I am starting this thread in anticipation of tonight’s episode.
The title suggests that Bert will be in this episode, which is cool. I like him.
18 minutes of “meh”.
My husband is not a super-fan like I am. He absolutely hates Sheldon, so much so that it interferes with his enjoyment of the show. He watched this episode and laughed and laughed and laughed. Which I found strange because this episode wasn’t bad but it wasn’t up to all the other episodes this season except for the premier.
I should mention he didn’t see last weeks episode. I think it would have slayed him.
I don’t understand how grants work…they don’t have to use it for research? Bert mentioned now that he was rich he could do better than Amy.
I loved how Penny got Sheldon to see how good his life was going, “Maybe you’re right.”
The Stephen Hawking Toy was cute. I could see me using it to torment the cat.
It was ok. I knew Hawking would like the RC wheelchair, I don’t know why they thought it was offensive.
This isn’t a grant that is applied for, it’s given to people based on past accomplishments and they can use the money any way they want. Most grants are awarded based on proposed work that the money must be used for.
They need to write in physical comedy for Sheldon more often. His limping was funny, just like a few episodes ago when he was meeting with Military officer.
Is this the first they’ve mentioned penny growing her hair back out?
I assume it’s Kaley Cuoco’s own hair, but in Hollywood, who knows.
I used to look forward to this show and I still watch it, but it’s going downhill fast.
Before, I never noticed the " laugh track". Now, it just serves to tell me whats supposed to be funny and it’s really annoying.
A bit of a letdown compared to recent episodes. Bernadette is becoming an unlikeable humorless shrew. The Hawking toy wasn’t that over the top offensive, if offensive at all. Sheldon’s jealously seemed a bit too much, but his physical comedy was gold. Penny does look 10x hotter with longer hair, now she looks about as good as her Wonder Woman costume days.
I so want a miniature motorized talking Stephen Hawking!
I liked Penny’s, or rather Kaley’s, short hair.
This week wasn’t as funny. It felt like a treading water episode, with no point.
Presumably because Sheldon was growing progressively more injured throughout the story. 
I didn’t care for this one too much. Bert is perhaps an acquired taste, and I’m afraid I haven’t acquired it so far. I don’t believe that I have ever enjoyed Brian Posehn in anything that I’ve seen him in. He’s just not my cup of tea.
The only thing that I chuckled at this week was that they incorporated the widespread negative reaction to Kaley’s short hair into the show itself.
Actually, they touched on it before. When Sheldon ran away and came back, he took one look at Penny and said something like “You changed your hair, I’m leaving!”
The idea with the MacArthur Fellowships is to identify people who are doing interesting work and to free them from the necessity of making a living for a few years. I think they try to get people early in their careers and, based on the names that have gone on to be well-known or winners of other prizes, I think they succeed fairly often.
Seems to me that Amy is getting progressively less padded, and Leonard now wears a blatantly obvious hairpiece. (Watch him when he raises his eyebrows. His hairline doesn’t move along with his forehead.)
I knew Hawking would like the idea. They set up the gag to make Howard look insufferable so they wouldn’t tell him at the end. Hawking’s identity is wrapped up in the wheelchair and robot voice, and clearly he enjoys his place in popular culture. There must have been some other way to play this with more laughs resulting.
I enjoyed “limping Sheldon”, as well.
The wife called that the second Barry thought it was funny. I thought the episode was a step down from the previous few.
Oh, I had forgotten about that!