I was hoping we were going to learn her last name.
And I agree with your assessment that Jack McBrayer was miscast. He seems less like a Nebraska meth-head and more like a suburban Atlanta gay Starbucks barista.
I totally didn’t buy Sagal as Penny’s mom. Too small and not “showy” enough. Didn’t seem like the kind of woman who’d raise someone like Penny.
And that little speech Sheldon gave at the wedding … WTF?
Yeah! Stupid and contrived. Just like Beverly’s so-called pride. The writers going for an ‘awwww’ moment.
Seriously can’t wait for next week to wash the taste of this one out of my mouth. And this is coming from the ultimate BBT defender!
I am looking forward to seeing Penny’s mom and brother in future episodes where there is enough time to actually get to know them.
Also, one last thing-- what is it with the castrating mothers? Holy cow! Even Mary, who is the nicest of the bunch, is a nut crunching bitch when she wants to be. I think one of the writers has mommy issues.
It just seemed to suffer from back to school-itis. The production team and actors seem out of practice and not hitting their marks and pace. I didn’t think it was much worse than a lot of other eps though. Hopefully they’ll be back in the groove soon.
I don’t like to quit a show I’ve enjoyed so much for so long, but last year was meh and I’m not sure I liked this episode. Way too many characters, mostly miscast, and too much going on to really make me feel anything.
I’ll see what happens with the next few, when the families go home, but not looking forward to baby Wolowitz. I haven’t forgotten how much Bernie hates kids, and this is a total 180 flip for her. Feels like a ratings grab by people who just don’t care anymore.
Same here. And then all I could think about was Leela from Futurama.
Worst episode of the season so far.
The wife commented that the show/sets looked a lot “brighter” this season. Like they completely redid the lighting on the soundstage. Anybody else notice that?
They’ve established Beverly as a cold automaton who only only had coitus with her husband for the purposed of procreation (after a pro forma consummation after their wedding.)
She mentioned in passing to Leonard that she was divorcing her husband for infidelity. She seemed more upset he cheated on her with a WAITRESS.
Her jealousy seems out of character.
I’ll never cease to be amazed by how many people get bothered by that kind of stuff. And hell, for all that, Beverly Hofstadter has only made ten appearances in ten seasons, half of which have come in the last 27 episodes; she doesn’t have a character established enough for her to be out of it.
Her cold emotionless nature was well defined in the show, but that’s in regard to Leonard primarily, with some interaction with Penny and Sheldon. So I think you’re right, in regard to the particular situation with her ex and Sheldon’s mother it doesn’t completely break character, it could be considered broadening the character.
ETA: I do consider character development a problem in sitcoms. The caricaturic nature of the roles makes the comedy short formula work. It can be done, but really shouldn’t be done for an infrequently recurring character.
Just because you haven’t been paying attention doesn’t mean the rest of us haven’t been. An actor can establish a character with a single appearance. You obviously haven’t been paying attention to movies, TV, theater or anything else for the last few decades either.
I agree! He looks too “wholesome”, if you ask me. Weird, but wholesome…
I didn’t recognize her at first, either!
That’s really par for the course for sitcoms, though, and especially for this particular show. Consistency of character is frequently sacrificed for the sake of humor.
Both Bernadette and Amy, for example, are very different now than they were when first introduced. In Amy’s case it can be seen as long-term character development (although the transition from someone who could casually use the idea of having sex with Sheldon as a piece of gossip to test meme theory, to someone desperately wanting to actually have sex with Sheldon, still happened fairly quickly). With Bernadette, it seems more like they just decided high-pitched Bernie who occasionally goes apeshit on people was funnier than normal-voiced Bernie who didn’t seem to get anybody’s jokes.
Rather lackluster episode. My one chuckle of the night was Wyatt’s line to Leonard: “Welcome to family. Don’t loan your new brother-in-law any money.”
Her relationship with her husband may have been fuzzy, but in her 10 episodes she has made it abundantly clear that she is disappointed with Leonard, does not think he has accomplished anything, prefers his brother and sister to him to the point of actual emotional neglect. Yet, all of a sudden, she’s proud of him? When she has made it a point in every single appearance before this to put him down and explain in detail why he isn’t worthy of either her pride or her affection?
That was bad even for the very uneven Big Bang Theory.
I’m okay with Amy going from wanting to avoid all forms of physical intimacy (up to and including coitus are off the table) to someone breaking up with Sheldon because she’s done with the glacial pace of their relationship. She’s friends with Penny and she’s grown.
Beverly, however, could barely hug her son and has more in common with Sheldon. It made the situation funny. Her jealousy strikes me amiss. Set up some reason for it (she’s in therapy, she misses Alfred more than she wants to admit, give me something here.)
LOL! Okay, sure, the reason why it doesn’t bother me that the show runners decided that how they initially characterized her eight years ago was too inflexible, and they wanted change it up is because I haven’t been “paying attention.” Whatever you say, chief.
They “established” the Beverly Hofstadter character, and then apparently decided that how they established the character didn’t give them the freedom to tell the stories they wanted to tell with her, so they “re-established” the character. Just like they did to varying degrees with basically every other character on this show, except for Leonard, and even him, to some extent. That this bothers you, and doesn’t bother me, is not a function of how much I pay attention.
I’m okay with character evolution, as long as we’re given the reason behind it.
Mary has a boyfriend in Texas, last we heard, the one with the bodacious butt. I could see her going for a drink with Alfred, but hopping into bed with him? As she said, she just met him.
I also thought Penny’s brother was miscast. He was too much of a sunshiny, normal midwestern dork and not for a moment would I think he was a meth head or a dealer.
But there were a couple of laugh-out-loud moments: Howard psyching Raj into thinking that he was discussing Raj’s immigration status with the military. And as mentioned above, “Welcome to the family. Don’t lend money to your new brother-in-law.”
And Mary schooling Amy on how best to keep Sheldon in line: “You just have to put a little zing in your voice.”