More than anything, after time away for the holidays, it reminded me of how little the writers seem to give to these two anymore. That’s most evident with Leonard and Penny’s share of the runtime, which manages to be utterly forgettable while still being quite annoying. It’s your standard ‘Sheldon is upset about a perceived slight and acts immaturely as a result’ structure, but its predictability – and the fact it more or less appears to succeed – just demonstrates how low expectations for this kind of episode are at this point in the show’s life. It has shades of nerd-hating in Sheldon’s mother’s assumption that no woman could ever love a man who’s into ‘toy trains’ (insert any geeky passion here), but it attempts to comment on his and Amy’s relationship, albeit in a clunky, half-baked way. The second is the least fun, with Penny and Leonard having a bad experience with a Christmas tree, and the third – showing Howard and Bernadette as new parents – my favourite.įrontloading the episode with the Sheldon and Amy portion hurt more than helped the general sense of apathy in that, as always, it seemed to have had the most care put into it. The first shows Amy inform Sheldon’s mother about their new living situation, and Sheldon reacting poorly when she doesn’t throw holy scripture and judgement at them. The action is sectioned off into three separate vignettes – one for Sheldon and Amy, one for Penny and Leonard and one for Howard and Bernadette.
The Christmas theme is also confusing for an audience who is watching almost a week into the new year. On the other, it’s nothing we haven’t seen a million times before and is, as always, concerned primarily with only two of the eight-strong cast. On the one hand, I enjoyed the format change and the peek into what the gang’s lives might be like when the fictional cameras aren’t on them.