11.16 The Neonatal Nomenclature We all know that the storyline and Bernadette’s role in the season was dependent on Melissa Rauch’s real-life pregnancy, but wow, how it’s dragged. Having a central character on bed rest is never fun, and I do wonder whether the show might have been better off simply having Bernie go on a work trip or stay with her (eventually dying) father instead of writing the pregnancy into the season. As it was, several episodes this year have been dragged down by the circumstances, and The Neonatal Nomenclature feels both anticlimactic and by-the-numbers. We’ve been through all this before with Howard and Bernadette, and all the writers could come up with to fill the episode was a sort-of argument about the choice of name. It’s twenty-minutes of nothing. Trouble starts when Amy lets slip to Howard that Bernadette has already chosen the name Michael, after her father. Howard, knowing nothing of this, storms over and demands to have a say in the process. The rest of the episode sees the gang throw out potential names while avoiding Sheldon’s game at all costs. Most of the names are taken by old college boyfriends, so it takes a bit longer than expected. In the end they settle on Neil Michael, but because of the fact that Bernie needed four stitches (this, and the extended talk of mucus plugs, is enough to put anyone off their lunch), she’s almost certainly going to get her way. A couple of chuckles here and there, too – Bernadette taking offence at Penny’s ridiculously flat stomach on display as they work out, and the delayed humour of seeing her waddle after Howard into the kitchen during their argument. Rauch does some lovely work during an episode completely carried by her. So now we have a new baby, and hopefully some storylines around Howard’s insecurity as a father to a boy. I only wish we could have seen a different couple tackle this particular life hurdle, as Penny and Leonard especially have been handed scraps since they got married. Hell, the writers could just pair Raj up with a woman who already has kids, but then that would require some multi-episode continuity beyond Raj’s new hairstyle. The main thing is that the baby is here, and we can have Bernadette back as a character. Read Caroline’s review of the previous episode, The Novelisation Correlation, here.
