I am starting this thread in anticipation of tonight’s episode.
I liked it.
That was a pretty good one. I am a sucker for flashback episodes.
I’m not, but these were really good. I recognized the lines of Mrs. Wolowitz, taken from different episodes to create the conversation. It came off pretty well. The first two lines were from the episode where Sheldon stays with friends, because Penny told him a secret, and he’s trying not to blab it to Leonard.
So is this the same lesson we learned in TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE? Not knowing they were dumping pounds and pounds of gold dust, they lost the treasure they held right in their hands. Just as Stewart deleted the Bitcoin to sell the flashdrive for ten bucks?
Just for the record, it never occurred to me to suggest that instead of just enjoying the comedic circumstance, we should evaluate the actions and motivations of all characters to determine who holds what fraction of responsibility for the loss. You know, because I am a fun loving guy who doesn’t over think absolutely everything always.
My first thought was that they got Melissa Rauch to do her Mrs. Wolowitz impression, but then I realized that they had taken Carol Ann Susi’s recordings from earlier episodes.
Good episode though; I really liked it.
Around the same time as the flashbacks in this episode I had an opportunity to buy a bitcoin miner (basically a PC dedicated to mining bitcoin) and I dismissed it on the theory that if Bitcoins had value they wouldn’t sell me the device, they would just use it. Joke’s on me I guess although I still think Bitcoin is a house of cards.
I really liked the bit with Amy taking a picture of her “date” then dismissing him, but enlisting Penny to be a witness if her mother didn’t believe the picture was real.
I hated hated HATED it. I think I’m sticking around for the Shamy wedding, then I’m out.
I feel bereft. I’ve watched this show from the beginning and loved it. But Sheldon straight out STOLE from his friends and for what? Pique because they didn’t listen to him? To teach them some sort of lesson that he couldn’t even spell out for Amy?
I was flipping back and forth between this and an old episode of Friends on Spike and it struck me how MEAN everyone is to each other on TBBT. I’m okay with snarkiness, hell, I’m snarky too. But on Friends everyone had each other’s back. As I mentioned a couple of episodes ago, I don’t know why the people on Big Bang are even friends.
There is truth to this. For years I really hated Sheldon because he wan’t funny, just an asshole. They eventually softened him a little to make him tolerable but coarsened everyone else. It isn’t BBT’s fault though, completely. It happens on many sitcoms as they age. The aspects of the characters that made them funny get exaggerated until they no longer resemble real people anymore.
I loved this show. The flashbacks were really believable, nailing the character’s personalities at the time.
And what a great way to bring Amy into the flashbakcs!
Agree, RE: Amy. I also like it that they didn’t try to recon her personality changes, but played her just as she was (or, would have been) 7 years ago.
I really didn’t mind Sheldon acting like an asshole. I liked the reminder that even though he’s become a real boy, he isn’t perfect, and the essential Sheldon is still there. I didn’t watch this show from Day 1: I started watching it in reruns, and the first episode I saw was “The Batjar Conjecture,” the one where he tries to be a whole physics bowl team by himself, and defeat the others (plus Leslie Winkle). It’s Sheldon at his asshole best, so my first impression of him was “What a prick!” He had nowhere to go but up after that.
In a way, the gang are sort of outgrowing one another. They were always like a bunch of high school buddies hanging out, because they missed out on that dynamic in high school. They have sort of satisfied that need by now, and are ready to move on. That’s why they are getting on each other’s nerves. It seems normal to me. They need to spend less time together.
This was a timely episode in light of the Thanksgiving day conversation between my brother in law and his brother about Bitcoins. Apparently, they’re going to make a fortune. Yeah, good luck with that…
And I find I really dislike Sheldon - the character seems to become more and more hateful as time goes on. Same with Bernadette. I laugh more at the reruns I’ve seen a dozen times than at the current batch of episodes.
I just realized Bernadette may have been off camera because Melissa Rauch is on maternity leave?
I think what bugged me most about this episode was it wasn’t Sheldon’s cluelessness that led him to do what he did. He knowingly and deliberately went out of his way to fuck over his friends. It’s almost like the Itchy Sweater episode, except Leonard did fail to return the movie (rented on Sheldon’s account) in a timely manner.
Bernie was on camera - just stuck behind the bar the same was Penny was when Cuoco broke her lag a few seasons back.
This is a common problem with long-running shows; the circumstances which brought the characters together in the first place are not believably sustainable a decade or more later. They might all still be friends, but it’s hard to buy that the whole group would be spending* this much* time together, with families and relationships of their own. But of course they have to, or there’s no more show.
As for this episode, I disagree that Sheldon was necessarily being mean. He hid the bitcoin from Leonard as a prank (Bazinga!) but certainly didn’t steal it. He just didn’t anticipate how easily keychains get lost; such carelessness is not a part of Sheldon World.
Sheldon’s lived with Leonard long enough to understand that he loses stuff; I was surprised that Sheldon hadn’t taken the precaution of backing up the bitcoin info in addition to hiding it in Leonard’s keychain.
He removed it from Leonard’s computer to put it on the flash drive. He wasn’t trying to back anything up.
I forgot about the flashback scene with preggers Melissa behind the bar. :smack:
When Penny used to bartend, did she wear that waitress uniform?
To me,that was the season it all changed. Penny got mean that year, and lost all of her residual mid-western innocence. I really didn’t feel like the video made her any more lovable. The resulting group dynamic leaves me unconvinced that Leonard isn’t suicidal.
They would have lost it anyway, because Leonard was giving away the laptop. Sheldon remembered what they didn’t and “saved” the bitcoin without telling them. He just let the joke go on too long. He never anticipated that the recipient wouldn’t find the bitcoin, or that Leonard et al would be able to get the laptop back.
Honestly, at this point he’s the kindest of them all.