Dethroning Moment / The Big Bang Theory

Having broken out of the gate in the year 2007, The Big Bang Theory took the average normal sitcom idea and completely turned it on its head, becoming one of the best Warner Bros. Television shows of all time. But for a show named after the event that created the universe, there are bound to be some really bad moments that make you wonder what the hell the production crew were thinking.

Keep in mind:

• Sign your entries
• One moment per show to a troper, if multiple entries are signed to the same troper the more recent one will be cut.
• Moments only, no "just everything he said", "The entire show", or "This entire season", entries.
• No contesting entries. This is subjective, the entry is their opinion.
• No natter. As above, anything contesting an entry will be cut, and anything that's just contributing more can be made its own entry.
• Explain why it's a Dethroning Moment Of Suck.
• No Real Life examples, including Reality Television and Executive Meddling. That is just asking for trouble.
• No ALLCAPS, no bold, and no italics unless it's the title of a work. We are not yelling the DMoSs out loud.

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• Snoofleglax: As a physicist, I find the episodes where Leonard, Raj, and Howard fake a scientific discovery in order to get Sheldon to be less obnoxious when they're stuck together at the North Pole to be a Dethroning Moment of Suck. What makes it especially egregious is that it's not just any scientific discovery, but the discovery of magnetic monopoles, which would almost certainly net its discoverer a Nobel Prize, not to mention provide actual experimental confirmation for string theory (among other theories). Then they have the gall to act as though Sheldon is overreacting when he finds out that they've committed the cardinal sin of science: faking data. As scientists, they should have been tarred and feathered by the entire community, especially since they made Sheldon take the fall for what they did.
  • Snarf: One gets the impression from the series as a whole that none of the main characters are on the A-list of the scientific world. Wolowitz runs a Mars Rover into a ditch to impress a date (and subsequently loses his security clearance); Koothrapali can't even function around half the human race unless he's liquored up (at which point he becomes so obnoxious as to make Wolowitz look desirable to women); and Leonard's work is constantly running into dead ends. Chances are, all of these guys are at a dead end in their careers but aren't willing to admit it. So even something this tacky isn't going to do them any more damage than they've already done to themselves. Still, the university should have fired them at the very least for 1) faking data and 2) wasting research grant money to fake data (in the corporate world, this would be known as 'embezzlement' or 'misappropriation of funds' and will land you in jail). Sheldon's normally (and for good reason) the Jerkass of the ensemble but in this he was entirely justified. That said, Sheldon set himself up when he didn't wait for peer review before announcing his big 'discovery' (but then again, that's completely in character for Sheldon, who doesn't want to admit that he has any peers).
• Archduke Cthulhu: The episode "The Tangerine Factor", the first season finale. In it Penny is reasonably upset that her ex posted a sex blog of their relationship. Leonard tries to console her and stupidly gets her to console with him. Then Penny comes back and yells at him and when Leonard goes there again, it's revealed that he hooked up with some other girl. Then he gets a date with her. Here's my problem with the episode; it's essentially Leonard badgering Penny to go on a date with him and an unnecessary detour on Leonard's part with her going back to the guy. It's not chemistry, it's him breaking her down. Then the next episode they don't go out again for some contrived reason and it's like the show enjoys having them relationship cocktease us and break them up again.
• Aspie Crow: The episode "The Excelsior Proclamation" where Sheldon finds a letter summoning him to traffic court for a red light violation. When he reminds Penny that it was the night he rescued her from a broken arm injury, she denies that night ever happened and tries to get out of helping Sheldon with a problem that he is in due to helping her. Then she makes an offer to pay him back eventually that in no way means she will pay him back (after the time he gave her money, no questions asked, and likely was never repaid) with a smug smile. Granted, the next bit in court with Sheldon is pretty much his fault, but at the end, the ultimate Penny screw up occurs when she finds out where Stan Lee lives (who Sheldon had missed due to having to be in court) and makes no effort to call him and ask if Sheldon can see him, then letting Sheldon just walk in after Stan's sarcastic remark and doesn't mention that he Does Not Understand Sarcasm, just runs away, proving how much of a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing she can really be, and Sheldon winds up with a restraining order from Stan Lee, proving that Penny made no effort to explain the situation afterward.
  • Storm Requiem: Word. I have a similar problem with Penny in "The Stag Convergence" when Bernadette finds some unsavory things about Howard after his stag party gets leaked onto the internet... when Bernadette is obviously upset, she asks Penny if she knew about it and when Penny vaguely says yes, Bernadette asks her why she kept it to herself, and Penny's response? "The warning signs were there, this is definitely on you." What? Penny tries justifying keeping some pretty big secrets about Howard from Bernadette (like the fact he slept with his cousin) by saying she didn't expect the relationship to go as far as it did and then blaming it on Bernadette, who loves Howard, for not magically figuring it out herself? Not to mention, after Howard shows up to apologize, Penny is included in the group hug without another comment about her lying to Bernadette, or apologizing for it at all. And Leonard's subplot in this episode is basically more "Leonard tries to have sex with Penny in wacky places, Hilarity Ensues." That, among many other examples, is why I am so over the Penny/Leonard subplot. I just do not care about their so-called "relationship" any more.
• Belfagor: The episode "The Maternal Congruence" was almost painful to watch. Christine Baranski is a really good actress and I usually like the portrayal of the protagonists' quirky parents, but the episode basically boiled down to Beverly and Sheldon bitching around in full-mode Jerkassery, with Beverly falling into an Abusive Parents behavior that completely ruined her character and wasn't funny at all. The only good moment involved her and Penny getting drunk. While the end credits were rolling, my mother and I had this exchange:
  My Mother: (disbelieved) If I ever become like her, please kill me and burn the corpse.
  Me: If you had been like her, I'd have already killed you and started stabbing young women in the shower.
• Spider Fan 14: The 100th episode "The Recombination Hypothesis" where in Penny and Leonard get back secretly and Sheldon plays a game that requires him to say "Wood". That's it. Nothing overly out of the ordinary until it turns out Leonard imagined the whole episode. Before that we have to suffer Leonard and Penny fight and then immediately have sex, no creative writing involved with that plot or Sheldon's, like it was written by eleven-year-olds. This is a prime example of the series coasting on their success and ratings that are mostly undeserved. Overall just a very very lazy episode. For Christ's sake, 100th episodes are when you go big and extravagant.
• Shining Armor 87: "The Spoiler Alert Segmentation" got me off the show and would have gotten me into Futurama instead had it not been cancelled. Leonard gets upset at Sheldon because he spoiled the fact that Dumbledore dies in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. If the spoilers had just ended there, it would have been fine because everybody knows that by now, but they then proceed to spoiler another character's death, the fate of a character's relationship, and a character's death in The Walking Dead (2010) (although Sheldon did at least cover up the last one), for no reason other than to show that Sheldon and Penny are ignorant pricks. This is so bad, Leonard then moves out of the apartment. What. This then kicks off a bunch of unfunny, contrived, and weird plots involving the rest of the main four, but the true DMoS comes when he tries to move in with Amy. The horny flanderized bitch then goes into a rant about how only she can have Sheldon and no one else can even interact with him, completely ignoring the fact that she friendzoned him into the relationship. The brat has been flanderized very bad as to do despicable things to ensure the "relationship" with Sheldon (like "The Fish Guts Displacement"), but the fact that she went into an unfunny, unnecessary, Family Guy-like rant about it proved this show it officially hit rock bottom. And to top it off, they showed Howard's mother.
  • BlueCanary: Speaking of Amy, while I generally hate Amy Farrah Fowler's character for a number of reasons, I've decided to put "The Habitation Configuration" as my example. Basically, Sheldon invites Wil Wheaton to be a guest on his Fun With Flags web series, and has Amy direct it. Amy, once again thinking way too highly of herself, starts insisting that Wil is "wooden" and won't accept anything he's doing, even when he points out he's been acting for years and knows what he's doing. Wil, finally getting tired of her crap, makes a sarcastic comment about the fact that this is her first time ever directing (insulting her because it implies she doesn't know what she's doing, which she doesn't) and Amy, feeling she's owed respect even after her behavior, demands Sheldon defend her. Sheldon, being Sheldon, makes Amy leave when he realizes the two won't get along so he can spend more time with his friend. Everyone sides with Amy and tells Sheldon that he should apologize and make Wil apologize for being "rude." The thing is, Amy's behavior brought Wil's "rudeness" upon herself. If she wasn't so controlling and insisting on making everything about herself to gain attention she thinks she deserves (which she does often), Wil wouldn't have gotten snappy with her. Hell, he wasn't even rude after her first couple of corrections; it was only after she kept badgering him and insisting he was screwing everything up that he finally snapped at her. So in the end, Sheldon drunkenly demands an apology from Wil (who good naturedly agrees), and Amy continues to be her horrible self without learning any sort of lesson and Sheldon just has to shut up and support her no matter what, even if he disagrees with her. And that's the other thing so wrong about this episode; the Unfortunate Implications that partners in relationships aren't allowed to be anything little more than yes-men who must agree with everything the other does, even if they're wrong, and must fight anyone else who dares to call that behavior out.
    • Only if the partner is the boyfriend, because one should defend his girl even if he doesn't agree with her either.
• X Spectre Grey X: The show has always been pretty 'meh' to me. It was somewhat enjoyable, but I never thought it deserved the attention it got. But "The Bakersfield Expedition" was easily one of the worst episodes ever. At some point, The Big Bang Theory started using incredibly generic nerd references so that the show would be more accessible, e.g Aquaman being useless (any real DC comics reader knows that's not true). This episode takes it up to eleven. The guys have their car stolen while taking a group picture out in the desert (and why the thieves were there without a car of their own? I dunno, magic?), and go to a diner to ask for help. They are ridiculed and someone even rips of Glee of all things by throwing a Slurpee in Sheldon's face. Speaking of Sheldon, he actually feels ashamed of being a nerd. That's right, the guy who stood up for nerds everywhere, even standing up to Leonard's high school bully who could easily kick his ass is now ashamed to be a nerd because of some idiots in a diner making fun of him. If anything, Sheldon should be the most used to this. Then there's the absolute bullshit that is the girls going to a comic book store. It's made out to be an incredible once in a lifetime thing (hell, it was even the main focus of the ads). Of course, everyone in the store stares, because, as you know, all nerds are incapable of interacting with women, and women comic book readers are unheard of. Then they decide to purchase Thor, because "he's hot", because, women can't be into Sequential Art for any other reason. Then they decide they don't like comics, which would be fine, but then they get into one of the pettiest arguments I've ever seen regarding comic books - Could the Hulk lift Thor's hammer? And that's all they talk about. Because of course the reason people read comics is so they can argue about them.
  • Drcynic24: Second me for "The Bakersfield Expedition". Though it was for different reasons. The entire episode is one big downer and in the end, nothing happens to advance anyone's character. Instead, it was simply an episode used to abuse the four male leads while the female leads did absolutely nothing. I felt like my time had been seriously wasted after watching this one.
  • Trogdor7620: Normally I love The Big Bang Theory, but The Bakersfield Expedition is the episode which boils my blood. Sure, a bunch of sweaty guys walking into a diner in the middle of nowhere dressed up in Star Trek (2009) outfits is strange, but they've clearly walked for miles, in uncomfortable clothes, and without any valuables. And you make fun of them. That's not funny, you pricks. And back home, when the girls go to the comic book store to get some comics, every nerd in the place looks up with interest and fear, like high school all over again. Basically the episode boils down to "If you're a geek, then you are doomed to a life of mocking, loneliness, and misery. Otherwise, feel free to mock those losers, because that's what they exist for!" That episode just undermined the entire premise that the show is based on: that it's okay to be a geek.
  • Peace And Love: A minor moment, but that whole "bowtie" comment from Penny shows to me that she's perfectly willing to defend beating up a geek based on their fashion sense. Doesn't this woman hang out with geeks all the time? Christ...
  • fairygirl567: Oh my God, this is the worst episode. Being a comic book reader, collector and girl the second story arc really pissed me off. Firstly, it is very hard for girls who are comic books fans to be taken seriously already, a girl once told me a comic shop owner refused to sell her any DC comics unless she listed off every Justice League member, which is near to impossible! The writers play it off as if none of these girls has ever even seen a book with just pictures in it! Secondly, I get Penny not being into comics (the girl didn't know what anime was for crying out loud.) but Amy and Berny? Really? Their scientists! (which was also destroyed when it turned out the only reason they went into to the field is because they thought it would attract boys!) but it would've been nice to have ONE of them be at least a light comic book reader or even a manga reader. Nope! Female comic book fans get a lot of taunts from guys who can't see a girl liking nerdy things as real and this episode just gave them another reason and then when the comic shop owner gives them a good selection of a book to start off on they pick Thor because he's cute! And then they go onto insult comic book fans and have a stupid fight. I swear Chuck Lorre is the Dan Schneider of adult sitcoms! I can let the first plot go because even though Sheldon is used to being a nerd it can get tiring having others look down on you for it, but the subplot's moral seemed to be: girl comic book fans don't exist, every girl has no idea what it is or has ever read one.
  • Q Czach QC: I second this. It’s hard to pinpoint the exact moment this show irredeemably went to the dogs, but The Bakersfield Expedition was the final nail in the proverbial coffin for me, because the absolutely gratuitous mistreatment of the core cast made me realize that the show wasn’t laughing with geeks anymore (if it even was to begin with), but laughing at them instead.
• Shadow 200: Bernadette's actions in the episode with The Scavenger Hunt. She is shown to be extremely competitive which hadn't been shown before and when she and Leonard are in last place and Leonard feels like quitting she tells him that Penny at times calls him a degrading name so he won't. Then when Leonard meets up with her and calls her out on calling him that Penny says she never did that and Bernadette claims she made it up cause she wants to win. Really Bernadette? You would endanger your friends' relationship for the sake of a stupid Scavenger Hunt? And to top it off she gets off scot-free. Face meet Palm.
• Be 26: "The Table Polarisation". I get that Sheldon has issues. I understand that he detests change in all its forms. I don't like it, but I get it. But what finally soured me on the character, the episode and the entire damn show was his last line - after effectively having a tantrum, being rightly described by Leonard as acting like a baby, and getting his way only when Penny and Bernadette feel sorry for him, he turns to Leonard with a smug look on his face and says "Sometimes the baby wins". Sometimes the baby wins? Sheldon ALWAYS WINS. In the running battle between the two, Sheldon ALWAYS gets his way, and he's now going to be smug about it? I've never wanted to punch the character more than in that moment.
• T-Jack: The story arc dealing with Howard's feeling unwelcome and underappreciated after returning from space was pretty awful, especially when the laugh track finds his emotional turmoil hilarious (seriously, how can you not feel bad for the guy?), but what turned all this from being merely unnecessarily mean to absolutely disgusting and offensive was the other characters comparing him to Buzz Aldrin, who is portrayed in the show as being a senile old man desperately hung up on his only achievement.
• Debochira: The finale of Season 7. Sheldon is literally running away because he is selfish and doesn't want Leonard and Penny to be happy because then he'll be unhappy. Sheldon used to be my favorite character until that moment, when it was perfectly obvious and was likely tattooed into his brain that he should have been at least amicable to the situation from his mother's raising. But no, he throws a temper tantrum and runs away, and when Leonard tries to coax him out of it, Penny stops him. Seriously, what the hell? This man cannot function on his own, and they're just gonna let him try his way in the world? And when Leonard tries to have a heartfelt goodbye, Sheldon ruins it and Leonard and Penny pretty much say "Whatever" and abandon him at the station. Then it's played for laughs when Amy, who has never had a boyfriend nor even had sex with anyone, starts screaming and hitting Leonard with a pillow, crying "Why did you let him go?!" Penny just sits there looking bored despite the fact that one of her best friends is heartbroken because she no longer has a boyfriend around for her, and it's Penny's fault because she would rather have Sheldon possibly getting seriously hurt out somewhere else than try to talk to him (with his mother by her side) and explain why things have to change. It was just... just ugh with, with a side of ugh.
• Glittering Wolf: 'The Parking Spot Escalation' Why oh why do they always have to let Sheldon have his way? It's not funny anymore. It's irritating. I get he's egotistical and thinks he deserves everything, regardless of it being useful to him or not. But why did everyone act like Howard, sans Bernadette, is being crazy? Yes it was a bit much to do the whole naked thing, but honestly him driving slowly towards Sheldon while he was in the parking spot was really the only way to get him to move. Why should Howard have to apologize and relent? Plus Sheldon 'letting him use' the spot and making him admit Sheldon was a bigger man? Just annoying. They really need to stop enabling him.
  • Lady Norbert: This, so much. That episode really killed the show for me. Not only did everyone side with Sheldon when he was being ridiculous, but Amy actually assaulted Penny! Granted, she was aiming for Bernadette and missed, but that doesn't change the fact that she broke Penny's nose! And Penny had nothing to do with the altercation in the slightest, she just happened to be there. I was sickened at the very end when Sheldon, Amy, Howard and Bernadette went out to dinner to celebrate and poor Penny had to wait on them looking all beaten up. Penny irritates me sometimes for the reasons listed on this page, but I felt nothing but sorry for her in that episode, and I thought she should have told the entire group (sans Leonard, who also had nothing to do with it) to GTFO her life.
• Ciel 12: For me it comes in 'The Plimpton Simulation'. So Sheldon is having a scientist who he considers to be his caliber over to stay. She becomes interested in Leonard and they sleep together. But that isn't the DMOS - for me, it comes when Penny finds out, and tells Leonard that she's 'judging him nine ways to Sunday'. But because it's Penny, she gets a free pass on being a total hypocrite, despite it being heavily implied that she sleeps around and isn't picking about waiting until after a first date. Yes, Leonard and Elizabeth weren't on a date, but in this case Leonard's behaviour is the exception and not the rule, and he wasn't the one who came on to her. It's also hard to swallow the perception in the show that nearly everyone finds Penny attractive - real life doesn't work like that, and when you don't like her personality, the constant lionization of her whilst her flaws are largely ignored can be hard to swallow.
• The Lucky Cat: For me, I think my Dethroning Moment is 'The Ornithophobia Diffusion', where Leonard and Penny go out together "as friends" and it's established that every single nice thing Leonard's ever done for Penny- letting her choose the movie they saw, sharing his fries with her, apologizing when he hurts her feelings, is all so they can have sex later. Not because it's a nice thing to do, it's because if he does it, he can get something in exchange. For a show that preaches Give Geeks a Chance, this episode screams, "Geeks will lie to you and use emotional manipulation and a façade of friendship to try and get laid." Then Leonard and Penny proceed to both get jealous when they start talking to other people on their "not date" and start verbally tearing each other down in front of people. This is the relationship we're supposed to be emotionally invested in and rooting for? Really? Now granted, I'm not saying Penny's a saint, but Leonard apologies for calling her stupid at the end of the episode, he makes sure to assure her it's not like all of his OTHER apologies where he just told her what she wanted to hear without actually meaning it or presumably feeling guilty about his actions. This episode confirms that not only Leonard and Penny really have nothing in common (just look at what stereotypical "girly" movie Penny wants to see vs. the stereotypical "boring" movie Leonard wants) but also that their relationship is really kind of unhealthy and creepy.
• bweb - For me, the season eight portrayal of Howard and Bernadette's marriage. From her having Howard on an allowance, to forcing him to sell his beloved TARDIS, a crown gem in any nerd treasure, Bernie has been shown to be demeaning and overbearing. And this after we're shown that Howard was made a better man for his love of her. They've spent this whole season at each other's throats.
• Dr Apex 1991 - The whole 'Amy gets mad at Sheldon because he wants to go to Mars' storyline. Seriously, she gets bent out of shape because Sheldon has applied to join a colonization mission to Mars if it ever takes place. It just felt like they needed a reason for Amy to complain in this episode. The rest of the episode was good, with Raj breaking Emily's drawer and Leonard and Penny's sex art, but the Amy/Sheldon story just bogged it down for me.
• Krypton Fracker - Converting Stuart into a main character, having for so long been a solid bit part player. Plenty of moments before that which signaled writers running out of ideas, but that was the low point. Not unlike how I imagine I would have felt if Gunther moved in with Chandler halfway through Friends, etc. Too weird.
• Lightringstars- "The Itchy Brain Simulation" I already hate Sheldon, I don't find his behavior even remotely funny and he's just a complete Jerkass to me, this episode made me hate him more. The main plot around the episode involved Sheldon forcing Leonard to wear an itchy wool sweater until he is able to return a DVD they rented 7 years ago to try to prove a point about how Sheldon feels when issues are left unresolved, only for the DVD shop to have closed down and there to be no actual way to return the DVD. The plot of the actual episode isn't my issue, it's actually a decent concept and could've helped Leonard and Sheldon's friendship, but that doesn't happen. Instead, after Leonard finally loses it and calls out Sheldon for being kind of a jerk to him (it's justified when you see what the sweater did to his chest) Sheldon reveals that he found the DVD years ago and paid for it, and kept it there to use as a "Teachable Moment". Keep in mind that Leonard is supposed to be his best friend; that is not how you treat your best friend, that is just being a dick.
  • Nebagram- Seconded. This isn't Sheldon being... Well, Sheldon. This is derailing a likable character into a sociopathic bully for the sake of a few cheap laughs. Sheldon clearly learned nothing from the experience, going by his smug grin at the end, and all Leonard learned was never to trust Sheldon again. Well, that and saintlike levels of patience, going by how Sheldon ended the episode with his face intact.
  • Jade Eyes 1 - Sociopathic is right. That rash covering Leonard's body is too red and angry to be anything but an allergic reaction. If the punishment lasted any longer, Leonard could have ended up in the hospital, or even dead. That's not funny or clever; that's just sick.
• The Leondude - "The Opening Night Excitation" I don't know what's worse, the fact that Sheldon decided to have coitus with Amy (that alone, is inconsistent with his character) or the fact that he blew off the new Star Wars movie to have coitus with her. In short, damn you writers for ruining my favorite character who's not a villain.
  • tvtropesruinedmylife22: What makes me see this in a different light is that it shows that the writers have completely given up on giving us reasons for anything to happen at this point in the show's lifetime. The writers could not have possibly had Sheldon do what he did and not have someone call bullshit.
• Scsigs: The whole series has sucked ever since Season 6 for me, or is at least less consistent in its consistencies. I could list several episodes as to what could count; the season 7 cliffhanger where Leonard & Penny go to elope in Vegas showing that they're still too petty to really do anything too serious, like getting married, in their relationship (and seriously, Sheldon pointing out that Leonard & Penny have been dating on & off for years & appear to be pretty happy as they are doesn't automatically mean that they're ready for marriage. Personally, I think they still have a lot of things to still discuss before they can be truly happy, I mean, just look at their forced argument about Leonard just kissing anther woman when he was drunk. Penny was looking for an out just as Leonard was), the season 6 cliffhanger where Sheldon doesn't like change, so he gets on a train because his Aspie mind can't grasp the fact that the universe doesn't revolve around him ever, the season 8 cliffhanger where Leonard's Dad might've slept with Sheldon's mom, etc but the one that takes the cake with me is the episode where Bernadette forcefully sells Howard's life-sized TARDIS. It has turned me off of Bernadette and Howard's relationship pretty effectively. Not only had Bernadette never been shown to hate Howard's geekiness before, she's turned into a character that just seems to do nothing but spew hatred most of the time. There's also the fact that until she got married to Howard, she was shown as a really nice & warm person with some tendencies to be angry, but that was always in a "Beware the Nice Ones" kind of way. When she married Howard, she started to slowly morph into Judith from Two and a Half Men, where she does nothing but spew hated most of the time. I can take the nerd & geek stereotypes, I can take Sheldon being an OCD narcissist Aspie, I can take the relationships being toxic for the most part, I can take Raj being a bitch, but you mess with one of the founding elements of the show; the character's love of pop culture, then I draw the line. Like the guys, I'm a Whovian, and if my significant other was trying to sell some of my memorabilia from something I liked, without so much as considering my feelings without any showings of being willing to compromise, that'd raise some serious red flags to me. I mean, you have a gigantic fucking house after Howard's mom died that cost you absolutely nothing because he most likely inherited it & you're in the process of getting rid of stuff to redecorate it anyways, so what's the harm in letting Howard keep the life-size TARDIS replica? He even said he was just going to keep it in the corner anyways, just have him put it in the basement or something. It was in the goddamn shed anyways, so out of sight, out of mind, right? If you want problems to not seem petty, or forced, then don't have such glaring solutions be presented to the viewers.
  • What really gets me, though, is that the writers seem self-aware to almost Family Guy levels on these things. What with Sheldon constantly pointing out the toxicities in each relationship, but not self-aware enough to know his own shortcomings. Half the time, plot points are forced to happen nowadays after Sheldon mentions them when it comes to the relationships rather than letting them come naturally, which is what really pisses me off about them. 'Leonard & Penny should get married? Well, let's have Sheldon mention it & have them go on a vendetta to prove him wrong.' 'Sheldon & Amy should finally have sex? Well, rather than work that into the plots of several episodes, let's have him be ready to propose to her when she breaks up with him, then miss Star Wars to do it.' Nothing about this show unfolds naturally anymore. Also, I know it's a staple of many of Chuck Lorre's shows to have petty characters who have problems with their parents, sometimes psychological scars, but can we get some goddamn actual character developments rather than such petty & forced bullshit please & not The Status Quo Is God?
• yhunata : Season 10 has been relatively better than the previous few seasons, but episode 13 "The Romance Recalibration" showed me that the writers are still the same. Basically, the premise of the episode is that Penny is upset that Leonard no longer does the stuff he used to do for her before they got married. Not the best premise, but somewhat understandable. It's what happens next that's really ridiculous. Leonard notices that she's upset and badgers her until she replies that she feels that "ever since the marriage, Leonard seems to think he doesn't really have to try anymore" (quoted word for word there, by the way). Leonard retorts that the notion is ridiculous and points out that he's the one who's ever done anything in or for the relationship. Penny gets mad at this and tells him that she'll take Amy to the spa weekend (which she had won) instead. Ummm.... what? Leonard is right, how much more does he need to do? This could still have been salvaged if the writers made Penny realize how much Leonard has done for her, but no. Leonard is the one that seeks her out at the spa and work things out and how do they do this? With a... get this, a Relationship Agreement. I'm sorry, what? It's almost as if the writers are telling the audience that the woman in a relationship isn't obliged to do anything and is completely in the right to throw a tantrum when her boyfriend doesn't pamper her.
• immortalfrieza: I normally can just let things on this show pass, but an early episode "The Killer Robot Instability" really annoys me. To summarize, the plot of the episode is how the 4 guys are trying to build a robot for a robot fighting competition, when Howard hits on Penny yet again in his usual completely sexist and overbearing manner. After 2 seasons of this Penny has finally had enough and gives Howard a scathing "Reason You Suck" Speech calling him out on his lame one liners, sexist behavior, and complete inability to take a hint, and until the end of it Howard still thinks that Penny is flirting with him. Once he finally gets it, Howard completely shuts down and leaves and the rest of the episode is basically how Penny has to try to uplift Howard's spirits again. This could have been really good by resulting in Howard promising to turn his behavior around and leading to some character development for him... but no. Instead Penny is treated by the episode as a massive bitch for telling Howard exactly where to stick it, all of which completely correct and well deserved, to the point where even she eventually comes around. What's worse, Leonard and the rest of the guys put her up to cheering Howard up, not because they were concerned about their friend spiraling into depression and possibly suicide, no, but because he was the only one of the group who actually knew how to fix up their robot for the competition. Then, once Penny does succeed in cheering Howard up, he attempts to kiss her right then and there so she punches him in the face, and after the episode he goes right back to being his same old perverted self. This should have been a Stand Up And Cheer moment for Penny and lead to great character development for Howard, but instead it just snaps back and everything is back to the way it was before.
• Retloclive: The early seasons are pretty rough when it came to having continuity between episodes. This was no better demonstrated then how the Sara Rue character, Dr. Stephanie Barnett, was handled in Season 2. Stephanie is introduced in a three episode mini-arc where it seemed like she was going to develop a possible relationship with Leonard from then on. So how does it evolve from there? It doesn't. Stephanie just drops off the face of the earth from then on as if she never existed. Wait, what? Who the heck thought it was a good idea to end the arc with Leonard and Stephanie still in a relationship only for the plotline to just not exist afterwards? If the plan was to not have Stephanie appear anymore after the mini-arc, then actually properly show the end of the relationship. They couldn't even do the bare minimum of simply mentioning it in gossip that the two broke up.