Episode 20 - The Hofstadter Isotope
3 September 2009
Review
Synopsis: It’s anything can happen Thursday for the guys and they end up with Penny at the comic book store. She goes on a date with the owner Stuart and Leonard is jealous. He suggests that they all head to a bar to meet women. But once there Howard’s tactics fail and it’s Raj who goes home with a large lady.
The Good: Any one of the stories created in this episode could have been a good development for the show, but not one of them gets told.
As ever the show is still adept at squeezing humour out of its characters geeky behaviour. Sheldon’s lightning quick statement of the Drake Equation and subsequent look of pride is one. His battle with Howard over the one comic they both want is another. In both cases the characters display their desires and personalities in amusing and easily understandable ways.
The Bad: In a way this is the most frustrating kind of television to watch. The writers create a bunch of stories I would like to watch and then don’t tell any of them. Their priority is not storytelling but telling jokes. I have no problem with that whatsoever but they are telling the same jokes over and over again. I maintain that by telling new and logical stories will create the jokes for you. With well established characters, their reactions to new stimuli is what sit coms are based on.
The opening scene shows the guys all shrinking away from the fear of actually going to a bar to meet women. Instead they prefer the comforting cocoon of each others company. Sheldon, the only one who doesn’t want to leave the cocoon suddenly sees their fear for what it is. But that’s it, the story isn’t expanded.
Next we have Penny being charmed by the Leonard-alike comic book store owner Stuart. He plays his role very nicely, geeky, polite but more self confident than Leonard. There are two stories which could have flowed from this. One is Penny’s date with Stuart, the other is Leonard’s jealousy leading him to a bar to meet new women. Neither story comes to a conclusion. Leonard’s story is sacrificed at the altar of making jokes about Howard not being able to hit on women. Meanwhile Sheldon heads over to Penny’s to steal that story from her. Again there is nothing wrong with Howard or Sheldon being exploited for comic potential but we have seen it many times now and it creates nothing new for the other characters to do.
Leonard is the real loser here in every sense. In season one he established himself as the central character by being the caring friend who might be a better boyfriend to Penny than all the other jerks she dated (106, 117). But since then he has gone backwards rapidly. He has been emasculated by Sheldon all season, refusing to stand up for himself or show a backbone which might show Penny why he is worthy of her. Here even Howard outshines him, for at least Howard tries to talk to women. Leonard has become a grumpy character, frustrated but not giving us reasons to cheer on his struggle to overcome his shyness. It doesn’t help that he got a girlfriend mid-season and then the story was just forgotten (208-10).
Finally Raj could have had his own story about the woman he went home with, but no.
Comic Highlight: The build-up to this joke and Sheldon and Penny’s firmly established characters make this joke work beautifully. We know that the guys have set evenings for their group activities and the opening scene shows them discussing the competing ideas for anything can happen Thursdays. So as they walk past Penny on the stairs, she asks where they are going. “The comic book store” Sheldon replies and continues “You’re probably thinking – ‘The comic book store on a Thursday, why I’ve fallen down the rabbit hole and into a land of madness.’ But what you have failed to take into account Penny is that this is anything can happen Thursday!”
In Conclusion: One step forward last episode, two steps backward here. It’s not that difficult to tell simple stories is it?
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