[Spoilers] Discussion: Season 10

[wowbagger]

48 minutes ago, Cloud Strife said:

 

The entire episode is ruined because of one meaningless comment that was supposed to make you laugh? I don't know how to process that.

To be fair, that line was actually not the most objectionable part of the Lenny plot in that episode - at least to me. The Central Casting Nerds objectifying Penny, and Leonard crowing over how he landed her (with an obviously miserable and uncomfortable Penny sitting behind him) is MY least favourite bit.

[Tensor]

 

46 minutes ago, SRAM said:

Here is how I see it, Leonard probably accumulated a lot of student loan debt during his undergraduate and graduate years.  I bet Beverly made him pay his own way just to see how he did so she could put his results in her book.  So with  huge student loans, living in California and other bills, I could see him not having a lot of money, but him squirreling away a few thousand for emergencies is very IC for him.

Penny was able to live by her waitress job, Leonard's help and her credit cards which she ran up and now has a lot of debt.  If she has a 'guy', like she says, then he probably put a plan together for her that has a credit card pay off schedule plus involves investing part of her salary.  Penny probably has more money to spend but she probably doesn't see most of her salary because it goes to pay her debt, her investments, and to pay her and Leonard's shared bills, so the money he has squirreled away just may interest her.

 

I could believe this, but if Leonard had all this debt, how was he able to help Penny for all those years, not to mention, buy her a car.

6 minutes ago, wowbagger said:

To be fair, that line was actually not the most objectionable part of the Lenny plot in that episode - at least to me. The Central Casting Nerds objectifying Penny, and Leonard crowing over how he landed her (with an obviously miserable and uncomfortable Penny sitting behind him) is MY least favourite bit.

That's why I also mentioned treating Penny like a trophy, not his wife. 

[Capt. Hilts]

34 minutes ago, SRAM said:

I personally knew someone who had a scholarship for his masters which paid all tuition.  However it was from an expensive NE college in a high cost of living area.  He racked up a lot of debt in student loans for living expenses and for the college costs not covered by his scholarship.

PHD students - especially in the sciences - have other income through being research assistants and teaching assistants and lab assistants.  

Yes, they can run up some debts, but not usually the huge ones racked up by humanities, law and medical students.

[Zhalen565]

1 hour ago, Cloud Strife said:

 ........and received a wedding gift from someone who's usually a major pain in the ass, then sure, I can see how that's total crap

Sheldon: "Yeah, there’s Fisherman’s Wharf and Alcatraz and cable cars. We’re gonna have so much fun".

yeah! A really great wedding present where the GTB includes himself.

[hokie3457]

12 minutes ago, Tensor said:

 

I could believe this, but if Leonard had all this debt, how was he able to help Penny for all those years, not to mention, buy her a car.

I picture Leonard as having a budget, which includes paying his student loans as well as putting a small amount of money away.  I think that is where he got the money for Penny's car---his "rainy day" savings????

[Chrismo]

1 minute ago, Zhalen565 said:

Sheldon: "Yeah, there’s Fisherman’s Wharf and Alcatraz and cable cars. We’re gonna have so much fun".

yeah! A really great wedding present where the GTB includes himself.

If I remember correctly wasn't the plan originally to take Amy there?

[Enrico Fermi]

3 hours ago, Capt. Hilts said:

This whole 'Raj living with Leonard and Penny' just makes no sense to me, on any level.  He's a physicist at a major research institution. Raj as welfare case makes no sense. The writers are destroying this character.  A guy like he is would have NO problems finding a girlfriend - even one from India - in the circumstances he's in.  There was even an episode where Howard and he go to a Hindu temple.  LOTS of folks go to religious services to meet people.  Trinity in Georgetown [washington dc] is known as the "Catholic meat market."  None of it makes sense.

It makes TV sense.  It injects Raj into the epicenter of the show where he can't be ignored and frees up some set space.

[Capt. Hilts]

11 minutes ago, hokie3457 said:

I picture Leonard as having a budget, which includes paying his student loans as well as putting a small amount of money away.  I think that is where he got the money for Penny's car---his "rainy day" savings????

If he had student loans, he probably wouldn't have been driving a Saab the past several years.  He might not be wealthy, but I don't think he's burdened by academic debts.

Edited March 17, 2017 by Capt. Hilts

[Tensor]

1 minute ago, Chrismo said:

If I remember correctly wasn't the plan originally to take Amy there?

That was never stated.  It was an interpretation, that really had no basis. My question was always if it was originally for Amy, why were there three tickets?  And if Sheldon bought himself an extra ticket, why didn't he just buy another ticket for Amy?  No, this was another example of forcing Sheldon into Lenny's relationship.  

[hokie3457]

5 minutes ago, Capt. Hilts said:

If he had student loans, he probably wouldn't have been driving a Saab the past several years.

Again, I think it is possible with a budget.  We are not sure if he bought the Saab used or the length of the possible car loan......

[Tensor]

10 minutes ago, hokie3457 said:

I picture Leonard as having a budget, which includes paying his student loans as well as putting a small amount of money away.  I think that is where he got the money for Penny's car---his "rainy day" savings????

I can see this, but I didn't get that from SRAMs post, hence my comment. 

[Capt. Hilts]

Just now, hokie3457 said:

Again, I think it is possible with a budget.  We are not sure if he bought the Saab used or the length of the possible car loan......

Yeah, but, again, a guy in physics, who's good enough at it to land a research position at Cal Tech, probably had a very good research job while working on his phd and that eases a lot of financial burdens.

[April]

9 minutes ago, Tensor said:

That was never stated.  It was an interpretation, that really had no basis. My question was always if it was originally for Amy, why were there three tickets?  And if Sheldon bought himself an extra ticket, why didn't he just buy another ticket for Amy?  No, this was another example of forcing Sheldon into Lenny's relationship.  

IIRC at the time of those speculations we didn't know about the third ticket. We just knew Sheldon was gifting them a trip to SF with things that Shamy would probably enjoy so it was an easy assumption to make that this may have been something he initially planned for himself and Amy.

The final episode then played out differently with Sheldon indeed inviting himself here. But for some reason those speculations still seemed to stick with some people... oh well.

Edited March 17, 2017 by April

[mirs1]

That's how I see it; at the beginning of the show, TPTB asked the scientific consultant how much people like Leonard or Sheldon might have earned at that point in their career, which would have been more or less 40.000 dollars, probably it's not that much if you live in Southern California, but enough for the living standards they kept. Then, from that point, they assumed that was their budget and never cared to ask the consultant how much they would have earned NOW, which would be close to 100.000$ for Raj, Sheldon and Leonard, much more for Howard, who was an astronaut; again,  not enough to buy a castle, but for sure enough to take care of a baby and, in a reasonable time, of students loans.

Edited March 17, 2017 by mirs1

[Cloud Strife]

48 minutes ago, wowbagger said:

To be fair, that line was actually not the most objectionable part of the Lenny plot in that episode - at least to me. The Central Casting Nerds objectifying Penny, and Leonard crowing over how he landed her (with an obviously miserable and uncomfortable Penny sitting behind him) is MY least favourite bit.

I liked the whole thing.

[SRAM]

2 minutes ago, mirs1 said:

That's how I see it; at the beginning of the show, TPTB asked the scientific consultant how much people like Leonard or Sheldon might have earned at that point in their career, which would have been more or less 40.000 dollars, probably it's not that much if you live in Southern California, but a decent income to buy their "toys". Then, from that point, they assumed that was their budget and never cared to ask the consultant how much they would have earned NOW, which would be close to 100.000$ for Raj, Sheldon and Leonard, much more for Howard, who was an astronaut; again,  not enough to buy a castle, but for sure enough to take care of a baby and, in a reasonable time, of students loans.

Howard is a government employee, he is probably a GS-13, which is a journeyman engineer, fully qualified non supervisory.  He probably makes as salary of $100-110k accounting for additional locality pay due to being in California.  Being an astronaut does not do anything for him unless it results in a higher grade like a GS-14 or 15 because he is classified as the senior technical expert in his field at his location.

[Stephen Hawking]

34 minutes ago, Capt. Hilts said:

PHD students - especially in the sciences - have other income through being research assistants and teaching assistants and lab assistants.

Could you honestly picture Sheldon Lee Cooper being any of those?

You've only got to look at The Vacation Solution, to see how bad a lab assistant he makes (he couldn't even wash the glassware properly) , and that was when he was working for Amy.

Heaven help anyone else he works for.  

[veejay]

31 minutes ago, Enrico Fermi said:

It makes TV sense.  It injects Raj into the epicenter of the show where he can't be ignored and frees up some set space.

Talking about TV sense. I would like to say, sitcom finances usually have definitely zero basis in reality and I guess I shouldn't even bother complaining about it.

[Capt. Hilts]

4 minutes ago, Stephen Hawking said:

Could you honestly picture Sheldon Lee Cooper being any of those?

You've only got to look at The Vacation Solution, to see how bad a lab assistant he makes (he couldn't even wash the glassware properly) , and that was when he was working for Amy.

Heaven help anyone else he works for.  

A research assistant?  Absolutely! He most likely was a paid researcher for a project funded by a grant.

Being personable, approachable or even understandable [whether it be because of complexity or the language] are NOT required of research or teaching assistants!

[vonmar]

1 hour ago, SRAM said:

I personally knew someone who had a scholarship for his masters which paid all tuition.  However it was from an expensive NE college in a high cost of living area.  He racked up a lot of debt in student loans for living expenses and for the college costs not covered by his scholarship.

Jim has told the story of his MFA program at The University of San Diego.  It was a 2-year full tuition scholarship program.  But he had to get his mom to co-sign for what he called "living loans" to cover all of his other expenses.  He said that landing TBBT, 5 years after graduating, is what finally paid them off.

[Stephen Hawking]

19 minutes ago, Capt. Hilts said:

Being personable, approachable or even understandable [whether it be because of complexity or the language] are NOT required of research or teaching assistants!

We've seen what Sheldon's like as a teacher.

If you recall, the entire class flipped him off, at the same time, and one girl pleaded for someone to "kill me now!"

[Capt. Hilts]

20 minutes ago, vonmar said:

Jim has told the story of his MFA program at The University of San Diego.  It was a 2-year full tuition scholarship program.  But he had to get his mom to co-sign for what he called "living loans" to cover all of his other expenses.  He said that landing TBBT, 5 years after graduating, is what finally paid them off.

He's very lucky to get that scholarship for a master's program.  Masters degree students have it toughest, financially.

Teaching skills are not taught for university professors, or teaching assistants, at most universities.  THE biggest complaint in the sciences and economics is that students cannot understand the teacher's English.  I had a poli sci professor from Korea who not only had a thick accent, but he wrote on the blackboard over his shoulder on top of what he had written for the previous class.  Teaching skills are rarely considered when assigning these positions.

[spidergirl]

26 minutes ago, veejay said:

Talking about TV sense. I would like to say, sitcom finances usually have definitely zero basis in reality and I guess I shouldn't even bother complaining about it.

I think it is usual  the true and loyal fans of a sitcom being very into details and most of  things make sense, as they expect the plotlines could be about serious stuff like it happens with most of people in real life. Sometimes their wishes come true in a specific  plotline, others the subject might not ever get close to reality and even close to make sense.

I believe Raj 's finances was an excuse to move him in to 4A. I only hoped it would sound   more reasonable  than suddenly Raj being totally out of money. In end as his storyline develops ( low expectations) I put my money we would not ever heard more about his money. 

[veejay]

13 minutes ago, spidergirl said:

I think it is usual  the true and loyal fans of a sitcom being very into details and most of  things make sense, as they expect the plotlines could be about serious stuff like it happens with most of people in real life. Sometimes their wishes come true in a specific  plotline, others the subject might not ever get close to reality and even close to make sense.

I believe Raj 's finances was an excuse to move him in to 4A. I only hoped it would sound   more reasonable  than suddenly Raj being totally out of money. In end as his storyline develops ( low expectations) I put my money we would not ever heard more about his money. 

I really like all characters. Sometimes I wish they were "real" so we could all hang out. It is rare that I feel that way about characters in a sitcom, so hey, I’m not only a desperate believer of Cornfield-Penny, I guess.

[BigBang15]

8 hours ago, hokie3457 said:

Wouldn't it be nice if Penny and Leonard got to look cute in matching shirts?

Nice? You mean nauseating. They're adults, not little kids. Married couples don't (normally) do stuff like that. Now, psycho stalkers.....