This week's How I Met Your Mother was good, not great. There was some quality Barney, some decent Ted, and some funny Robin. I was happy to see a Marshall-centric episode since he's been ignored for most of the season but was disappointed to have my suspicion confirmed that he's become too broad a character... and Lily's not much better. They used to be the sweet, funny couple that was almost Paul and Jamie-ish in their long-term love. These days they're kind of pathetic. I think it's about time to wrap this show up; as much as I love it, there comes a time when preserving the quality that used to be there trumps draining out what little funny there could be left.
That said, The Big Bang Theory is just getting started. The hilarious episode, entitled "The Jerusalem Duality", was another laugh out loud 23 minutes. Sheldon, the scene stealer and clear star of the show, decides to go for the Nobel peace prize when his physics dreams are dashed by the arrival of a 15 year old genius. The episode began with (forgive the pun) a bang, with the line "here's the problem with teleportation", then followed Sheldon as he attempted to find his new calling and eventually decided that building a second Jerusalem in Mexico would solve the crisis in the Middle East. Meanwhile, his friends, who he has annoyed to no end by hanging around while they work (watching Raj for 10 minutes then designing a simple piece of software that could replace him, and saying to Wolowitz's fellow engineers "hello oompa loompas of science"), attempt to hook the 15 year old genius up with a girl to distract him and thus get Sheldon back into physics and off their backs. Needless to say, the episode was hysterical.
My only concern would be that they may be focusing on Sheldon too often. He is the funniest so by all means he should get a lot of screen time, but overusing your most popular character can be dangerous. When Fonzie was the centre of Happy Days he wasn't as endearing as when he was used in smaller doses. How I Met Your Mother's restraint when it comes to Barney is a good example: he is very central and gets more screen-time than the other supporting players on a consistent basis but Ted is still the central figure in the show. That's how Barney has stayed funny, he's not overused. Sheldon has been the main feature of many of the most recent episodes of The Big Bang Theory. I only hope that the writers are able to keep him from becoming irritating by not overusing him, it would be a real shame if such a fantastic character became unlikeable.
But why be morbid? he hasn't been overused yet and the show is utterly fantastic, I'm sure there's more awesomosity to come should CBS go on to take the show through multiple seasons.
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