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.

The Perfect Valentine's Night

Big Bang Theory, S06E16

Leonard and Penny went out to dinner to have a romantic night together, but their nice time was ruined when Penny caught sight of her ex with the girl he cheated on Penny with.  Bernadette and Howard did their share of making the night less special by bickering about laundry and video games.  Sheldon tasked Alex with finding a present for Amy, but the best of Alex's selections was the one that Sheldon wanted to keep for himself.  Raj and Stuart threw a party at the comic book store for people without dates for Valentine's.

Leonard's promise that he would be throwing romance at Penny like a ninja sounded more like a promise for their dinner to be a disaster.  Luckily, it wasn't too bad.  I thought it might have been more intimate if they hadn't invited Howard and Bernadette, but at least they made up in the end.  All Penny had to do was focus on her own happiness instead of what was going on with a guy that she had been with in the past.  Seeing two cheaters get engaged in front of her had to be irritating, but I think the more logical response to that would have been to gaze into Leonard's eyes and remember how damn lucky she was to have someone who wouldn't cheat on her and loved her deeply.

However, I realized later that Penny was acting crazy because she was just worried that one day she might be where her ex and that girl are.  I liked that we got to hear Penny admit how much of a commitment-phobe she is.  We've all known that, but Penny likes to act like it isn't so.  That's one of the things that I dislike most about her, no matter what the reason is she's that way.  The best thing is that Leonard took some of the pressure off her and told her that he wouldn't propose to her again (I think any woman would be bothered that he proposes so often) and put the ball completely in her court.  That moved their relationship forward in a way I wouldn't have predicted.  Penny is at least open to the idea of marrying Leonard one day, but she just has to get over her fear.  However, I'm not really waiting for the day she gets there.

What I liked about Howard and Bernadette arguing was that Bernadette had put Howard's Xbox in the washing machine.  If only he had done as she asked and done the laundry, he would have already gotten back to his game.  She's really damn smart.  It's too bad that Howard couldn't have quelled her anger a bit by showing her the thoughtful micro-Valentine he had made for her.  She might have forgiven his gaming addiction if she saw all the effort he had put into making her a gift.  Oh, well.   It wasn't meant to be.

I felt angry at Sheldon that he wouldn't even bother to try and find a gift for Amy.  Surely, he knows her well enough to know what she likes.  After all, he was quick enough to nix Alex's suggestions, as if he knew whether they would be successful gifts or not.  If he has that much of an opinion, he should have went shopping himself--he's not that damn busy.  I was even more pissed, but not at all surprised, when he took the best of the gifts for himself.  Wow.  He keeps improving on the ways he can be a bad boyfriend.  However, he redeemed himself when he made Amy his emergency contact.  Other people might have thought that was a lousy and lazy gift, but Amy loved it, so it was perfect.  And Amy's gift to him of not doing Valentine's traditions in the first place was perfect for Sheldon.  She's such a good girlfriend.  He really wouldn't be able to function if she was ever out of his life.

I don't have much to say about Raj, except that I hope that the girl he invited to coffee ends up being a reoccurring character.  It would mark the first time in a while (or ever?) that Raj was dating someone, even if casually.  I mean, I don't have to see Raj in a super-serious thing, but it would be nice to see him go on a few dates before he gets kicked to the curb.  Can't take any more of him sorta wishing that Stuart was a girl so all of his problems would be solved.  I've said it before, but he can do better than him.

This episode was okay, but it was a lot more frustrating than it was funny.  Penny was getting on my nerves with her resolve to ruin the romantic night Leonard had planned, but she smoothed things over by admitting her problems with committing to Leonard.  Sheldon, too, was being his usual bad boyfriend self by not making enough effort to get Amy a gift, but he also made himself look better when he got Amy the perfect present in the end.  Raj, hopefully, has started something with a girl that isn't too intimidating for him.  Raj doesn't have to get married this season, but he better damn well upgrade from making Stuart his romantic substitute.

Spoiler Alert: They Don't Want You To Move In

Big Bang Theory, S06E15

Leonard got fed up with the way Sheldon treats him and blindsided Penny with the proposal that they should move in together.  Sheldon also was surprised when Amy suggested she take Leonard's place.  Neither Penny nor Sheldon knew how to explain to their partners that they didn't want them to move in.  Howard asked Raj to check in on his mother, and Raj unknowingly began to fall into Mrs. Wolowitz's scheme to keep Raj there forever.

I wanted to clap when Leonard took a stand against Sheldon and threw that damn roommate agreement into the trashcan.  It is a little extreme to move out because someone ruined a book for you (as infuriating as that would be), but I think Leonard was validated because Sheldon feels it's all right to call him womanly because he drinks too much soy milk.  The bottom line is that Sheldon doesn't have much respect for Leonard, and someone who didn't care for Sheldon as much as Leonard does would have left or murdered Sheldon a long time ago.  I liked when he called Sheldon a "crazy bastard," but that victory was bittersweet because Sheldon threw another Harry Potter spoiler at him.

I knew that Penny wouldn't leap at the idea of moving in with Leonard, but I still wished that she could warm up to the idea.  It wasn't fair of Leonard to sort of force his way into her apartment like he did, but then again, there wasn't a real reason for her not to want to move in with him.  It's not as if she has any moral objections with Leonard living under her roof--it's definitely an intimacy issue.  Penny obviously doesn't want to do anything that suggests that she's moving forward with her relationship with Leonard.  And why would she?  It's taken her forever to tell him that she loves him!  Moving in would probably take another five years.

What I didn't know was that Sheldon would react just like Penny when Amy suggested that she would be his perfect roommate.  I absolutely loved how tongue-tied he was when Amy presented him a sound argument why there was no reason she shouldn't be able to satisfy his needs as a roommate.  She is such a blessing to this show.  Without her, I don't know if Sheldon would as quickly realized that he needed Leonard as his roommate.

Things got even better when Sheldon just couldn't take it anymore and told Amy that they couldn't live together.  Thanks to Sheldon not coming up with a good enough reason, Amy snapped at him.  I loved her telling him, "What the hell, Sheldon?!"  Her going off on him was overdue, for sure.  I haven't even realized that it's been two years.  Two years listening to his restrictions like no lip gloss.  Her catering to his every whim and then getting the treatment like her presence isn't appreciated is so wrong.  But it is Sheldon and you can't expect him to love the idea of living with his girlfriend.  Took him long enough to even embrace the idea of dating someone.

My favorite line came when all the lies surfaced and Sheldon (like the bastard he is) tried to blame his problems on someone else, but Penny wasn't letting it go down like that.  I loved when Amy found out that Sheldon just didn't want to live with her at all and tried to make Penny his scapegoat:

[Amy] You're a coward.

[Sheldon] Well, the evidence does support that.

Even in the end, Sheldon could not come up with an agrument to make himself not look like an asshole.  Great ending.  I would have liked to see Sheldon and Amy living together, but not so much that I'd want to see Leonard and Penny doing so.  Penny would probably break up with Leonard again if they did.

The only thing I can say about Raj's story is that I feel bad that he ended up trapped by Howard's mom.  On the other hand, I was sort of expecting that Raj might end up sleeping with Howard's mom because they're both lonely, single people.  I guess it's good that didn't happen.  It was much funnier to see him in a sort of Misery type situation, which Howard just shrugged his shoulders at.  I liked when Raj wondered how Howard doesn't slip out of his bed with silk pajamas and satin sheets.  Besides that, I only wonder if Raj will still be fighting to escape through windows and such in the next episode.  Poor Raj.  He can't get a girlfriend, but he can be forced to be someone's replacement son.

I really liked this episode.  Leonard fought back against Sheldon, even though it led him to see that Penny didn't really want to take their relationship to the next level.  The best part, of course, was that Sheldon got to live with Amy for a second.  That gave Amy the wonderful opportunity to come down on the way that Sheldon treats her as well.  There's nothing like seeing Sheldon being totally in the wrong to the point he is pretty speechless.  Raj, as desperate as he may seem for companionship, doesn't quite deserve to be held captive by someone's mother.  He better be out of that predicament come next Thursday.

Sheldon Makes A Good Data

Big Bang Theory, S06E13

The boys drove to a comic convention and were stranded when Leonard's car got stolen during their photo shoot.  The girls decided to try and understand their men by trying out some comics books themselves.  They soon got into heated arguments about what they read, surprising Leonard and the others.

This isn't the first time that the guys have dressed up, but it is certainly one of my favorites.  I'm not the biggest Star Trek fan, but I am familiar with some of the character that were on The Next Generation.  Sheldon as Data was absolutely perfect.  I loved it!  He has about the emotional range of a synthetic human and the makeup job on him looked great.  Second, I loved Leonard as a little, glasses-wearing Picard.  Leonard was so cute with a bald head!  The others costumes were good too, but I especially liked Leonard's and Sheldon's.  Then I liked that Sheldon seemed to respect Leonard's leadership for once simply because he was wearing a captain's outfit.  Man, Leonard should wear that every day to keep Sheldon listening to him for once.

The worst thing was that Sheldon had hacked Leonard's GPS so that it not only spoke in Sheldon's voice, but also did things like quiz them with trivia about driving and such.  I was with Howard when he suggested that Leonard drive them off a bridge.  It sort of made it the one good thing about his car getting stolen--at least they wouldn't have to listen to Sheldon guiding them the way back home too.  It was sort of funny, though, that the robbers were enjoying all the Sheldon trivia.  I doubt they would have enjoyed it as much if they had the owner of that voice giving them all of that interesting knowledge.

I liked that the girls tried to dive into the boys' world by reading some comics.  I never expected, though, that they would really get invested in the stories.  I mean, they were arguing things that I'm sure the boys have for years and years.  And they had just scratched at the surface.  They were simply debating about Thor's hammer.  If they ever managed to get that issue settled, who knows what they would go on to next?  It was cute that the boys found the energy again to act out their fantasies and went to investigate the girls' arguments with their phasers sent on "stun."  But I wonder what happened after that?  Were the girls embarrassed that they were on the same level as the guys?  Or did the boys join into the arguments, making things much worse?  That was the only thing I was disappointed about.  I wanted to see the meeting of the old comic nerds and the new comic nerds.

This was a great episode.  It definitely goes down as one of my favorite stories about the guys being in costumes.  I have to watch it again because I really enjoyed seeing Sheldon as Data and Leonard as Picard.  It was also funny to see the girls having heavy discussions about Thor's hammer as if it were some kind of important world issue.  They might not exactly get the boys' infatuation with the comic book world, but they definitely dipped their toes in it now.

Sheldon Visits HR

Big Bang Theory, S06E12

Alex asking Leonard out led Sheldon to speak to his assistant about her "sexual advances" toward a coworker.  However, Sheldon unknowingly spoke to Alex in a way that seemed like he was sexually harassing her.  When Sheldon got called into Human Resources to be reprimanded, he pointed out all the inappropriate things Leonard, Raj, and Howard had also done at work.  Penny also got upset about Alex asking out Leonard.

Af first, I thought this was going to be an episode mianly about Penny being angry at Leonard for loving the attention from Alex.  I was really pleased when the story took an unexpected turn as Sheldon decided that he needed to handle Alex himself.  Even though Sheldon has a knack for making everything about himself, I didn't see that coming at all.  Nor did I foresee that he would say so many wrong things to her.  It was like as soon as he started talking to her, I finally saw that this story was going to be about Sheldon getting in trouble for "harassing" his assistant.  And Alex was hardly out of line--Sheldon was really insulting.

The best of the horrible things he said to Alex was, of course, him referring to her as an egg salad sandwich.  I'm sure Sheldon's father was (is?) a very old school sort of guy who had a lot of sexist things to say that Sheldon felt were normal over time, and it sort of makes me think that his father might be part of the reason Sheldon sort of thinks that women are inferior to men.  Obviously, he's using scientific facts to back it up, but he definitely would be thinking the same even if he was less educated.

I was really looking forward to when he would be called into Human Resources, but I was super excited to see that the head of the office was played by Regina King.  Holy crap!  Not only do I love her, but her interaction with Sheldon was one of my favorites in this show!  It was simply funny from beginning to end.  In the beginning, I liked the first couple of things she said to Sheldon:

Well, according to Ms. Jensen, you said that she was a slave to her biological urges and called her an “egg salad sandwich.”  I don’t even know what that means, but I’m gonna go ahead and tell you you can’t say it.

Later, Sheldon dug his grave deeper by calling her a "slave" and not picking up on the possible racial tones it might have (I couldn't ever see Sheldon being purposely racist to anyone, though).  Finally, he started talking about women's menstrual cycles and she had me rolling when she shut him down:

You can’t talk about that, either, Dr. Cooper.  Your language is entirely inappropriate, and I’m gonna advise that you shut your mouth right now.

I love hearing Regina King telling Sheldon to shut his mouth  That was awesome.  What wasn't so awesome was watching Sheldon throw his friends under the bus because he was in trouble.  He really is like a freaking little boy who rats out his friends to keep himself out of trouble.  I was pissed that Sheldon had done that, even if the others deserved a trip to HR.  They're not the ones who were showing people diseased genitalia.

Even so, I really liked when Ms. Davis called them all into her office after Sheldon tried to turn the tables and file a complaint against her:

[Sheldon] I-I thought about the things you said to me yesterday, and I realized I’m deeply offended.  Now, be a dear and get me one of those complaint forms.
[Davis] That’s it.  All of you, in my office now!
[Sheldon] And thanks to you, I know better than to ask if you’re menstruating.  And based on your behavior, I don’t have to.

 I loved her face when he dared to say that her reaction to the situation was due to her period.  She must have really given him an earful after that because Sheldon apologized to Alex.  He's obviously not seen his blame in all of this since he made Alex do his seminar for him, but I know he'll think twice about talking to a woman about her eggs ruling her actions again.

One other thing that was sort of funny was Penny's reaction to Sheldon forming the "Council of Ladies."  I loved her face when she asked what was happening.  Sometimes she is the voice of the audience at home.  It seemed really odd that he had gathered them for womenly advice, even though he is one of the most clueless men of all.

This is one of my favorites this season.  I would have never imagined that Sheldon would have to go to HR for sexual harassment of all things.  It really has opened my eyes to what kind of trouble Sheldon might get himself into with that unfiltered mouth of his.  I'd also like to see Regina King guest star on this show again--I loved seeing her give him a talk.  If they could work her into a second episode, I'm pretty sure it would be comedy gold once again.

The Science Ninjas And The Number 43

Big Bang Theory, S06E08

Raj and Howard tried to find out what Sheldon was doing every day for 20 minutes in secret.  Leonard was jealous of Penny's new partner for class.

I was pretty happy to see Howard and Raj kicking it like old times.  It's been a while since the two of them were on an "adventure" together.  I've missed the vibe they have when they're together.  For instance, when Raj put his ear to the door next to Howard and their faces were dangerously close to one another.  That's the kind of stuff I missed about them.  Also, there was this one line of Raj where he made you think he was saying something sexual, but it went in the total opposite direction:

Boy, what I wouldn't give to get her out of those pants...and into something a little more stylish.

Oh, Raj.  It's probably comments like that that make it hard for him to attract a girl.  But at least that was pretty funny.

I knew that the two "science ninjas" would never figure out what Sheldon was up to, so I was a little annoyed at them slamming their forwards against the walls trying to decode the mystery of 43.  Knowing Sheldon, I figured it had to be something silly, but hacky sack was way off what I could have imagined.  He must be as stressed as he said, having to act human all day for the sake of others (insert eye roll).  I was most disappointed in the two ninjas when they were fooled by Sheldon's wormhole performance.  These guys are so smart and yet...  They have watched way too many sci-fi movies or something.  Sheldon isn't so dumb that he wouldn't realize that someone was trying to figure out his "secret," so if it was me, I would expect that he might mess with the video feed.  But sometimes I do think that Raj and Howard become a little dumber when they are together.  You would think their brainpower would be combined, but instead they feed into each others fantasies (almost like middle school boys or something).  I mean, I love that they are so stupid together, but come on.  There's no way that video of Sheldon was real.

Not much to say about Penny and Leonard.  I was going to be pissed that there was just another story about Leonard being jealous of any guy coming within 100 feet of Penny until the story ended up being pretty significant.  Penny finally told Leonard that she loved him without even realizing it.  Well, about damn time.  I still don't really like them as a couple, but maybe hearing that will calm Leonard down.  And if things don't work out, he always has Sheldon's assistant who is nearly beating him over the head with flirting.  I'd like to see her finally get through to Leonard and have him give Penny more of a taste of what he's been going through for seasons and seasons.

This was pretty good episode.  I have really missed Raj and Howard teaming up to do something.  It's been way too long.  I also liked that there was minimum Sheldon because I tend to just get angry at him when he's not paired with Amy.  Leonard finally got to hear the words he was longing to hear, but I'm any more convinced that Penny and Leonard will make it than I ever was.  Hopefully, Leonard will go for the new woman on the scene and I can stop sighing each time I see him fretting about losing Penny every other week.

Sheldon's A Black Hole

Big Bang Theory, S06E06

Sheldon played Words With Friends with Stephen Hawking, but was worried that he hated by Hawking because Sheldon was beating him.  Leonard read Penny's essay against her wishes and tried to fix it for her.

I was actually hoping that Sheldon wasn't as smart as he thought he was and the person he had befriended on the game was just someone impersonating Hawking.  But no such twist occurred.  I was disappointed by this until Hawking later called Sheldon to gloat when Sheldon threw the game.  He was pretty funny when he said:

What do Sheldon Cooper and a black hole have in common?  They both suck.

I knew what the zinger of that question was going to be, but I never expected Hawking to mock Sheldon so hard!  Crazy good.  Especially after the way he went on and on about the game and when worried that he was going to make an enemy out of his favorite new friend, he refused to listen to Leonard's problems.  It also felt good to see that because he was being such an ass to his friends about how superior he was to have a friend like Hawking, while openly devaluing Howard, Leonard, and Raj.

In the other story, I wasn't surprised that Leonard couldn't just leave the news of Penny taking a college class alone.  Of course, he would want to help her with her paper and, of course, Penny would be pissed that he changed her essay.  Everything went as expected, so it was boring until Penny seemed to have gotten a B minus on her own.  That I found hard to believe when she was talking about her essay topic would be "slavery is bad," but we soon found out that Amy and Bernadette had helped her.  Well, I don't blame her for wanting to teach Leonard a lesson because he was being too intrusive in her academic life, but she really proved that she isn't good enough on her own to get a decent grade.  Plus, she was sort of intimidating her friends who had helped her in the first place.  Why do they need to sugarcoat that she's a little dumb?  They shouldn't get bullied by her because of that.  This is one of the reasons I find it hard to decide whether I like her or I not.

This wasn't my favorite episode, but at least Sheldon got a little punishment for being his usual self.  Also, it was nice seeing Leonard being a bit of a bad boyfriend instead of focusing on all the bad things Penny is doing (still don't like her much, though).  I would have preferred to see something with Amy and Sheldon attempting some normal couple thing and turning it into something very unique for their own tastes.  They need to have as many scenes like that as possible because they are the best.  Right now, it's really the number reason I keep watching.

Penny Less Raggedy, Sheldon More Raggedy

Big Bang Theory, S06E05

Howard was annoying everyone with his incessant talk about being an astronaut.  Sheldon and Amy tried to compromise on a theme for a couple's costume.  Raj helped Stuart with his Halloween party.  Penny finally made an effort to learn about Leonard's work.

I have to be honest that I, too, was just as fed up with Howard working the topic of space into every conversation as his friends were.  But I can sympathize with him because I feel like I sort of do that nowadays with a different subject.  Even so, I recognize that it's a horrible habit and should be suppressed as much as possible.  I was most annoyed with him when he was pouting about not speaking about his greatest achievement while dressed in an awesome costume of Papa Smurf.  He and Bernadette were rocking their couple's costume and all he could think about was how it sucked no one was giving him props about his astronaut days.  Geez.  So glad that Raj gave him that video of Buzz Aldrin to put things in to hilarious perspective for him.  I would sock Howard if he got as bad as that guy was with handing out candy.

The best story in this episode was Sheldon and Amy's for sure.  As soon as Sheldon suggested that they dress as R2D2 and CP30, I knew that there was little hope for Amy to get the kind of costume she'd want.  But I loved when they were making a Venn diagram of their ideas but getting nowhere.  Sheldon had ideas like Batman and Robin and Kirk and Spock, while Amy's were nothing alike.  She had ideas like Dharma and Greg (who would get that?) and the funnier couple of Blossom and Joey!  Oh, my God!  How I wished Sheldon would have liked that one.  My favorite part of all was when Sheldon explained why he didn't want anything to do with her Raggedy Ann idea:

Those dolls represent three things I do not care for:  clowns, children and raggediness.

"Raggediness" was the part that really had me rolling.  Only Sheldon.

I thought that "Raggedy CP30" was the best compromise that anyone could expect out of Sheldon (and Amy was thrilled), so I guess it was a win for her.  She did almost get a hickey from Sheldon until he figured out what it was.  Haha.  Watching him put one on Amy would have been pretty damn hilarious, though.

Another win that happened was for Leonard.  I mean, for once Penny decided to act like a decent girlfriend and step a little into his world.  It was really nice to see her impressed by the work he did and for Leonard to get some sex that wasn't out of pity, haha.  It did make me like Penny slightly more than I have before.  But I still think Leonard could do better.

Not much to say about Raj except that he is such a dork with his little puns for the food names.  But at least his party planning was a success.  It's just too bad that it was getting Stuart the girls and not Raj.  He could have used that victory.

Pretty good episode.  I'm just happy that from now on we don't have to listen to Howard go on about being an astronaut, and Amy is one step closer to living her dream as having a real boyfriend (as real as Sheldon can be in that capacity).  Penny seems like less of a "raggedy" girlfriend, but she still has some work to do.  Crossing my fingers that she won't backslide and will keep trying to make Leonard a little happier from here on.

Losers

Big Bang Theory, S06E04

Howard returned home from space, but didn't get the big astronaut welcome he had hoped for, finding no one to celebrate his glory with him.  Sheldon and Leonard lost to Penny and Amy at pictionary, which sparked a battle of different games to prove who was superior after all.

Well, it was no surprise that Howard didn't come home a changed man (save the few inches he grew from being in zero gravity) in the sense that being an astronaut didn't make his life any better once coming home.  He couldn't get any from his wife with her shooting snot from her nose and passed out from Benadryl, his mother was too busy screwing the dentist to have time for him, Raj had moved on with his new bestie Stuart, and the rest of his friends were too busy trying to beat each other to have a second for him.  I don't know if he was more of a loser coming back home or before he left.  I suppose he was more after because he had done something really great, but the only accolade he could reap from that experience was a free piece of cheesecake (which I'd take--it's better than nothing).  I felt bad for him, but you couldn't be too surprised with the kind of luck Howard has.

The funnier losers of Thursday night were definitely Sheldon and Leonard.  I just loved seeing Penny and Amy take them to school on a variety of games.  It was just nice to see Penny be able to hold her head higher than Sheldon.  One of my favorite moments was during pictionary when Penny was just taking her sweet time drawing nail polish because Sheldon was way off (even if it had been Polish as he had mistaken it for).  But it was great that she and Amy didn't just excel at drawing cookies and presents, but they were also masters of finding Waldo with impaired vision and solving long division while dizzy.  But I think my favorite victory for the girls was when Penny easily pinned Sheldon on the ground and then began kissing him to make him even more annoyed!  And then Amy just joined in when Sheldon begged for her help!  Hilarious.  I also loved when Leonard, tired of losing, demanded that Sheldon participate in the pie-eating contest:

Now, you either stick your face in that pie or I’m gonna stick that pie in your face.

I wish every episode could be this kind of game night.  I need the reminder that Sheldon is not skilled in many things outside of science and mathematics.  I even didn't think about how much I dislike Penny because she was being really good about giving Sheldon the business.

This is my favorite episode of the season so far.  I don't know if Howard is going to let Raj be best friends with someone else forever, but he is a married man now, so he might not feel as put out by that as he seemed to be in this episode.  I would love to see a story where Stuart and Howard would have to compete for Raj's friendship in the future.  And any time they can show what a loser Sheldon is again, I'm all for that.  It's just too funny.

Take That Penny!

Big Bang Theory, S06E03

Sheldon hired a new assistant to look through his old journals and papers to see if there was anything brilliant in there, and Amy felt threatened by a woman working closely with him.  However, when Amy dragged Penny along to spy on the assistant, Penny was the one who became worried about her and Leonard.  Howard was getting antsy and unraveled during his final days of space and getting worse with the news his return home would be delayed.

After last week, I was questioning whether I really liked the little side story about Howard in space until he started to go insane this time.  I liked how it was sort of a turn on or something for him to see people drop pencils for him, and it had made Raj uncomfortable when Howard had asked him to do that for him numerous times.  But my favorite thing was when Howard was trying to make a secret code for him and Bernadette to speak in:

We should probably talk in code. From now on, "frog" is me, "sandwich" means you and "lemon" means rocket.  So, come on, sandwich, build me a lemon 'cause froggy wants to come home!

That was probably my favorite line of the episode.

Another notable quote was when Amy and Penny were putting on makeup and Amy remarked how the eyelash curler looked:

[Amy] Looks like something used by Tinker Bell's gynecologist.[Amy] Who I hope for her sake is not Captain Hook, so...

A little gross, but pretty clever.  I don't think I'll look at an eyelash curler the same again.

What I liked most about this episode was that Penny finally got a little payback for stringing along Leonard when she saw that Alex and he were having a pretty good conversation.  Maybe Leonard's not the most desirable guy, but it's nice to see them do a story where Penny is reminded that Leonard does have options if he were to stop blinding himself with his love for her (which can't possibly last if she keeps treating him like a charity case).  I really hope that sort of thing continues on in the next episode.  Oh, and I liked how Leonard sort of set up Raj so he could easily chat with Alex, but in Raj's condition of being unable to speak to women he just moved to a different table.  That was a great moment too.  Almost as good as Penny experiencing some jealousy.

For once I sort of want to see what happens next.  It would be interesting if Alex wanted to date one of the guys, no matter who it was.  Although, I would most like to see her get with Raj because he really hasn't had any luck with girls at all.  Like I've said many times, it's way past due for someone to throw him a bone!  Come on, when are we going to see Raj find love??

The New Howard, The Same Ol' Penny and Leonard

Big Bang Theory, S06E02

Raj invited Stuart to hang with him and others, and Sheldon wanted him to act as a stand-in for Howard.  Amy told Sheldon about how Penny really felt about Leonard, and Sheldon struggled to keep the secret.  Howard was upset that the other astronauts treated him badly.

Not that I'm a huge fan of Stuart filling the void of Howard, but I was a little annoyed by Sheldon not wanting to accept Stuart in any capacity unless he was going to do things exactly as Howard would have done them.  Of course, I can't blame him because it's Sheldon's way to control things and stamp out any kind of change in his life.  However, I just feel bad for a new guy to come in and have to take his abuse.  The others are pretty numb to it by now, and I don't think they even care.  Then again, I think that Stuart was more than happy to do whatever Sheldon wanted just to be part of the group.  It's funny that there is a more desperate level than Leonard and company.

I knew as soon as Amy told Sheldon something that she wasn't supposed to that Sheldon would be burdened by the task of keeping his mouth shut.  It is nice to be reminded of how stupid he can be, despite being a genius.  And I'm not sure if he's just more awkward or somehow feels some kind of guilt from lying when he knows the full truth.  I'm not quite convinced that he possesses a real conscience.

However, it's interesting that he went to Penny's room to talk about it.  He seemed to only want to keep things the same, but he said that he didn't want Penny to hurt his friend.  Maybe even Sheldon doesn't realize it himself and that was the real reason he couldn't ignore the fact that Penny doesn't care that deeply about Leonard.  But I'm not going to completely be sold upon that just because he said it.  Sheldon is far from capable about worrying about others beyond on a superficial level.

But I have to say that Penny is really such a terrible person.  I don't know how long she intends to keep stringing along Leonard just because she feels guilty!  She's not such a prize that she's doing him a favor.  I really think that Leonard could do better no matter how badly he thinks he's hung up on her now.  I feel like if she doesn't get some balls and dump him or Leonard realizes it's over himself, I'm going to throw an object through my TV.  Someone put that Ol' Yeller of a relationship out of its misery!

I think I will enjoy the new Howard replacement, as long as Stuart can at some time stop kissing Sheldon's ass so much to fit in and assert himself as a real member of their circle.  And maybe next time Sheldon will spill the beans about Penny and Leonard to get the ball rolling on the end of their relationship again.  I don't have the patience to watch Penny drag him around like a 3 month-old corpse.  Let's bury this couple already!

Raj, The Third Wheel

Big Bang Theory, S06E01

Amy and Sheldon went on their anniversary dinner, but were joined by Raj to Amy's dismay.  Leonard wanted to hang out with Penny to discuss their relationship, but were also joined by Raj to Leonard's dismay.  Howard couldn't decide whether to please his mother or his wife, so he lied to both of them about whether he was moving out of his mother's house.

The worst story, of course, was Leonard and Penny.  Leonard is so transparent about wanting to talk about things that it was sad.  I was really glad when a drunk Raj came along and killed their little date.  I especially liked how he told them how it was with their stupid back and forth relationship.  I hadn't noticed, though, that Penny had never admitted that she loved Leonard.  I actually did want her to look him in the eyes and tell him as such.  Even if I don't want them back together, I would like her to admit she's hung up on him as much as he is on her.  Seriously, will the two of them just stop?  Either they move on for real or they get back together already.

Raj's best intrusion, of course, was when he was at Sheldon's date that Sheldon had "outsourced" him for.  My God, Sheldon takes being a bad boyfriend to such new levels each time.  And as delusional as Amy is about Sheldon (who would latch her ovaries on him if he proposed to her during sex--ha), I feel bad that she cannot get any real emotions out of that robot.  I mean, we wouldn't expect Sheldon to really emote, and yet I still want him to because I am a girl and I feel like a girlfriend should at least sometimes feel special when she's around her supposed boyfriend.  But I can't blame her for accepting Sheldon's quote from Spiderman as a meaningful expression of his love.  You take what you can get from Sheldon.

Speaking of him, he was quite funny when he said that the only sea creature he would want to be eaten by is a Krakken.  I had to agree with his reason because the last thing you would hear would be "Release the Krakken!" which is pretty damn cool.  I used to have an inside joke about that with some of my co-workers, so it was a random, but welcome reference.

Howard's story was kind of funny too because you can't really go wrong with him being bugged by his mother in space.  I mean, her son is doing something that only a handful of qualified people get to do and she's on his case about silly things like moving out of the house and such.  There is no place on earth or outside of earth that Howard can go to escape his smothering mother.  But it was a dick move of him to lie to Bernadette when I can't imagine how difficult it is for her being a newlywed without her husband, but living with his crazy-ass mother.  For that, Howard should be doing every single thing he can do to make her happy.  But he'll pay for it later.  What I really liked, though, was how Dimitri was kind of putting his own two-cents about the situation.  In a place like that there can be no privacy, so you can't blame the guy for being in Howard's business.  And I welcome the intrusion because he's a funny guy.

Finally, there was that scene where Raj and Stewart where kind of having a little moment together while listening to Latin music and drinking coffee liquor.  What??  Then, despite that Raj felt like things were getting weird, he invited Stewart out to hang sometime.  I didn't expect that after Raj quickly decided he needed to leave in the first place.  Huh.  Although, I'm not sure if it's because he doesn't have Howard to fall back on (or his other friends) and just wants someone available to do things with.  And when you think about it, Raj and Howard's relationship has always been a little bordering on a romantic relationship.  However, when Stewart commented that he could do worse by "hanging" with Raj, I felt like if Raj were to be interested in Stewart as more than a friend, Raj could do better!  I definitely think that Raj would be much more successful if he ended up being a gay man.  But I wouldn't want to see him do that with Stewart.  Eww.

This was a pretty good episode, the best being the Sheldon and Amy date.  But I'd like to see Raj do more than be a third wheel for the rest of the season, even if it means that Stewart is going to be his new best friend.  I'd like less of the Penny and Leonard stories--how much longer can we watch them bounce back and forth?  And Howard really is going to have to stay in space because Bernadette is going to kill him.  He needs to come to his senses real quick and realize that he'd be a fool to ruin his marriage before it has barely even started.

Worst Episode Ever. April Fools!

Ugly Americans, S02E17

Mark prepared to propose a proposal to Callie on April Fools' Day, but the DOI was under lock down due to Mark's predecessor's escape from jail.  Barney had swore murderous revenge on all of them, so they were taking precautions by escaping to a cabin out of town.  Mark found it hard to believe that their emergency was real and resisted sharing their panic until he started to see his friends dead in the woods.  He also learned that Callie used to date Barney and was likely still in love with him.  When Mark, Grimes, and Callie were captured by the madman, they were forced to participate in a twisted dating game show, where Barney seemed to have won Callie's heart again.  Mark fell into a jealous rage and tried to kill the man, but his friends stopped him by letting him know it was an elaborate prank after all.  While all of this was going on Leonard and Randall tried to get back to town to cash a lottery ticket.  They managed to escape from some rapist, hillbilly pig people, but when they tried to redeem the ticket, the clerk refused to accept it because it was ripped in half.

I thought it was kind of half-assed of Mark to want to ask Callie to be engaged to be engaged.  For someone who always pretends to be so responsible, it just sounds like a shallow commitment to trick someone into thinking they were actually serious.  I did like that when he brought up doing it that Randall did seem a little worried that Mark would move out of the apartment one day.  But with them one stage below engaged, I doubt that Randall has to worry about that any time soon.  Even though I thought his proposal was pointless, I still thought Callie would appreciate the gesture, but she barely paid attention to him when he asked her in Randall's van.  I wonder if they weren't all trying to trick Mark would she have been a little more happy about it.

Once Mark made it known that he didn't care for pranks and suspected that the whole DOI emergency was a ruse, I knew that no matter what happened that he was going to be right.  I also assumed that Callie would propose to him in the end since she was a little too disinterested in Mark and his ring in the car.  I feel like she would be the tiniest bit more concerned that her boyfriend was making such a grand (or not) gesture of their love.  However, I enjoyed watching the horror movie-like setting unfold.  It was an interesting idea that Callie's ex was a much better match for her than Mark, and I liked how he was doubting that they belonged together at all (since he was the exact opposite of Barney).  It was also nice to see Mark get mad and stabby.  He rarely lets his temper get the best of him, and it's even rarer that he would resort to violence to solve a problem.  He must really love Callie to get that upset.

I know that they were pranking Mark, but did Eric really use to be a human?  I mean, obviously the guy they paid to play Barney hadn't really worked at the DOI in the past, but I could believe that ridiculous story that someone killed Eric and he was rebuilt as a robot.  He's not made out of anything organic, so someone had to put him together.  So for what purpose was he built?  I usually don't pay attention to his character at all, but that scene where they explained his origins made me curious about his actual story.  But who knows if they will ever address that.  It's only important to people as random as me, I guess.

I actually thought that Leonard's winning lottery ticket was an April Fools' joke too, but it was real after all.  I'm not surprised that Randall became a part of it and tried to swindle him out of the ticket.  What was an interesting turn of events was when those hillbilly pigs captured them.  Never saw that coming.  Glad we didn't have to see too much gross stuff in that department.  I could just laugh at their horrible predicament without having to witness the creepy, sexual things they were exposed to.  Sucked that after all that mess, the clerk refused to honor the ticket.  He made things worse by saying that if Leonard had taped the ticket together first, he might not have noticed it was torn and accepted it.  Oh, well.  Leonard would have surely been a bastard as a millionaire.  He's not the most grounded person to begin with.

For some reason, this episode made me feel like it was a season finale.  That could be possible since they just started the season where they left off before.  I don't think that there's anything really special about Mark and Callie's engagement to engagement, but maybe for them that's a huge step (since I get the feeling that Callie was pretty serious about the reason she was with Mark didn't amount to much more than getting used to him being around).  I didn't have a lot of laughs in this story, but I still liked that everyone worked together to fool Mark.  Despite it being a predictable development, I enjoyed the ride to the obvious conclusion.