Last night was everything all-new on CBS, including the 3rd season premiere of The Big Bang Theory!
Because of how strong the show's 2nd season was, I've started to hold the show up to vastly higher standards than I used to, so...while the episode was in no way a bad one, I found it to be - an ok episode.
You might laugh at me, but I think my biggest point of contention with the "The Electric Can Opener Fluctuation" is that for a show that prides itself on its geek humor and general geek accuracy...I found it entirely implausible that the guys would allow Sheldon to run with the fake data. As someone with both family and friends in the scientific community, I feel inclined to comment that releasing into the scientific world fake data is like...the biggest sin imaginable in that field (even though Sheldon later retracted it and it was never his fault to begin with). It could be reputation and even career ruining.
Thus, throughout the whole episode, all I found myself thinking was...this is just a way meaner prank than they are leading us to believe, and frankly, I refuse to believe that these guys that we've come to know and love - Leonard, Wolowitz and Raj - would do something like that to Sheldon, no matter how obnoxious Sheldon was behaving.
That point aside, the fake data debacle did give us hilarious reason to visit Sheldon's roots in Texas when he went crawling back to his mother...and who ever would have guessed that Sheldon comes from a conservative, non-evolution believing family? Comedic gold!
Also - though I've always said that I find the Leonard/Penny relationship to be among the show's less interesting plot points - I applaud the show for finally seemingly moving forward with that relationship. We've tired with so many other shows lately will all of their 'will they/won't they' hype (Bones, House, to name a few) - many of which turned out to be giant teases in their season finales. Of course, since Leonard and Penny having sex turned out to be "weird" (and was it really because they were friends, or will it turn out that it was more so because the sex was bad?), it's unclear how long the relationship will last. I'm hoping it isn't an immediate bust, or we might be back right where we started!
Some great quotes and gags per usual from the episode. I particularly liked:
-The facial hair!
-Wolowitz: "Sheldon. You remember the first few weeks; we were looking for magnetic monopoles and not finding anything, and you were acting like an obnoxious, giant dictator?"
Raj: "I thought we were going to be gentle with him."
Wolowitz: "That's why I added the 'tator.'"
-Penny's ability to reference the Star Trek movie in conversation. I've said this before too...the show has gradually made Penny - less dumb - and I think that was absolutely the right move. I never really believed that Leonard would have been interested in the old Penny of early season 1. Hot as she may be, you'd think Leonard would want to date someone that he could hold some form of conversation with - even if it isn't about physics - and Penny has slowly evolved into a character capable of doing that.
What did you think of the Big Bang premiere episode?
Watch The Big Bang Theory Season 3, Episode 1 "The Electric Can Opener Fluctuation" Online Now
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