From An Emotional Robot

Welcome, everybody. Hope you’re cozy, holed up and weathering this premiere and pilot week with me.
Even if we’re not hiding from a Kraken.

For the first episode, Leonard remained on his party yacht and Sheldon and Penny exchanged their passive-aggressive thoughts on the matter. I thought it kind of sweet Sheldon missed Leonard so much.
Both episodes also featured a new side to Sheldon: an emotional one. Twice, we saw him at his most volatile, examined under a microscope. When the episodes turned suddenly serious (see, “Here’s something you don’t know about me: you just hurt my feelings”), I had to pause and clap a hand to my mouth. Writing, ladies and gentlemen.

They let Leonard back in for the second episode, freshly shaved and unaware, for a change of pace between Howard’s plot line. While Penny spent a few days alone with Leonard (and hid him away from Sheldon), Howard began embodying Raj, more or less. Sure enough, the source for his weight-gain, mood swings, and sudden sensitivity, happened to be leeched estrogen from one of his mother’s lotions.

I got the parody part of the skit, but did anyone else think that exploiting overused stereotypes is a little…90’s?

Bernadette walking in on the “exam,” however, happened to be priceless.

Amy spoke the truth when she told Sheldon she was free to have her donut, and as many donuts as she cared, for breakfast. The jerk.

I adored the pacing and the sketches, overall, and feel that this fall is going to be a headlining best for The Big Bang Theory. Jim Parsons reminded us why he earned his third Emmy recently, to be sure.

“Everything I say is true.”

—Sheldon Cooper

Who's That Girl?

I decided, for this article, to change the channel for a brand new show: New Girl. New Girl, highly recommended and toted as the new How I Met Your Mother (except this would be, like, how-I-met-my-future-girlfriend-a-few-times-over), will air its season finale May 18. Which means I have to hop to catching up.

I feel proud my readers can follow me into my new-show foray, full of ignorance and surprises and choking. It’s how I respond to jokes.

Let’s see how I do.

…I discovered right away the episode Virgins, aired April 30, probably wasn’t the best episode to review in its entirety. Instead, allow me to divulge my first impressions of half the cast and the plot as a whole; or as many characters whose names I can remember.

Jess

I do remember she came up with her opening jingle in the first, or one of the first, season one pilots. She seems sweet, clear-cut, un-passive aggressive. Dry humored without being vain or aloof. She may be sarcastic. I like her already.

But I also have a strong Zooey Deschanel bias, so bear with me. The fashion, all of it.

Nick

He seems neurotic, but not in the push-aside creepy way. I label him as The Ross from FRIENDS: well-meaning and kind, but, as his father eloquently put it, he “thinks too much.” From what I’ve seen of fan reviews and clips, the patriarch sentiment hits the nail on the head. So much so for half a second I thought he hadn’t lost his virginity before the episode’s finale. Context?

Schmidt

College-Schmidt is the best thing.

He’s loud, rude, crude, and seems so used to his own vocabulary he can’t be bothered to see why he’s all these things. But that’s why his roommates love him. Also why they invented the Douchebag jar. Well played, apartment.

In my next evaluation of New Girl, look out for plot first impressions gearing up before the season finale on FOX!

Should I Go?

This episode was about closure of all sorts. Penny not being able to find what really unlocks her passions—Sheldon not being able to handle an unfinished sentence…or series. I know that feeling, Sheldon. I still weep over Firefly.

But both sides have supportive significant others at their sides to help them along the way, and—finally—we see a whole cast of Big Bang Theory characters at work.

Things I learned: Penny is basically Buffy. Or, would be, if she could finish more than two episodes of an otherwise perfect series. Leonard tries his hardest to find something the both of them can watch, with plenty of powerful female characters and sci-fi add-ins, but Penny just isn’t having it. Claims she just doesn’t get excited…about “stuff.”

Fortunately, she learns she doesn’t need to be hyper passionate about one subject, topic, or fandom, because she’s just that passionate about the people already around her. Leonard, the apartment of scientists, Amy, Bernadette. Eh about Howard.

But Leonard can forget the cosplay opportunities; one New Years as Wonder Woman was enough for her.

“Leonard I had an epiphany, not a stroke.”
-- Penny, to Leonard, denying him Comic-Con antics.

Sheldon discovers when his current favorite TV series, Alphas, becomes cancelled (go Alphas for the spotlight, I guess?), he may have an issue accepting closure. Enter his neuro-scientist girlfriend Amy, whom Sheldon swears knows nothing about pent-up frustration without any hope for release. No, she doesn’t suffer that whatsoever.
But she does force him to jump through a plethora of hoops without any conclusion: swiped tic-tac-toe games, unfinished Pledge of Allegiances, “Pop Goes The—,” “Legen…wait for it…”
No, wait. Wrong show.

I think Sheldon cheated; he got his, finishing all his hitherto unfinished tasks, by the end of the episode, whereas Amy still trudges home alone every night denied physical contact. It’s a slow “when” for “Shamy,” but I believe they’ll get there eventually.

Now to wait eagerly for the next new episode. We already know what Raj is doing in the meantime; we have his security camera.

The Metaphor of the Micro-Valentine

Leonard and CBS bring out their respective “romance ninja” skills in the most endearing episode this season. Everyone toughs out their individual rocky road for the Valentines Day special.
And I don’t mean hypochondriac ice cream-headache brain tumors.

Leonard plans a simple and sweet Valentines Day evening with Penny, Howard and Bernadette, though more than a few things go awry…like always. Howard didn’t want his Assassin’s Creed-time sapped with chores enough to help his overworked wife, and Penny spies across the restaurant her ex-squeeze and ex-friend…soon to be double-crossed all on their own. Absorbed in their engagement, Penny blows off Leonard’s valiant effort and, when asked, admits she has a few (read: an encyclopedia of) commitment issues.

Sappy moment #1: Leonard swears he’ll never propose again—that when Penny is ready to settle, she needs to make the call. Passing over the reigns breaks tradition and tandem for the couple, and gives Penny a Valentines Day to remember.

Alex the Assistant makes a return as Sheldon’s personal shopper, while he’s forced to endure another evening of dinner and gifts. She buckles down and finds the most thoughtful presents she can, with two-grand in small bills, only to discover she couldn’t match Sheldon’s selfish ways.
Yet Amy surprises him in her own right. Parading the “selfish” banner herself, she recognizes the day shouldn’t be about price tags; rather, clock chimes. Sheldon’s genuinely surprised when she elects to order pizza and watch Star Wars with him.

Sappy moment #2: Sheldon learns money doesn’t always buy happiness when his simple act of making Amy his emergency contact brings her to tears.

Raj and Stuart, mingling singles, decide to throw a Valentines Day party at the comic book store and invite all the single regulars, so no one need be alone for the festivities. Raj supports the message completely, until his own sappy moment earns him a spur-of-the-moment coffee date.

Sappy moment #3: Raj makes a singles-speech, talking about how single shouldn’t equal “sad,” and how being together with whomever matters most. He almost meant it, too.

Every couple gets their own, but do I sense a calm before the storm? We’ll find out next Thursday, when you won’t have an excuse not to tune in.

The Foul

This would make for the second barricade I’ve seen since Christmas. Les Miserables, what up.

Ted is feeling all sorts of miserable over his relationship with Jeanette—the girl whom he proudly reminded us awaiting fans was the last girl before he met The Mother, cue the excited screaming—and decides at the behest of his friends to break up with her. We didn’t know at first how the break-up occurred, but we quickly learned what followed: that Jeanette eventually left. We’re 90% sure.
80%.

Unfortunately, Ted hadn’t progressed far enough into their relationship to learn Jeanette was a cop for a living, insert Brooklyn-accent here. Even peacekeeping efforts in Star Wars clone attire weren’t enough to keep him safe. Nor was he safe from the wiles of mixed-signals.

“Meanwhile,” Robin shrinks from baby-holding responsibilities, though her efforts become more and more strained over time. See, I was half afraid she didn’t like kids in general (need to see those little Barney Jr’s and Robin Jr’s running around!).
Until Robin gets put on Marvin-watching duty, when Lilly loses his favorite binkie, and progressively lets the following story unfold in an epic seventeen-year saga:

1. She lets a stranger hold Marvin.

2. She loses control of the stroller and lets it roll into traffic.

3. The stranger brings the duo out of the cold into a strip club.

4. Said stranger is (Senator) Mike Tyson.

The ambiguous old lady with the face tattoo wasn’t the one to leave the strongest parting advice, however—Lilly actually said it best. That Ted had been acting a little crazy and, with a dose of his own medicine, being with Jeanette for now might be best.
Next to The Mother, she’s going to be the best thing for him, CBS swears it.

Aside from wondering who they’ll cast as the mysterious yellow-umbrella-owner, I half wonder how they gathered their guest-spot celebrities…and if there will be any more to follow.