episodes 1210 'The VCR Illumination' (December 6)

[veejay]

Yes, please. 😉

[chucky]

10 hours ago, veejay said:

Yes, please. 😉

Most definitely! 😏

[Tensor]

Rate This Episode

[vonmar]

From Mayim's Grok Nation

Mayim on the ‘sweet’ ‘Big Bang Theory’/’Young Sheldon’ crossover episode

Sweet, sweet episode tonight, right? In “The VCR Illumination,” Sheldon is paralyzed by the failure of his and Amy’s paper on super-asymmetry, and he can’t snap out of it. That’s where an emergency pep talk he recorded for himself as a kid to try and inspire him comes in.

This allowed for a really nice crossover with the cast of Young Sheldon, the CBS spin-off show about Sheldon’s childhood. Our director Mark Cendrowski spent time with Iain Armitage, the young actor who plays Sheldon, along with Lance Barber and Montana Jordan, who play Sheldon’s father and brother. We got to play back this adorable speech young Sheldon makes in real time. In the episode, the speech has been recorded over. But Sheldon and Amy end up learning so much from the snafu, and it turns out they have more physics to engage in together.

I loved this episode because I got a lot of time with Jim. It was a technically complicated episode because we film in front of a live audience and we had to practice a lot to get all of the timing right to play back those scenes to the audience so they could react in real time. It’s a lot of moving parts over here!

I also loved the Bernadette/Wolowitz plot so much! I am Simon Helberg’s biggest fan, which I think I have told him 1,000 times. He tolerated it for the first 300, but now I think he’s a tad creeped out by me. In all seriousness, him doing magic is hilarious to me. And him being honest with Bernadette about how he doesn’t want for him what she wants is so touching and wonderful. Melissa Rauch playing stage mom to him made me laugh so hard; she reminded me of “Leona” in Beaches, cheering my character on from the audience. I think Melissa and Simon together are so, so, so good.

It was really a joyful episode to film, and I can’t wait to see what’s next for Sheldon and Amy and their new revelations. And I really hope for more Wolowitz magic, too!

[Kev0821]

Here's TV Line's recap:

https://tvline.com/2018/12/06/big-bang-theory-recap-young-sheldon-crossover-season-12-episode-10/

[MookiStar]

just finished watching the episode, thought it was one of the better episodes this season but the end seems to be really odd like there was more to it but it just cut off

runtime on my copy says just over 20 minutes where as a normal episode is 22 minutes hmm

[Chrismo]

17 minutes ago, MookiStar said:

just finished watching the episode, thought it was one of the better episodes this season but the end seems to be really odd like there was more to it but it just cut off

runtime on my copy says just over 20 minutes where as a normal episode is 22 minutes hmm

The show hasn’t been 22 minutes in years

[MookiStar]

1 minute ago, Chrismo said:

The show hasn’t been 22 minutes in years

oh it hasn't didn't notice till today lol, still the episode seemed to cut off at a weird point with sheldon.. maybe thats what they were going for an almost " to be continued" kinda thing 

[veejay]

Okay. Now I know why this series has become too expensive. 😉

[bfm]

I thought it was a nice episode and I enjoyed it, not to a great extent as I used to enjoy earlier episodes of this show, but it was better than other episodes of the later seasons. No LOL, but some amusement. That's the new standard, I guess (also, it probably doesn't help my view of this show, that "The Good Place" was at its most brilliant this week). 

The Howardette plot was nice. I liked that Howard's performance reminded me of Bernadette's beauty pageant video. But... Howard has a brother! Half-brother, but still, he can't say he has no siblings (why would he mention that anyway?). Did the writers forget an entire character, who was even shown on-screen?! This is getting more ridiculous by the day.

Raj had nothing to do in this episode. They brought him as a spectator just to give Kunal something.

The premise of the Sheldon plot felt forced. It was a lead-in for the YS material, which to me was unnecessary. How many times have we seen Sheldon being very upset about something? All too many. One time ("The Werewolf Transformation") he also doubted his choices, his way of living,  and tried to live differently. Amy, Leonard and Penny not knowing how to deal with it felt a little far-fetched this far along. Also, Sheldon's words about his dad's life and his paralleling felt so forced to me.

That being said, this plot did have some nice moments, like the viking funeral, the Descartes reference, and the cold open. It was also a chance to pay Baranski and Beverly respect and have her in the last season (although I do have to say her material was not very interesting). 

Lenny were literally in a supporting role this episode, but at least they had cute moments. My favorite moment of the episode was them in the cold open (Penny seems to have gotten to like the use of boards for instruction). The chicken steak exchange was also nice, I like Leonard being random and sticking to it like this haha (But why was Penny wearing earing coming out of bed?)

Edited December 7, 2018 by bfm

[joyceraye]

6 hours ago, Chrismo said:

The show hasn’t been 22 minutes in years

On my screen it's usually 18 minutes these days. I was glad of the extra two this week.

Edited December 7, 2018 by joyceraye

[chucky]

IMO, once again Sheldon acted like a baby, which is getting old. Plus the same old treatment Beverly gives her son. Once again showing her favoritism of Sheldon over her own son, also getting old! The best and funniest parts, IMHO, was the Howardette scenes.

[Die Zimtzicke]

11 hours ago, Kev0821 said:

Here's TV Line's recap:

46.67% gave the ep an A so far.

8 hours ago, MookiStar said:

runtime on my copy says just over 20 minutes where as a normal episode is 22 minutes hmm

We've been as low as 18 for some eps.

 

3 hours ago, bfm said:

The Howardette plot was nice. I liked that Howard's performance reminded me of Bernadette's beauty pageant video. But... Howard has a brother! Half-brother, but still, he can't say he has no siblings (why would he mention that anyway?). Did the writers forget an entire character, who was even shown on-screen?! This is getting more ridiculous by the day.

 I think Bernie told him to say that to make him more sympathetic to the judges, but I'm not sure.

As for the ep, it was a nice enough ep and I liked parts of it. There was some sweetness there. But I think they were speaking directly to the fans of both shows who have been upset with the disconnect between George Sr. on YS and TBBT. Sheldon came to the conclusion that he might not have been seeing his father the way he should. I could be wrong, but I honestly think they were trying to address that.

I didn't like Bernie as a pageant mom and not just because of her ideas to con the judges and sabotage the other contestants, although I can see why it reminded Mayim of Beaches. I do think it's in character for how we know Bernie now. I didn't like Howard as a magician here, although I usually adore his magic. He would not have made that big of a mistake with something that he normally does so competently. If he had been trying to do something big and over the top, pressing his luck, maybe, but not something like this. On the other hand, the curtain catching fire was so predictable it made me groan.

[Mario D.]

On 11/27/2018 at 12:43 PM, Swedish Chef said:

Leonard and Penny seems to be sleeping in their bedroom  in this episode, off-screen of course.

Think Penny and Leonard were in three short scenes and one of course by the kitchen island.  How about poor Raj, believe he was in only one short scene. Geez, this has really become the Sheldon/Shamy show

1 hour ago, chucky said:

IMO, once again Sheldon acted like a baby, which is getting old. Plus the same old treatment Beverly gives her son. Once again showing her favoritism of Sheldon over her own son, also getting old! The best and funniest parts, IMHO, was the Howardette scenes.

This is so true. Sheldon still proves he is a 35-40 yr old baby.  And yes Beverly denigrating her son again is a tired scene. Thought we were over this when she favored Penny as a daughter-in-law and was proud of Leonard that he married well.  The thing that bothered me about this episode was at the end it left open Shamy's continued research on asymmetry.  So I guess there will be more Sheldon/Shamy episodes to come!

[veejay]

38 minutes ago, Mario D. said:

Think Penny and Leonard were in three short scenes and one of course by the kitchen island.  How about poor Raj, believe he was in only one short scene. Geez, this has really become the Sheldon/Shamy show

This is so true. Sheldon still proves he is a 35-40 yr old baby.  And yes Beverly denigrating her son again is a tired scene. Thought we were over this when she favored Penny as a daughter-in-law and was proud of Leonard that he married well.  The thing that bothered me about this episode was at the end it left open Shamy's continued research on asymmetry.  So I guess there will be more Sheldon/Shamy episodes to come!

This conclusion has not been confirmed for the first time…

…and denied as well.

[chucky]

43 minutes ago, Mario D. said:

Think Penny and Leonard were in three short scenes and one of course by the kitchen island.  How about poor Raj, believe he was in only one short scene. Geez, this has really become the Sheldon/Shamy show

This is so true. Sheldon still proves he is a 35-40 yr old baby.  And yes Beverly denigrating her son again is a tired scene. Thought we were over this when she favored Penny as a daughter-in-law and was proud of Leonard that he married well.  The thing that bothered me about this episode was at the end it left open Shamy's continued research on asymmetry.  So I guess there will be more Sheldon/Shamy episodes to come!

Hopefully it will be disproved again. But then, there'll be more baby Sheldon!

[Chrismo]

1 hour ago, Die Zimtzicke said:

46.67% gave the ep an A so far.

 

On IMDB it doesn’t crack the top 125. JMO people expectations are low

[chucky]

2 hours ago, Die Zimtzicke said:

46.67% gave the ep an A so far.

I gave it a C.

[djsurrey]

Gave it a good.

I thought the Howard story was a little too silly. 

I'm still expecting better stuff in the new year.

[djsurrey]

On 12/1/2018 at 6:16 AM, Die Zimtzicke said:

I said they were running out of gas two years ago and didn't want the series extension. But the powers that be said that there were lots more stories to tell. I didn't see these writers being able to keep the show quality. I still wish they had ended on a high note.

There have been enough high points to keep me interested. I'm so happy to have had Mark H included and the Fowlers. I liked the crossover in this last episode.

[Zephon75]

Okay this turned out to be a decent episode not great but okay, I liked the Howardette plot more than the Shamy one, but both could have been so much better than they where. Beverly once again showed herself to be a lousy mother to Leonard, when asking for professional advice from her she told him she was busy. But as soon as Penny told her it was for Sheldon all of a sudden she had time to spare so she could help.  We learn that Leonard had two dogs die, but more likely they think we forgot that we were told his dog died in season three. My biggest issue with this episode was the shoehorning of YS into the show, to me it was a shameless plug for YS.  Was also disappointed that the whole reason Lenny got dressed up was  to do a send off for Shamies paper.  

[djsurrey]

46 minutes ago, Zephon75 said:

My biggest issue with this episode was the shoehorning of YS into the show, to me it was a shameless plug for YS.

I thought it was the best aspect of the episode. Nothing "shameless" about it.

Edited December 7, 2018 by djsurrey

[chucky]

4 minutes ago, djsurrey said:

I thought it was the best aspect of the episode. Nothing "shameless" about it.

Well, as usual we disagree!

51 minutes ago, Zephon75 said:

Okay this turned out to be a decent episode not great but okay, I liked the Howardette plot more than the Shamy one, but both could have been so much better than they where. Beverly once again showed herself to be a lousy mother to Leonard, when asking for professional advice from her she told him she was busy. But as soon as Penny told her it was for Sheldon all of a sudden she had time to spare so she could help.  We learn that Leonard had two dogs die, but more likely they think we forgot that we were told his dog died in season three. My biggest issue with this episode was the shoehorning of YS into the show, to me it was a shameless plug for YS.  Was also disappointed that the whole reason Lenny got dressed up was  to do a send off for Shamies paper.  

I totally agree with you!

[Swedish Chef]

1 hour ago, Zephon75 said:

Okay this turned out to be a decent episode not great but okay, I liked the Howardette plot more than the Shamy one, but both could have been so much better than they where. Beverly once again showed herself to be a lousy mother to Leonard, when asking for professional advice from her she told him she was busy. But as soon as Penny told her it was for Sheldon all of a sudden she had time to spare so she could help.  We learn that Leonard had two dogs die, but more likely they think we forgot that we were told his dog died in season three. My biggest issue with this episode was the shoehorning of YS into the show, to me it was a shameless plug for YS.  Was also disappointed that the whole reason Lenny got dressed up was  to do a send off for Shamies paper.  

I agree with you, there is no need for the cast of YS to be in Tbbt.

[Chrismo]

I’m sorry that episode was total crap.

Two storylines I could careless about. The assymetry symmetry just needs to die just like Beverly. The Howard storyline was just bad filler.