7.19 The Indecision Amalgamation Sheldon’s is the least successful storyline in this episode. The fact that it’s a largely trivial decision is not, in itself, the problem (we say ‘fairly’ and ‘largely’ because games consoles are expensive and if this decision were being made by a character with less expendable income than Sheldon it would be correspondingly slightly more significant – though still hardly life-changing). Ending up completely frozen or obsessed over a minor decision is something that happens to lots of people and this sort of plot in a sitcom can lead to good character work as, usually, total breakdown over an insignificant decision is an indication of something deeper going on. The problem with giving this story to Sheldon is, in fact, that it’s so in-character and unsurprising. For Sheldon, taking the process of making an unimportant decision to extremes up to and including avoiding going to the bathroom isn’t an indication of some deep underlying issue he’s struggling with, but simply business as usual. This makes it more difficult to sympathise with behaviour that almost goes beyond annoying the characters and crosses the line into annoying the audience, a situation exacerbated by the fact that we’re well into the episode before it’s explained why Sheldon, a character who has been established as having substantial expendable income, can’t just buy both consoles. This Sheldon plot thread isn’t a total loss, though, because it does give us one very funny scene in which Amy tries to play along and pretend that this is a desperate situation with high stakes while trying to have dinner with her boyfriend. Amy’s exaggerated reactions to Sheldon’s dilemma, culminating in a desperate ‘Please pass the butter!’ are brilliant. The episode also establishes that, following Valentine’s Day, Amy is now being kissed on a semi-regular basis, every Date Night to be precise, which is good for her (even if it was demonstrated with one of the most sexless kisses in TV history). Fortunately, the other two stories in this episode are much better. Raj trying to juggle two women had the potential to be more squirm-inducingly disastrous than Leonard’s attempt to say ‘playa’, but thankfully Raj decided to do the sensible thing and simply explained the situation to his date, Emily (whose response, ‘Usually on first dates I talk about music and stuff, but I was promised weird, so let’s do this!’ is perfect). Raj has spent years failing with women, partly because he couldn’t talk to them, but mostly because he kept trying to be some kind of lothario and using terrible lines (when he could speak), passing himself off as something he wasn’t – except with Lucy, which is why that worked at all. Here he finally starts being himself and, of course, it works. It’s perhaps a shame Emily so straightforwardly equated level of sexual activity with the seriousness of a relationship, considering how well the show portrays how important Amy and Sheldon’s relationship is to them without sex (yet), but that’s a minor nit-pick, and at least she was impressed by Raj’s honesty. The other good thing about this plot was that it brought back recurring guest star Wil Wheaton, whom it’s always great to see, especially (for us geeks in the audience) when Star Trek gets a mention. Okay, it was slightly more fun when he was playing an evil version of himself, but that would have been hard to sustain in the long term and it’s good to see these people interacting with friends outside the core group anyway. This is also another example of these characters’ welcome tendency to do things that make sense (rare on a TV show) by asking their friend, the famous actor, if he has any advice for Penny on starting out in acting. All in all, a very satisfying half-hour. It’s a shame Sheldon became so positively irritating, but considering one of his main character traits is that he irritates people, it’s perhaps inevitable that he will occasionally slip into irritating the audience. Meanwhile, Penny and Raj continue to move forwards, opening up more possibilities for the show as it works out what to do with these characters over the next three years. Read Juliette’s review of the previous episode, The Mommy Observation, here. Follow our Twitter feed for faster news and bad jokes right here. And be our Facebook chum here.
