Sunday, March 10, 2013

Girls Want To Be Cinderella, Not Scientists

Big Bang Theory, S06E18


After deciding that if their committee wanted to encourage more women in the sciences, they should start at the middle school level, Leonard, Sheldon, and Howard visited Howard's old school to speak to a group of girls about their jobs and the allure of science.  Penny, Amy, and Bernadette got the idea to play hookie and go to Disneyworld while they were helping Raj decide what he should do for his first date with Lucy.  With little help from his girl friends, Raj planned a text date in the library for himself and Lucy.

From the moment that I heard what their committee was about, I didn't feel like the three of them would do a great job in acheiving their goal.  I'm sure that Leonard felt that it was a worthwhile cause, but Howard and Sheldon could have cared less.  As Leonard had suggested, it looked a whole lot like a typical forced group work: one person does all the work, while the others just slack off.  Also, I don't feel like these guys are the best people to get girls interested in science.  They should have had at least had one woman in their group to give the female perspective on the problem at hand.  It made me wonder why it took until nearly the end of the story before the scientist girlfriend and wife were consulted with their points of view.

It's hard to say which one of them bombed the biggest at the middle school.  I suppose it's a toss up between Leonard and Sheldon.  Leonard tried too hard to be cool, making himself look even lamer, and went off on a tangent about how his parents pushed him into science (and the cello) and how he wanted to be a police-friendly version of Snoop Dog.  Actually, without even bringing up Sheldon, I would say that Leonard was the one who discouraged the girls best from science with all of his whining.  Sheldon was a little graphic and certainly grim about the one female scientist he brought up as an example, but at least his incompetent presentation was short and sweet.  Plus, he redeemed himself when he put an end to Leonard's bitching and acknowledged that the girls present there were being done a disservice by them.  I loved when the girls clapped at him then.  Then Sheldon finally got Amy and Bernadette on the phone, so at least he did a little damage control.  Leonard just looked like science was the reason why he needs a lot of therapy (that and his overbearing parents).

One other part I enjoyed was when Sheldon thought he should Google how to get 12 year-old girls excited and Howard and Leonard ran over to stop him.  Wow, I don't know how that would have ended if they had simply let him do that.  Sheldon might have thrown his computer into a wall after seeing those results.

It was sort of cute that the girls all decided to play hookie together, especially since their destination was Disneyland.  I thought we might see them go on some rides or eat some crazy junk food, but instead it turned into a bit of a battle for the right to be dressed as Cinderella.  Not too surprising that Bernadette, who had suggested the Disney princess makeover in the first place, made it entirely clear that she was going to be Cinderella and the other girls would have to physically fight her if they didn't agree.  I like when Bernadette gets aggressive like that.  She has that look and sound of someone sweet and gentle, but get in her way and she'll come at you like a poisonous snake.

I thought that Amy's Snow White looked the best.  I would have never guessed.  I mean, Bernadette did make a wonderful Cinderella, but it was sort of like a no-brainer choice for her.  I don't think I could have seen her as any other princess.  Penny's Sleeping Beauty (I guess) looked a little rough.  I don't know if it was because Penny was so unhappy she couldn't be the princess she wanted or if they just did her makeover a little less special.  I don't know, but I didn't think she should have went home in that outfit.

I liked Howard's reaction to Bernadette coming home in the Cinderella getup.  It's amazing that he was already fantasizing about her being dolled up so before he even saw her.  He must have really been giving a lot of thought of her day at Disneyland because who would have guessed she'd come home looking like that?  Never underestimate Howard's dirty mind, I guess.  Leonard was about as  excited to see Penny as a princess, but Penny wasn't as into it as he was.  Sadly for Amy, who looked pretty good lying so still on the couch, Sheldon had no intention of fulfilling her fantasy of being awoken by her prince.  I would pay to see Sheldon (especially if he had to dress in a puffy prince costume) bend down and give Amy an overly romantic kiss like in that story.  Maybe if he was drunk that could be possible.

Raj did a great job on his first date with Lucy.  I didn't know how he was going to find something for them to do that wouldn't be too social nor involve too much talking.  A text date in the library was as cute as it was creative.  My favorite part of their texting was the auto-correcting.  Lucy had mistakenly written "porn" instead of "prom," but Raj was smart enough not to confess how often he visits porn sites. He dodged that well.  He was also lucky that when he was gushing about how proms were like fairytales come to life, Lucy let it slide as another auto-correct for him.  Nice save, Raj.

The kiss that almost happened between them was another good moment.  I was hopeful that Lucy would be able to go through with it, but it was more amusing to hear her yell about a panic attack and leave Raj hanging.  And while Raj didn't get a kiss on their first date, he still managed to be upbeat about it all.  I think for him and Lucy that was about as perfect of a first date as they could have.

I liked this episode.  Leonard and his "excited" committee did a poor job of encouraging young girls to pursue the same career, but it was a bit fun to see them interact with kids and do the opposite of what they intended to do.  I think it would have been much more successful if they had incorporated Amy and Bernadette from the beginning.  The girls' transformation into Disney princesses was pretty great, except Penny who looked like she had been kidnapped and forced to participate.  Although Amy's costume looked the best to me, she had the worst ending with her targeted prince.  There was a happy ending for Raj, however, who almost got a kiss after executing an excellent date for himself and Lucy.  Finally it looks like Raj is going to stop being the butt of every joke when it comes to romance.

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