knew Raj at that point.  She was manipulating him just as much as Emily was, just with different words.  She had also just broken up with her own boyfriend at the time, so she wasn't exactly coming at it from a fresh point, either.

We know that Raj's experience with Lucy helped him be more assertive and finally enabled him to talk to women while sober.  His experiences with Emily made him pause and take a look at what he did and did not like about her--and the guys were actually questioning whether or not he'd be able to break up with her if it came to that.

So, then meeting Claire seemed to enable him to finally break up with Emily.  I think that kind of makes sense.  Finding someone he's also attracted to who doesn't seem to carry the scary aspect that Emily has could be what enabled him to finally put his foot down with Emily.

But then when both women seem to want him, in whatever way, well, he's happy to fall into that playboy place he'd always imagined.  "I'm too rock and roll to be tied down."  I think that one could argue that it's their willingness to "share" him is what enables him to play that game.

I think it's pretty obvious that he's not a slick player, but that he is in a specific position with these specific women.  It's not as if they're showing him out trolling bars to pick up random women every weekend that way he Howard used to try to do, or that he is needing to find new random women to date.  He's simply dating these two particular women at this point because they are the ones he knows and it's the specific situation that has arisen.

I don't think we're supposed to be rooting for Raj in this situation, but that they're setting him up for whatever will happen.  It may not be right away, or by the end of this season, but you know it's gotta come.

I think it's obvious that his situation is not his endgame for the show, but that something will happen and probably happen hard.

I completely disagree with you, and feel like you're not seeing things clearly. Agree to disagree.

[lennyx3]

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.

 

I bet Emily does NOT know about Claire.

He is probably lying to Claire about Emily, just my thoughts...

[Swedish Chef]

Saw it tonight and I must say it felt like a filler episode. An episode about the RA ,come on writers their must be stuff that is more fun than this.

 

[BigBangEnthusiast]

On ‎4‎/‎27‎/‎2016 at 6:08 AM, lennyx3 said:

I bet Emily does NOT know about Claire.

He is probably lying to Claire about Emily, just my thoughts...

Does Claire think Raj and Emily are still broken up?  I can't remember if that was ever discussed.

[djsurrey]

Speaking of not remembering, apparently I'm getting good at forgetting the episodes I find to be stinkers. 

[Tensor]

5 hours ago, djsurrey said:

Speaking of not remembering, apparently I'm getting good at forgetting the episodes I find to be stinkers. 

Is that why most of season 8 is a blank to me? 

[Stephen Hawking]

On 4/26/2016 at 1:48 PM, Jonny83 said:

Just highlighted for me why she is probably my favorite character on the show.

There's no probably, as far as I'm concerned.

She is my favorite character.

On 4/26/2016 at 8:17 PM, ATM said:

However this passive aggressive, knowingly causing trouble in her friends relationships do not make her character appealing at all.

If you are referring to her behavior in The Junior Professor Solution, I think she just wanted to be the center of attention, for once.

As she said to Sheldon:-

Because it’s taken 15 years, but high school is finally awesome. I love them both, but I’m in the center now, and I love that even more.

You can't blame her for wanting to be, just once in her life, the "popular girl".

[Stephen Hawking]

1 hour ago, Tensor said:

Is that why most of season 8 is a blank to me? 

You think most of the Season 8 episodes are stinkers?

[Tensor]

13 minutes ago, Stephen Hawking said:

You think most of the Season 8 episodes are stinkers?

I do, yes, for me.  I mean, I don't think they are all on the level of Speckerman, but overall it was a season I didn't really like, with a couple of exceptions.  I've watched season 8 on DVD exactly once.    I realize others may not think as I do, and that's fine.  

[Stephen Hawking]

Some of my favorite episodes are in Season 8.

[djsurrey]

8 hours ago, Tensor said:

Is that why most of season 8 is a blank to me? 

I'd think the other factor is the number of times episodes have been seen. I have had my fill of the first six seasons. I watch fewer reruns of TBBT these days.

[Tensor]

 

9 minutes ago, djsurrey said:

I'd think the other factor is the number of times episodes have been seen. I have had my fill of the first six seasons. I watch fewer reruns of TBBT these days.

Interesting.  Neither do I, but it's not a conscious decision to avoid it, except for certain episodes of certain seasons.  Now, if there are other things I want to do, I don't worry about if the show is on.  I no longer rush home, to see repeats.    But mostly, TV is background noise for me, so it's on while I do various things on the computer, with occasional glances at the TV, or, if there are specific scenes coming on, I'll watch it during those scenes.     

[Stephen Hawking]

8 minutes ago, Tensor said:

I no longer rush home, to see repeats.

There's no need, when you have all the episodes on Bluray/DVD.  

[Tensor]

6 minutes ago, Stephen Hawking said:

There's no need, when you have all the episodes on Bluray/DVD.  

I've ripped them all to my computer, so I don't need the Blueray either.  But it's rare that I pull them out to watch episodes, or pull them up on the computer.  I generally use them to look at something specific, and use the broadcasts to watch the episodes.

[JohnPhD]

Well, that's 20 minutes I'll never get back. If anyone reads Dilbert, currently it's being drawn by a "guest artist" whose work looks as tho he knows how the characters are supposed to look but just can't quite draw them right. It seems as tho TBBT is being written by guest writers.

There was keen competition for jerk of the week, but I'm giving it to Leonard. He was sulky right from the start, and he seems to lack the inner voice he needs to tell him " you kissed a girl on the ship and told Penny about it on the way to your wedding. Penny just told you she hates her job but she has to stick it to pay off her debts, and you had nothing else to suggest. Let her have this one".

Amy is still the nasty, sly, infantile character she always was. She calls Penny her "bestie" and tells Leonard something about her and Sheldon and the RA to  try to damage her marriage. If Leonard deserved Penny he'd have thrown Amy out of the apartment at that point.

[Jonny]

Saw the episode in its entirety tonight and man it was painful viewing, I could probably count on one hand the episodes that i can't stand and this is one of them. I don't think I laughed one bit, even some of the ones I would consider 'ok' episodes I at least laughed once or twice. Might be the worst episode I've seen since Speckerman.

The row felt totally unnecessary and pathetic, Raj was in total douchebag mode, actually thought Howard would come out with some credit after quite rightly telling Raj to stop bragging and I did like the car scene talking about whether his child might be a boy or girl but then that was ruined by what he did to Stuart. I don't think anyone came out with any credit, maybe Stuart but that was it.

I have no tolerance for bullying so I found the closing scene really distasteful, for people that have been ridiculed and taunted in the past for wearing costumes you think they would know better.

It's extremely rare that the writers drop the ball completely but I think they did with this episode.

Edited May 26, 2016 by Jonny83

[joyceraye]

Something of a waste of an episode unless it was to draw attention to an issue they're going to return to in more depth later. Yes, Amy was really stirring the pot tonight :  I see it now you point it out. Howard and Leonard both know something about their wives they didn't know before. Sheldon's had his precious Relationship Agreement made fun of in front of Lenny, how hurtful. Stuart took the banter at the end in good part.

Your remark about the guest-writer is a good one. It felt to me like one of those episodes a competition winner gets to write, or one that royalty or politicians do for charity, with Stuart's mini and-the-moral-of-the-story-is  speech at the hospital summing it all up. It could have been slotted in anywhere.

 

[Tensor]

Well, on the bright side, it was a good ad for the premiere of "Game of Thrones".   I wonder how much CBS got for that ad?  

[JohnPhD]

On 22/04/2016 at 6:02 PM, SRAM said:

Originally I did expect Penny to move in with the guys, but I have been disappointed they missed the opportunity to have some real funny Shenny brother/sister conflict like in the first seasons.

Quite. It seems as tho the writers, having gone to some trouble to get the Big 3 living together, have forgotten what they did it for.

On 15/05/2016 at 9:45 PM, djsurrey said:

I'd think the other factor is the number of times episodes have been seen. I have had my fill of the first six seasons.

That's not my experience. When I rewatch eps from the early seasons I nearly always see something funny or moving that I'd missed before - more often than not another bit of facial acting by KC. I could watch some of her work 100 times. And for S1-3 I'm always surprised to be reminded how much Penny we used to get before the  show was diluted with Amy.