I think the big difference is that by the time we meet Christie and Bonnie, they're managed to move on a little and are on the path to healing. They've seen themselves from the outside and can recognize what they're doing right or wrong, at least a little. (Though Violet turning up pregnant and continuing the cycle…

I admit i'm coming up with comments where I normally would leave it with an up-click, just to up the comment-count. Er, including this one.

Don't get me wrong, I love it - I just find it really sad. There's a fragility to the characters that's perfectly expressed via the humor: Sheldon will fail to parse some basic social situation, and it's funny, because he's failing to parse a basic social situation. And it's sad, because he's failing to parse a basic…

I was really hoping for a moment that maybe the entire episode was just going to be the two of them. Maybe it would have been too much, but i'm a sucker for that kind of sylistic conceit.

I quite like both Rudy and Gabriel, tbh. Not sure why - the family plots are definitely much stronger, but there's something about the unapologetic awfulness of everything going on at the restaurant that works for me on some weird level. The sheer pathetic nastiness of Rudy and Gaberiel's personalities, the utter…

I'm the oddball who finds The Big Bang Theory absolutely heartbreaking, so Mom just looks like a natural progression in Chuck Lorre's career to me. I came to it actively looking for that odd mingling of laughter, sadness, indignity and people desperately incapable of communicating, and it has been delivering. Not…

I thought the wine-smashing was hysterical because, mean as it was, it was at the expense of snooty wine, not someone's barely-making-ends-meet livelihood, and it was about the balance of power and class between Rudy and Bonnie, personally, so it worked. Christie's various injuries was just her against an uncaring…

I think the show is trying to walk a thin line of using the indignities of physical comedy to kind of play up the very petty indignities of not having enough money - like having to go to work when you're sick or dodge about a bunch buckets standing around to catch the leak. If it's just funny, well it's just funny. If…

I feel like it goes one further - there are a lot of nerd characters out there, and while they're sometimes mocked, they're also usually vindicated. The poor, smart little nerd might be bullied and mocked, but in the end the storyline will come through with a pat on the head and a "be who you are, you're special and…

That was kind of huge for Raj. TBH, I guess i'm in a minority that wanted to see that explored more, rather than done away with. (Although i'm ok with the stuff this season that shows he STILL can't talk to women, just in new ways. It wasn't just some button that needed to be pushed and got him self-esteem, a through…

It explains why she hangs in there with Howard et al, though - she's far too cute and confident and mature for that lot…except she isn't.

I'm actually sorry that I missed the heady days of the BBT/Com rivalry. They might just be coincidentally in the same time, but I think they reflect eachother in really interesting ways - about belonging and not belonging, about the kinds of worlds they create, what they allow and what they don't, about the way they…

That's what I really like about this show. The writers refuse the easy satisfaction of making major changes.

I feel like that should be fantastic - mixing up the combinations - but it falls a little flat, somehow. Like the treasure hunt episode, I really want to see more of Amy interacting with Raj, etc, but it too stayed a little bit shallow.

Agreed - I thought Bernadette was being deceptive and immature. Which is kind of in character. She's got a mean streak, and it's not always just cutesy.

As a nerd, really like the show for being willing to mock nerds. I think it particularly goes after - or just doesn't give a fuck about - the most unpleasant, uncomfortable and yet cherished myths of geekdom, that whole opression, specialness, they-hate-us-because-we're-smart elitist Ender's Game schtick. The kind of…

My point is, Penny has NEVER been that happy confident character, not really. She's there right in the pilot, wondering for a moment if there's anything to her but a jumble of cliches and then barreling over it. http://www.youtube.com/watc… "That's it. That's the story of Penny," at 1:25

Oh, I think it's a breakdown for Penny. She's clearly having one of the worst days of her life and I feel terrible for her. As a character though, in terms of what the show is willing to acknowledge about her and the place it seems to be willing to take her, kind of a breakthrough. Maybe not a particularly happy one,…

I thought that was a deliberate choice - thought maybe rather a blunt one. His diction was definitely much more expressive, more natural sounding than Sheldon's usually is, yes.

I think that's kind of the point. It was the spot of light in a grim episode. He claims people don't change, but, hey, he has. They might always have had a connection, but Sheldon has previously responded to Leonard's various personal issues with boredom, mockery, contempt, dismissal or all of the above. A sympathetic…