# Big Bang Season Premiere 9/22--The Skank Reflex Analysis **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 22, 2011, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-bang-season-premiere-9-22-the-skank-reflex-analysis/597196 "2011-09-22T14:34:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![amanset](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8dc957/32.png) [@amanset](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amanset)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2011, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-bang-season-premiere-9-22-the-skank-reflex-analysis/597196/61 "2011-09-26T22:28:57Z")
> [@DSeid](#): > > My limited experiences have lead me to the impression that such is a false generalization of alcohol use in the EU. Indeed America has more abstainers but drinking to excess is not very common across Western Europe. Maybe two glasses of wine day very commonly. (Okay, lots of drunks in the U.K., but not in France or Italy.) [This site](http://pubs.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/arh27-1/95-109.htm) fleshes it out in excruciating data based detail. Traditionally Europe has consisted of many “wet” cultures (alcohol commonly drunk to moderate amounts, most often as part of a meal), and America has been a “dry” culture (“[a]bstinence is more common, but when drinking occurs it is more likely to result in intoxication”). Those EU patterns though are, in reality, getting more complicated. (Some very surprising data on that site.) In any case, by American standards she exhibits a set of behaviors that are not too uncommon … among those with problem alcohol consumption. (About [8% of Americans](http://www.niaaa.nih.gov/newsevents/newsreleases/nesarcnews.htm).) > > Yes, I think you must be watching a different show than I am. > > And I apologize for the hijack. None was intended. My question was answered - others did not think as I did. Again, the point I am making is that Penny doesn’t drink, never mind drink to excess, nearly as often as you seem to think she does. Yes, she gets drunk now and again but getting drunk now and again is not a drinking problem. At least it isn’t anywhere I’ve been, which is most of the EU and, frankly, the US and Canada (although, as I mentioned, that was over a decade ago). ---
**Author:** ![BlackKnight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/eb8c5e/32.png) [@BlackKnight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlackKnight)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2011, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-bang-season-premiere-9-22-the-skank-reflex-analysis/597196/62 "2011-09-26T22:39:49Z")
As far as I can tell, getting drunk regularly is an extremely widespread American passtime. It probably varies quite a bit based on various demographic stuff, but it’s sure as heck not rare where I live. Talking about getting “hammered” on the weekend is par for the course. ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2011, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-bang-season-premiere-9-22-the-skank-reflex-analysis/597196/63 "2011-09-26T23:15:49Z")
I would have no difficulty believing a medical professional diagnosing Penny or any of a plethora of various sitcom characters with alcohol abuse problems. The metric can be a lot more stringent than a lot of people realize. [ontopic]The first episode was completely ruined for me by Amy’s repetition of the horse rumor. I realize it’s a petty thing that was only a small part of the episode but I find her and Sheldon’s characters to be the most annoying parts of the show. The second episode was a lot funnier and seemed like a return to form for the show.[/ot] ---
**Author:** ![Terr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/839c29/32.png) [@Terr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terr)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2011, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-bang-season-premiere-9-22-the-skank-reflex-analysis/597196/64 "2011-09-26T23:21:47Z")
> [@Inner\_Stickler](#): > > [ontopic]The first episode was completely ruined for me by Amy’s repetition of the horse rumor. I realize it’s a petty thing that was only a small part of the episode but **I find her and Sheldon’s characters to be the most annoying parts of the show**. The second episode was a lot funnier and seemed like a return to form for the show.[/ot] I hope that you meant “of the episode” in the highlighted part, and of the show in general. Because I think Sheldon makes the show. Without him, it wouldn’t work at all. Amy’s character is a lot less believable and less likable than Sheldon’s. Sheldon is completely happy in his Aspergerosity. He has absolutely no desire to be “normal”, and revels in what he is. Amy, on the other hand, is written to be conflicted, very aware of how “different” she is, and not liking it very much - at least at times. At other times the writers forget this and write her to be a female Sheldon. It’s uneven. ---
**Author:** ![Unintentionally\_Blank](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unintentionally_blank/32/5418_2.png) [@Unintentionally\_Blank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unintentionally_Blank)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2011, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-bang-season-premiere-9-22-the-skank-reflex-analysis/597196/65 "2011-09-26T23:26:32Z")
> [@Khadaji](#): > > If the continue to morph the adorable Bernadette into Howard’s mother, that will get old quick. The voice can be amusing in very small doses, but I do not want to see a lot of it. We were wondering if maybe she’s done the voice all along. ---
**Author:** ![notfrommensa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f14d63/32.png) [@notfrommensa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/notfrommensa)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2011, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-bang-season-premiere-9-22-the-skank-reflex-analysis/597196/66 "2011-09-26T23:34:08Z")
The Catherine the Great reference was tied to the end of the episode when Penny was in the hemorrhoid commercial. ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2011, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-bang-season-premiere-9-22-the-skank-reflex-analysis/597196/67 "2011-09-26T23:38:56Z")
> [@Terr](#): > > I hope that you meant “of the episode” in the highlighted part, and of the show in general. Because I think Sheldon makes the show. Without him, it wouldn’t work at all. It was funny for about 3 episodes but now he just irritates me. Leonard, Raj, and Howard are socially inept in their own ways and there is humor in their interactions. Sheldon is an annoying one-note character with little likability and nothing to make up for it. When I watch BBT, it’s for Penny and her reactions to situations the other three make, not Sheldon. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2011, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-bang-season-premiere-9-22-the-skank-reflex-analysis/597196/68 "2011-09-26T23:43:57Z")
> [@amanset](#): > > Again, the point I am making is that Penny doesn’t drink, never mind drink to excess, nearly as often as you seem to think she does. … And again, we are apparently watching different shows. I see a character who when people come in to visit her she is usually already with a bottle of wine, and it is often implied that she is finishing at least that bottle by herself, who usually responds to a problem by drinking or by offering a drink or asking for one, who the writers made a point of showing in the last episode, after having had a no memory drinking episode that she clearly regretted, to be looking for a clean glass to have some wine, by herself, and unable to find one grabbing a ?4 cup? Pyrex measuring cup and commenting that all wine glasses should have handles like that. The character is, IMHO, clearly written as a person with a drinking problem. Of course played all for the laughs and not for any of the pathos, “Days of Wine and Roses” this aint (and should not be). > [@BlackKnight](#): > > As far as I can tell, getting drunk regularly is an extremely widespread American passtime. It probably varies quite a bit based on various demographic stuff, but it’s sure as heck not rare where I live. Talking about getting “hammered” on the weekend is par for the course. Actually fairly uncommon among most above college aged demographics. But even if so, binge drinking being common would not make it any less [of a problem](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2748736/?tool=pubmed). **Terr** I am not so sure that Amy is so not believable. Yes, they have not been completely consistent. They started her out more as female Sheldon and found that it was better to make her not asexual too and to be desirous of social relationships and normalcy but not very skillful at achieving such. (In point of fact both Sheldon-style and Amy-style are part of the Asperger umbrella.) ---
**Author:** ![Unintentionally\_Blank](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unintentionally_blank/32/5418_2.png) [@Unintentionally\_Blank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unintentionally_Blank)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2011, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-bang-season-premiere-9-22-the-skank-reflex-analysis/597196/69 "2011-09-27T00:20:27Z")
OH dear LORD PLEASE open another thread on her binge drinking. (I get SO tired of listening to the distain.) ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2011, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-bang-season-premiere-9-22-the-skank-reflex-analysis/597196/70 "2011-09-27T00:25:43Z")
Why do most drunks think everybody else who drinks is as weak as they are? ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2011, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-bang-season-premiere-9-22-the-skank-reflex-analysis/597196/71 "2011-09-27T00:30:57Z")
> [@Unintentionally\_Blank](#): > > OH dear LORD PLEASE open another thread on her binge drinking. (I get SO tired of listening to the distain.) Sorry. I had no intention to hijack, just wanted to ask if anyone else thought that that was going to be her epiphany. A simple “no” would have sufficed. But what disdain? ---
**Author:** ![Unintentionally\_Blank](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unintentionally_blank/32/5418_2.png) [@Unintentionally\_Blank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unintentionally_Blank)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2011, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-bang-season-premiere-9-22-the-skank-reflex-analysis/597196/72 "2011-09-27T02:52:26Z")
Because this is YetAnotherThread that’s been severely bent because someone thinks Alcohol is being represented as an Evil Thing™. (Search the archives, it happens a lot.) And I really doubt ‘no’ would have ended it. Prove me wrong. ---
**Author:** ![JoelUpchurch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f05b48/32.png) [@JoelUpchurch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoelUpchurch)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2011, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-bang-season-premiere-9-22-the-skank-reflex-analysis/597196/73 "2011-09-27T03:48:46Z")
> [@Terr](#): > > I hope that you meant “of the episode” in the highlighted part, and of the show in general. Because I think Sheldon makes the show. Without him, it wouldn’t work at all I think Sheldon+Penny is the best parts of the show. Sheldon is just a lot funnier when he has Penny as his straight man. Look at their interaction in **The Adhesive Duck Deficiency** ---
**Author:** ![Terr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/839c29/32.png) [@Terr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terr)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2011, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-bang-season-premiere-9-22-the-skank-reflex-analysis/597196/74 "2011-09-27T04:15:25Z")
> [@JoelUpchurch](#): > > I think Sheldon+Penny is the best parts of the show. Sheldon is just a lot funnier when he has Penny as his straight man. Look at their interaction in **The Adhesive Duck Deficiency** Maybe, but sometimes I get tired of the same mouth-open “doh?” expressions that Penny makes when Sheldon finishes one of his mini-soliloquies. Some variety please. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2011, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-bang-season-premiere-9-22-the-skank-reflex-analysis/597196/75 "2011-09-27T04:55:41Z")
> [@Unintentionally\_Blank](#): > > Because this is YetAnotherThread that’s been severely bent because someone thinks Alcohol is being represented as an Evil Thing™. (Search the archives, it happens a lot.) > > And I really doubt ‘no’ would have ended it. Prove me wrong. If only I would just get a simple “no” instead of inane comments like yours. Anyway, off hijack - I think the problem with Sheldon is that they, one the one hand, have made him much less Aspergerish but still not let him show any growth as a character. Thus his schtick, even in the hands of a talent like Parsons, gets old. Penny has developed (believably) as a character and it both makes the character someone we care more about, and gives a talent like Kaley Cuoco something to work with. Their interactions work so well because of the growth they’ve allowed Penny to have. The interactions between the others OTOH just rehashes the same basic schtick. ---
**Author:** ![amanset](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8dc957/32.png) [@amanset](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amanset)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2011, 7:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-bang-season-premiere-9-22-the-skank-reflex-analysis/597196/76 "2011-09-27T07:07:31Z")
> [@DSeid](#): > > If only I would just get a simple “no” instead of inane comments like yours. “No, because she doesn’t have a problem with alcohol.” was my original answer to you. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2011, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-bang-season-premiere-9-22-the-skank-reflex-analysis/597196/77 "2011-09-27T12:15:47Z")
Yes. That is what your answer was. ---
**Author:** ![Unintentionally\_Blank](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unintentionally_blank/32/5418_2.png) [@Unintentionally\_Blank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unintentionally_Blank)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2011, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-bang-season-premiere-9-22-the-skank-reflex-analysis/597196/78 "2011-09-27T12:25:25Z")
I see the right number of characters with the right amount of friction to make a good series. If Raj were a real person in real life, yeah, I might dislike the moral decisions he’s made. If Sheldon were my roommate, I’d certainly want a different room mate. (And I’ve dealt with MANY Nerd Archetypes. I’d guess I was myself.) But the thing is: It’s Sit-Com, and as such, they get kind of a big reset button from show to show. Yeah, they’re playing with some story arcs with the Long Distance Girlfriend, but that’s only because there’s comedic mileage to be had from it. The Tall Guy that made Amy say “WHO!”…where is he now? I can’t get too upset about anything any of the characters do because I like the thing as a whole, and…it’s a sit-com. If my wife came to me with a 300 page Renters Agreement, I’d have her head checked. ---
**Author:** ![gytalf2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ac91a4/32.png) [@gytalf2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gytalf2000)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2011, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-bang-season-premiere-9-22-the-skank-reflex-analysis/597196/79 "2011-09-27T15:52:48Z")
> [@JoelUpchurch](#): > > I think Sheldon+Penny is the best parts of the show. Sheldon is just a lot funnier when he has Penny as his straight man. Look at their interaction in **The Adhesive Duck Deficiency** I agree! Not to disparage the other characters, since they are all amusing, but the Sheldon / Penny interactions are usually (for me, anyway) the highlights of any episode. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2011, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-bang-season-premiere-9-22-the-skank-reflex-analysis/597196/80 "2011-09-27T16:12:06Z")
> [@Unintentionally\_Blank](#): > > … But the thing is: It’s Sit-Com, and as such, they get kind of a big reset button from show to show. … For a mediocre sit com, sure. But, IMHO, not for a great one. You can’t reset whether or not Superman flies or just jumps from week to week. (Rebooting a series is another story.) Middle Earth worked because it was true to itself, even though it was “just fantasy”. And because the characters developed. Sit coms also work best, I think, when the characters are not just static cut outs, let alone ones that are not internally consistent. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-bang-season-premiere-9-22-the-skank-reflex-analysis/597196.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-bang-season-premiere-9-22-the-skank-reflex-analysis/597196.md?page=5)