[Spoilers] Season 12 Discussion Thread

[Carlos]

On ‎11‎/‎1‎/‎2018 at 8:35 AM, Die Zimtzicke said:

1) This post is perfect from my point of view. I hated most of the first season, even quit watching for a while, but it was Sheldon who drew me back and made me catch up. I'd seen plenty of nerdy guys fantasizing about dimwitted, big busted blonds on TV (yes, there is no question in my mind she was written as dimwitted) and sleazy losers like Howard before, but Sheldon was what was unique. The others developed the personalities they have today later. And Jim is still my hero for knowing it was time to walk away and move on.

2) THANK YOU!

3) Fat Debbie jokes anyone? Those were cringe worthy,

1) I agree with most of what you say but not all of it. You're right in assessing that the nerdy guys meeting the ditzy blonde thing had been done a million times, but what made me enjoy the early seasons nonetheless was the cast. No matter how typical the characters (initially), the cast, IMO gave them soul. I even liked pervy Howard because, to me at least, Simon played him in such a way that you couldn't totally hate him, even if you knew you should. The bolded part: 1 million times yes.

2) Agree

3) I loved the fat Debbie jokes! To me they weren't cringe-worthy because the comments came mainly from her son. to me it depicted the love-hate relationship they had, and not matter how much Howard talked bad about her he knew he couldn't function with her attending to his every need.

On ‎11‎/‎1‎/‎2018 at 9:22 PM, vonmar said:

Got it! So being called an ass for being selfish only happens if you have a track record for being selfish.  

Of course not, but Sheldon is a professional at it. And even if I know you know this, I'll bite and play. What defines you as a person is the majority of your actions and not just one or two isolated incidents. That's where the track record part comes in play. Sheldon is usually selfish while Leonard is usually not.

Edited November 3, 2018 by Carlos

[chucky]

1 hour ago, legacy99 said:

unfortunately I quoted mysef

Unfortunately I've been there, done that as well!

[Chrismo]

Saw the Fan Fest and Glamour recaps on line. Neither mentioned the S word. Laughed at Radloff. 

[vonmar]

 

[chucky]

34 minutes ago, vonmar said:

 

Nice

2 hours ago, Carlos said:

1) I agree with most of what you say but not all of it. you're right in assessing that the nerdy guys meet ditzy blonde thing had been done a million times, but what made me enjoy the early seasons nonetheless was the cast. No matter how typical the characters (initially), the cast, IMO gave them soul. I even liked pervy Howard because, to me at least, Simon played him in such a way that you couldn't totally hate him, even if you knew you should. The bolded part: 1 million times yes.

2) Agree

3) I loved the fat Debbie jokes! To me they weren't cringe-worthy because the comments came mainly from her son. to me it depicted the love-hate relationship they had, and not matter how much Howard talked bad about her he knew he couldn't function with her attending to his every need.

Of course not, but Sheldon is a professional at it. And even if I know you know this, I'll bite and play. What defines you as a person is the majority of your actions and not just one or two isolated incidents. That's where the track record part comes in play. Sheldon is usually selfish while Leonard is usually not.

Totally agree. Perfectly stated!!!

[joyceraye]

2 hours ago, vonmar said:

 

Nice picture. Thank you for posting it.

[chucky]

2 minutes ago, joyceraye said:

Nice picture. Thank you for posting it.

Yes it is, They actually look happy!

[bfm]

I think Leonard was being selfish, with this decision. Would I use the word selfish to describe his character? No. But this action was selfish. I think they shouldn't have done that. They could have had almost the same jokes with him choosing the telescope.

[Jonny]

I would assume that being in charge of a decision like that would preclude that person from giving the funding to themselves.  It's how I would imagine it would happen in real life, but this is a sitcom and in real life would Leonard have been in charge of such a decision anyway?

I agree with @vonmar had someone else in the show done it the outcry would be far more vociferous.  I think it's fair to call Leonard selfish in this episode, whether that was funny or not is down to each individual.

[bfm]

8 hours ago, Jonny said:

I would assume that being in charge of a decision like that would preclude that person from giving the funding to themselves.  It's how I would imagine it would happen in real life, but this is a sitcom and in real life would Leonard have been in charge of such a decision anyway?

I doubt that's how this procedure would work. The university would have people in charge of distributing grant money.

Edited November 2, 2018 by bfm

[veejay]

17 minutes ago, Jonny said:

I would assume that being in charge of a decision like that would preclude that person from giving the funding to themselves.  It's how I would imagine it would happen in real life, but this is a sitcom and in real life would Leonard have been in charge of such a decision anyway?

I agree with @vonmar had someone else in the show done it the outcry would be far more vociferous.  I think it's fair to call Leonard selfish in this episode, whether that was funny or not is down to each individual.

L: Well, I realized that, no matter what decision I made, people were gonna be mad at me.
S: That is the most selfish thing you've ever done. I'm proud of you.
L: And I don't care.
S: Yes, you do.
L: Yeah, I do.

Damn! 😉

The end! LOL

Edited November 2, 2018 by veejay

[mirs1]

Personally, I found the episode funny...it has nothing to do with how  funds are divided in RL Universities, usually there are commissions whose specific task is to choose which projects to finance and deans don't ask a random scapegoat to do the dirty job on their behalf, but for comedy purposes it was ok. I also liked the idea of Leonard being selfish for once, it shows no one is a perfect character in this show, all of them have flows and they can be used as a comedic tool. Him being selfish was also used as a way to "renew" his friendship with Sheldon.  There was too much nastiness going on among all characters in the latest episodes, at times I was really wondering why those people were still hanging around together. This episode had a welcome shift in tune on that respect, it started with all of them helping Howardette building their playhouse, and the whole episode was not mean spirited at all, it had the right amount of snark in order to be funny without being unpleasant. Leonard and Sheldon playing chess and giving each other advises is a classic in TBBT and it was nice to see it again.

Edited November 2, 2018 by mirs1

[Chrismo]

9 hours ago, vonmar said:

Sheldon would be called an ass for doing this.  Interesting.

Leonards decision still benefitted the physics department unlike Sheldons  decision to use his budget money in season 4 on an ant farm, red vines and a marshmallow shooter. That only benefitted himself.

[Strawberry PopTart Fan]

34 minutes ago, Jonny said:

I would assume that being in charge of a decision like that would preclude that person from giving the funding to themselves.  It's how I would imagine it would happen in real life, but this is a sitcom and in real life would Leonard have been in charge of such a decision anyway?

I agree with @vonmar had someone else in the show done it the outcry would be far more vociferous.  I think it's fair to call Leonard selfish in this episode, whether that was funny or not is down to each individual.

I didn't like that Leonard took the Grant money for his laser. It was selfish, but it was even more of a "screw it"response, a giving up on his  having done a good, fair, thoughtful job on deciding which project was most deserving, even to the point of asking Siebert to fund all 3. He couldn't decide, got frustrated and took the easy way out. IRL, he could have met with the 3 contenders, explained it was a tie (to avoid hurt feelings and anyone being angry at him, a big deal with Leonard). He could have asked them to scale down their projects and split the money 3 ways, or picked one of the 3 in a random type of selection, since, to him it was a tie. But, he didn't see it through because it's a sitcom and the writers thought it was a funny solution.  

Sheldon, by the way, was typically and unambiguously selfish by sitting around, enjoying his cold  beverage and fascinating , barn-raising facts, watching his friends hard at work and not lifting a finger to help with the play house. Because the writers think that's funny.

[veejay]

I think it is completely absurd to compare Sheldon's permanent egoism with Leonard's current selfishness.

[Chrismo]

5 minutes ago, veejay said:

I think it is completely absurd to compare Sheldon's permanent egoism with Leonard's current selfishness.

The argument could be made Leonard first considered others and couldn’t decide. I think his decision was more taking the easy way. He could of had the laser idea from the beginning. An argument could be made if the others were given the grant money they wouldn’t considered the others.

[Die Zimtzicke]

8 hours ago, chucky said:

Unfortunately I've been there, done that as well!

I think we've all had trouble with quoting at one time or another.

 

4 hours ago, chucky said:

Yes it is, They actually look happy!

Why wouldn't they be?

 

2 hours ago, bfm said:

I think Leonard was being selfish, with this decision.

The only thing that made me think so is that he wanted it but didn't know what to do with it. If he had wanted it all along for a specific reason, I'd say he was not selfish at all. But since he didn't, maybe he was, kind of. But it was another thing that was totally unrealistic and played for laughs, so I also have to take that into account.

 

59 minutes ago, mirs1 said:

Him being selfish was also used as a way to "renew" his friendship with Sheldon.  There was too much nastiness going on among all characters in the latest episodes, at times I was really wondering why those people were still hanging around together. This episode had a welcome shift in tune on that respect, it started with all of them helping Howardette building their playhouse, and the whole episode was not mean spirited at all, it had the right amount of snark in order to be funny without being unpleasant. Leonard and Sheldon playing chess and giving each other advises is a classic in TBBT and it was nice to see it again.

I totally agree with this.

[joyceraye]

Question : When Stuart went to pick up Denise for their date, all covered in orange tan, was that the first time he appeared without at east one of the leads in the scene ?

They showed the episode last night on Channel 4 and it struck me.

[chucky]

3 hours ago, Die Zimtzicke said:

If he had wanted it all along for a specific reason, I'd say he was not selfish at all. But since he didn't, maybe he was, kind of

I'm proud of Leonard as was Sheldon. He finally put himself first. If Siebert had a problem with what he did, he would have said something. I believe he said for Leonard to make the decision and he didn't care who got the money. The only ones upset was Kripke and the bird woman.

[Tripper]

3 hours ago, joyceraye said:

Question : When Stuart went to pick up Denise for their date, all covered in orange tan, was that the first time he appeared without at east one of the leads in the scene ?

They showed the episode last night on Channel 4 and it struck me.

One scene I remember of Stuart without any of the other characters was when he was sweeping up in The Bitcoin Entanglement and found the flash drive. There was also that strange subplot of the Bill Gates episode where he was in a park speaking Spanish. Perhaps there was a scene with just Stuart and Mrs. Wolowitz in early Season 8? I'm not certain of that, but it's a possibility.

There certainly haven't been many scenes with Stuart without the main characters. In the early years he tended to appear when the guys visited the comic book store. There might be some other examples in the later years, though.

[chucky]

18 minutes ago, Tripper said:

One scene I remember of Stuart without any of the other characters was when he was sweeping up in The Bitcoin Entanglement and found the flash drive. There was also that strange subplot of the Bill Gates episode where he was in a park speaking Spanish. Perhaps there was a scene with just Stuart and Mrs. Wolowitz in early Season 8? I'm not certain of that, but it's a possibility.

There certainly haven't been many scenes with Stuart without the main characters. In the early years he tended to appear when the guys visited the comic book store. There might be some other examples in the later years, though.

I tend to not pay attention to Stuart. Only when he's "Cool Operator"!

[Tensor]

25 minutes ago, Tripper said:

One scene I remember of Stuart without any of the other characters was when he was sweeping up in The Bitcoin Entanglement and found the flash drive. There was also that strange subplot of the Bill Gates episode where he was in a park speaking Spanish. Perhaps there was a scene with just Stuart and Mrs. Wolowitz in early Season 8? I'm not certain of that, but it's a possibility.

There certainly haven't been many scenes with Stuart without the main characters. In the early years he tended to appear when the guys visited the comic book store. There might be some other examples in the later years, though.

There was also the scene 20 years in the future when he is the only one to show up.   

[Chrismo]

8 minutes ago, Tensor said:

There was also the scene 20 years in the future when he is the only one to show up.   

Mommy Observation season 7.

[Mario D.]

7 hours ago, bfm said:

I think Leonard was being selfish, with this decision. Would I use the word selfish to describe his character? No. But this action was selfish. I think they shouldn't have done that. They could have had almost the same jokes with him choosing the telescope.

IMO, I don't think Leonard was selfish in this instance.  He genuinely could not make up his mind who to give the grant to and did not want to offend any of them. I believe this is IC for Leonard.  Whether this was a selfish act is open to individual interpretation.  But Penny sure loved it!

[Capt. Hilts]

7 minutes ago, Mario D. said:

IMO, I don't think Leonard was selfish in this instance.  He genuinely could not make up his mind who to give the grant to and did not want to offend any of them. I believe this is IC for Leonard.  Whether this was a selfish act is open to individual interpretation.  But Penny sure loved it!

Bank error goes to...Banker!

Kind of the Dick Cheney / Pope Benedict school of management....aaaaand the next Vice President/Pope is....ME!

It doesn't pass any smell test, nor should it.

But it made for a good show.