Episode 18 - The Work Song Nanocluster
3 September 2009
Review
Synopsis: Penny starts her own business and asks Sheldon for help. The other guys become involved and they end up spending all night trying to ship an order for one thousand “Penny Blossoms.”
The Good: Sheldon remains a terrific consistent comedy creation. He manages to turn certain lines into gold (see Comic Highlight) which are nothing more than condescension. His ignorance about who Radiohead are works its way nicely into the conversation too. Finally you can’t help but smile at caffeinated Sheldon dressing up as the Flash and running off to buy more coffee. As silly as that behaviour was at least his austere regulated lifestyle offers a plausible excuse for his hyper-stimulation.
The lazer chess game was yet another inventive visual gag. The almost limitless world of science fiction and fantasy should keep the show stocked with amusing opening scenes for the foreseeable future.
The Bad: What’s the point of this story? There is none really. It’s just an excuse to get Penny and Sheldon to play odd couple together. Before exploring the lack of point, a comment on why a point is needed at all. Without going into my entire philosophy about television. I will say three things.
1) Interesting stories need a conclusion (or point) or else viewers learn that the show’s stories aren’t that interesting because they have no consequence. 2) If characters never change or grow then viewers begin to care less about them because they don’t seem at all real and therefore are less interesting. 3) If you deliver a good story with a point to it, it can compensate for when the show isn’t funny. You can’t make everyone laugh so you need a point.
But this story has no point. If Penny somehow manages to ship another thousand “Penny Blossoms” she will have made $6,000. That means her business would be a huge success. And yet the conclusion of the episode is that no one can help her make them anymore. So what? Email the Gay alliance and tell them that you will have the blossoms with them by the end of the week. Surely this is Penny’s chance to get out of waitressing (as she says) and she should seize it with both hands. But the story isn’t really about Penny, her business or her character. I strongly suspect this story will be largely ignored next week. It’s a real shame.
There is an entire scene where Sheldon and the boys discuss all the ways they could make and market “Penny Blossoms.” They use technical language which goes over her head and they basically take the business out of her hands. But that’s not what happens. She ends up pushing them around as they help her out with the large order. So what was the point of that scene? Basically it was one long joke about them using technical language which she wouldn’t follow. That’s it. That sadly is The Big Bang Theory right now. The writers have a formula for making jokes. The characters all have their one outstanding characteristic and they just milk that and their collective geekdom.
Comic Highlight: Sheldon turning an innocuous put down of Penny into great comedy. “You’re thinking of the moving assembly line. An understandable but not excusable mistake.” Because he absolutely means what he says, that statement suddenly becomes quite the hilarious put down.
In Conclusion: This show is in danger of wearing thin. Its formula frustrates any growth, character development or sense that these stories have any consequence. In an episode like this where the humour isn’t strong, it becomes particularly grating.
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