The highlight was Penny’s family. More of them, please.
And Amy playing her harp.
I hate Leonard’s parents.
This was an okay episode I guess but I felt like Jack McBrayer was miscast. I guess they were going against type for Mid America Meth heads but it just was distracting rather than funny to me.
I do give them props for getting through a whole episode with Penny’s entire family without revealing (as far as I noticed) her last name.
I thought that when I first heard of his casting, and this just proved it. None of them were quite like I expected (and some episodes have referred to a sister too) and none of their jokes were funny.
Copied from the one I started in error:
I found Penny’s brother creepy, the way he grinned all the time. I guess he was showing off his new non-meth teeth but uck.
I think they were trying to cram too much into this episode. There was so much opportunity for comedy and we seemed to be bouncing all over the place. It looks like the resolution for Howard’s invention will not be until next week.
Nice to see Stuart again.
I’ll keep watching, but not their strongest episode.
Very, very weak episode. Totally didn’t buy Sagal or McBrayer in any way. Lousy writing, flat performances. Stuart wasn’t pathetic for once, but that was made up for by Raj being totally useless.
Prediction: The Air Force will try to co-opt Howard’s invention, cutting Leonard and Sheldon out completely and offering a nifty sum of money. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth, and somewhere someone will agonize about “working for the military,” completely forgetting that Leonard, Howard and Bernadette have all done so in the past with zero qualms.
It seemed like it wasted a lot of opportunities.
They had two groups of people who are annoyed-to-angry at each other in two different rooms (3 if you count the elevator hallway) and a bunch of doors. That’s a perfect set up for a really good farce. Even if that’s not their thing, I think they could have done a lot more with mixing up the various groups. It made no sense to keep Penny’s family away from everyone for that long. It would have been more interesting to have Penny’s mom try to keep a lid on things while her family was mingling rather than while her family was all by themselves.
It wasn’t bad, it just felt like it could have been better.
I like Jack McBrayer in general, but he was just too silly in a sitcom that already has too many silly characters. Glad to see Katey Sagal back on TV though.
BTW - the episode title is actually The Conjugal Conjecture, but I like the OP’s title better!
Didn’t like the casting either. Weak episode. This is not their thing. Except for Sheldon’s mom we don’t need to see the families again. As it is we’ll be bogged down with the Howardette baby and the Shamy proposal. The mystery man looking for Howard has some potential.
(Not a spoiler, just my prediction, I have no insider knowledge)
I figured they were going a different route and the reveal next week is that is actually Howard’s dad.
Jack McBrayer was wasted in this episode. I thought there were just too many people for a good episode and I was right. Also, I totally hated the contrived way they got Sheldon up to the wedding “altar” so that he could be the “weird third husband” and Beverly sudden pride for Leonard. Those two should have stayed eloped.
There were a few good jokes near the very end, although I can’t for the life of me remember what they were.
Last season was very disappointing for me. If it doesn’t improve rapidly (say by episode 3 of this season) I’m quite likely to drop this show. Especially if some of the new shows this season are good. This will make me quite sad (i.e. this isn’t one of those, I-“hate”-this-show-and-for-some-reason-I’m-going-to-keep-watching-it-so-I-can-tell-everybody-how-much-I-hate-it-deals), because the first few seasons were so funny as to make me cry (the Amy spanking scene, my god, that kills me just thinking about it).
I don’t know who I pictured for Penny’s meth-dealing (or is it meth-producing?) brother but it’s not Jack McBrayer. He seems too harmless.
Wyatt seemed to have a totally different personality than he did several years ago when he appeared as Penny’s dad.
Jack McBrayer did seem like he was trying to upstage every scene. I wonder how David Faustino (Bud Bundy) would have worked in that role. I would like to see Penny’s mother in Peg Bundy’s wig.
I agree that there was too much in this episode. Could have easily been a two-parter.
Did I see a preview for another show that was starring Kripke?
I was really hoping for Gemma Teller as Penny’s mom…
I didn’t recognize Katey Sagal until I heard her voice. She doesn’t look like herself, but at least she looks good, not botched.
John Ross Bowie (Kripke) will be starring in “Speechless” this season. He also plays a great God.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18elhR02xnMI was thinking that too. But I don’t think a high ranking military man makes sense given what we know so far about his dad.
The episode was a waste of talent. Penny’s family are a blank with one embarrassing fact that they keep talking about without generating humor. The other parents there were also humor free. Introducing so many important characters at once without a chance to fill them out as people was a mistake.
It also doesn’t match any of the choices from his closet. To be that rank he’d have had to be a career man, and the Air Force looks very poorly on deadbeat dads.
This is what I am thinking as well.