For me this episode was kind of just, “blah”. And I am not completely certain why. The scenes with Howard’s in-laws were very sit-comish and they were OK, but little more than OK and could have come on any situation comedy.
The scenes with Sheldon and AFF seemed to me a bit forced and seemed inconsistent with who the characters were when established. Maybe characters need to “grow,” but to me it seemed inconsistent none the less.
In fact, my favorite scenes in this show were the ones where Penny attempted to teach the guys how to gut a fish. I found the reversal of sexual roles fun and the portrayals entertaining.
Sheldon has touched real live boobs before - Penny’s in fact. When she fell in the shower and hurt her elbow, and he had to help her get dressed & take her to the hospital.
“Is that my arm?”
“It doesn’t feel like an arm.”
“Then maybe you should let it go.”
Scene here, jump to 3:50 in for the relevant parts.
Cleaning fish is consistent with Penny’s “country girl” history. She’s mentioned doing stuff with her dad, how he used to call her “Slugger”, etc. Human lab samples are…different.
I didn’t care for Penny’s fish cleaning technique, holding the fish and cutting down towards her hand like that. Not the way I’d do it. Typically, first I’d scale the fish, then I’d lay it on a cutting board, cut the head off just behind the gills, slit the belly if needed, and scoop out the entrails. Or I might fillet the fish, which is a less messy method. Also would not do that inside an apartment. Fish cleaning is messy, and usually done outside…often at the dock after loading the boat.
Mrs. Rostenkowski was played by Meagen Fay. I remember her best as Gretchen Mannkusser on 11 episodes of Malcolm in the Middle. (She and Kenneth Mars owned a dude ranch Francis worked on.) Interestingly, Casey Sander (Mr. Rostenkowski) also appeared on two episodes of MitM, one of which, “Christmas Trees”, also had Meagen Fay, but with no scenes together I believe.
(Mr. Sanders biggest thing was playing Wade Swoboda on Grace Under Fire.)
I could see Sheldon being fooled into 1 of the three things (rubbing, bathing, spanking). Two is pushing it. Three is well beyond believability for his character. He also would know better than to do a throat culture for a virus.
Stuart “the regular” has apparently been forgotten about. While the grad assistant, Alex, has only been back once and is yet to cause trouble for Leonard. If she’s going to have a story arc, it should be in more-or-less contiguous episodes. Tell-tell things like this that suggest the show is not having it’s long term story arc plotted out very well. Of course Chuck Lorre &Co might have something else on their minds right now.
As to obtaining ungutted fish: We have local markets where you can buy live fish. I would assume those haven’t been gutted yet!
Casey Sander also played the head construction worker Rock on several episodes of ‘Home Improvement’.
Another interesting tidbit about that, Mickey Jones, who played Pete the construction worker and played the ‘drum set’, was the drummer for Kenny Rogers and the First Edition.
I know I’m in the minority here, but I have never found the AFF character the slightest bit amusing, and IMO Balik’s acting abilities, such as they are, are an embarrassment. Her chances of receiving an Emmy lie somewhere between the kid who plays Carl on The Walking Dead and the wooden immunity idol on Survivor.
I get nostalgic for the days when it was just the guys and Penny (although I do like Bernadette); I still watch the show because there are still such moments sprinkled within Amy’s never ending quest to seek out opportunities to remind us how badly she Gotsta Get Her Some. She plays one note, and she plays it badly.
But as I said, there are still great laughs to be had in every episode. The fish gutting scene, while unrealistic, was still pretty entertaining. Raj’s courteous explanation about the jeebie-jeebies was hilarious. And Leonard’s squirming in the presence of his father-in-law drew our empathy while keeping the funny.
My intent is not to drop crap unto the thread; I hope it does not come across as such. I just don’t understand the adulation for what I consider to be one of the worst character additions to a major program since cousin Oliver set his suitcase down in casa Brady.
mmm
To be fair Amy actually did need the vaporub (at least the 1st time). The only thing I really had trouble beliving was the spanking. That was really out of character for Sheldon to suggest, but it was still funny & not out of character for Amy to find it arousing.
WRT prudity, I wonder if we are watching the same show. The title is a sex pun and pretty much the whole premise is the love and sex lives of the characters.
WRT to spanking, Sheldon is from Texas. I lived there for only half a year and easily would have independently listed one of their top attributes as obsession with spanking.
yeah we’re watching the same show, jackdavinci. I do understand the title and I can handle the coitus jokes and the masturbation jokes. It’s the spanking that bothered me. I won’t go into why it does. but it does. to assume that most women like to be "disciplined’ by men is just repellent. Has no place in a comedy. I don’t find handcuffs or any sort of bondage funny. But that’s just me. As I said before, the show can go whatever direction it wants. I don’t have to follow
Mean Mr. Mustard - I think Amy is a love-her or hate-her character. But Mayim Bialik comes across on talk show appearances and such very differently. I think she does a good job of acting the part. I thought her response to the tiara last year was her best moment.
Amy is generally not in the same zip code as “most women” on any given subject. Pretty much any sort of intimate contact with Shelton seems to get her motor running.