Growing
Up Ain’t Always Easy... Or Fun #YoungSheldon #3weekroundup #CBS
#recap #review
All pictures courtesy of CBS and Young Sheldon promotional materials
It’s
time for another review/recap of one of this fall’s new shows. And
because these idiot networks can’t seem to premiere everything at
once like they used to, and insist on shuffling, re-shuffling, and
cutting the deck that is their lineup of shows, we’re here in the
middle of November for a show that premiered back in October (or
September. Whichever). Yay! So, is CBS’s hit show Young Sheldon
really deserving of all of its blue ribbon accolades or is this one
of those homemade volcanoes at the school science fair (womp, womp)?
Let’s find out together.
CBS’s
Young Sheldon, a spin-off of the long-running hit comedy The Big Bang
Theory, stars Iain Armitage as our titular character and follows a
nine-year-old sheldon as he embarks on the hormone-soaked wilds of
the high school jungle in, apparently, 1989. It is at this point in
the review that I must stop and give a caveat that I am not a fan of
The Big Bang Theory. It is not that I actively dislike the show, but
simply is a matter of timing. I didn’t see the very first episode
(or season, for that matter) of the show and I hate coming into
things at the middle when I can get it at the beginning. It premiered
during a time in which I was watching zero CBS shows because most of
them seemed to trend older with the exception of How I Met Your
Mother. I didn’t even like Two and a Half Men, so nothing drew me
to watch CBS. I have only seen a literal handful of episodes of The
Big Bang Theory and that was in syndication, so if you are a fan of
The Big Bang Theory, then take everything I have to say both during
the recap and during the review with a grain of salt. OK? Good. I now
return you to your recap/review already in progress.
Young
Sheldon, at the start of our series, is thrust into a new world that
he is hardly frightened of, but, in fact, looks forward to the
adventures of learning and overachieving at the high school level.
But there’s a few problems. First, he is leaving his twin sister
Missy behind in, I’m assuming, elementary school. She is your
average little girl but she abhors her I’m-smarter-than-you brother
and has a sarcastic outlook on life. He will also be joining his
eldest brother Georgie (George Jr.) who is, at 14, entering High
School also as a freshman. As a football jock, Georgie wants nothing
to do with his younger brother because he has to build his own
reputation which is difficult enough, especially with the family’s
current situation.
The
current situation: the family has had to move sometime within the
last few years. Why? Because their father George Sr. (played by Lance
Barber) is a football coach. As we learned in the first episode where
Sheldon sought to point out the flaws in everyone, including his
teachers who break the school’s rule book and, according to him,
aren’t smart enough, George must sit his son down and tell him
about the lesson he recently learned. Recap of that last sentence: we
learned that the dad learned and was about to learn his son
something, you follow? George used to coach at another high school
and I guess he saw some of the other coaches maybe at his own school
(I was a little confused here because of the situation) who cheated
in some way and was then let go and made a pariah. The reason I say I
was confused (and I don’t usually confuse easily, but it was very
late and I was mentally fatigued) is because it makes little sense
for the school to have fired him for seeing some other school’s
coaches cheating, especially if that rival school was cheating
against his own school. Then again, maybe there was an acceptable
culture of cheating, but that’s hard to believe because the show is
set in Texas and we all know how seriously Texans take their football
at all levels.
That,
of course, leaves the most important character of the series, even
more important than Sheldon: his mother Mary. Mary, played by Zoe
Perry (fun fact: she is the Millennial-aged daughter of Laurie
Metcalf of Roseanne fame and Jeff Perry of Private Practice and
currently Scandal), is the best character on the series so far. I
will try to withhold my critiques but just know that I like her. The
typical 80s mom, she is concerned about all of her children but is
most concerned about her little genius child and how he fits into his
new school and the world in general. We see this more in the second
episode, but let’s stick with the pilot for a little while longer.
Sheldon
goes to high school where, as I said, he goes through every one of
his classes and tells each one of his teachers something about how
they are doing something wrong. He even says that one teacher has a
mustache which goes against the school’s dress code. And that
teacher was a white woman. To get him to fit in more, his parents
talk to him about how everything isn’t always so rigid. While his
parents argue with the school administration about how he needs to
stay in that school and the teachers need to just deal with him,
Sheldon ventures into a music class where he shows that he is a
musical savant as he sits down to perfectly play the piano, though
he’s never done it before. And while the teacher there tells him
that he should pursue music, he refuses outright because he’s
purely about science and musicians take drugs. We see a little bit of
his brother being teased as the dumb brother as Sheldon’s
reputation has already spread, and get a talk from dad about how to
deal with a genius brother.
The
episode bobbles along with some stuff in there to demonstrate
Sheldon’s aversion to playing outside, watching cartoons and doing
anything that doesn’t require the mind or science. And we also see
a little thing about Sheldon going to church and how he simply
doesn’t get it. But we end with a heart-warming and honest talk
between Sheldon and George about his firing from his previous
coaching job. “Is he sad about it,” Sheldon asks. Yeah. He’s
angry and a litle sad. And that comment makes Sheldon touch his
father’s bare hand without his mits on connecting on his father on
a more human, personal level.
 |
| Georgie Jr. and Sheldon |
Episode
two focuses on Mary’s concern that Sheldon doesn’t have any
friends. This stems from her seeing her two sons eating in the
cafeteria and Georgie Jr. eating with friends but Sheldon sitting
alone having delusions about the cosmos and the big bang (get it? Get
it! Ha!). I should say, just in case you didn’t get it from the
first episode, that George Sr. is the new football coach at this high
school so his wife popping up and hanging with him during the day
isn’t that weird around lunch time. I don’t yet know what she
does for work, if she does work (this is the 80s and not the 50s, so
I assume she does work but who knows).
 |
| Missy and Sheldon |
Mary
errantly tells Missy about her worries concerning Sheldon having no
friends, and Missy then relays that message to Sheldon. So Sheldon
goes on an adventure to develop some friendships. He goes to the
library where he is pointed to the old book How to Win Friends and
Influence People. He uses the techniques within the book to visit
all the different cliques in the school to make friends. Along the
way he makes a few funny jokes that align with the “greetings,
earthlings” trope that fish-out-of-water stories have, but has no
luck with friends. Finally, his sister, who is struggling with the
idea of not being exceptional like her brother, comes up with the
idea to read the names on the book’s reservation card because those
people were also desperate enough to need a book to make friends. As
it turns out, all of the people who recently took it out are adults,
his teachers in fact. And after hearing a few terrible stories about
how one teacher stole another teacher’s innocence and how that
innocence-stealer was also left damaged from the breakup, he has to
return the book.
In
returing the book, Sheldon finds a young Asian boy who is also having
trouble making a friend and huzzah! You’ve got a friend in me. Mary
tells him to invite his new friend over and they have a dinner where
George Sr. makes sure the boy’s mother doesn’t have a particular
name (he fought in ‘Nam), and the boy tells the story of how his
family escaped from Vietnam and have migrated here to become
low-paid, overworked immigrants. How depressing! But the good news is
that he and Sheldon can build rockets together and they both are
super into math.
 |
| Sheldon's friend and Sheldon |
Episode
three focuses on two things: Sheldon’s grandmother (his mother’s
mom) and his rejection of religion. Every Sunday, Mary goes to church
and often takes the children (her husband is sometimes busy with the
football team). But Sheldon, being the person he is, must call out
the preacher’s claims that God created the world in six days, and
challenges the existence of God and even tries to make that old
stupid argument that God and science don’t align. But when he
learns that some of the greatest scientists he admires also believe
in God and that Pascale said that it’s smarter to believe in God
than it is to not, he is flabbergast.
Meanwhile,
his grandmother, played by Annie Potts, comes to babysit a few times.
Like most grandparents, when she comes, the rules are a little more
lax as she adores her grandchildren. But when George Sr. suffers some
serious health emergency, grandmother or MeeMaw has to come and
emergency-babysit while George and Mary go to the hospital. Things
don’t look good when George thinks he is having a heart attack and
has to stay in the hospital longer than expected. With Meemaw not
being forthcoming enough with the deets about their dad’s health,
Georgie Jr. decides to take it upon himself to steal his sleeping
grandmother’s car and drive his siblings to the hospital. But being
14 he can’t drive and swerves all over the road hitting things at
eight miles per hour. He finally lucks out when they all see an
ambulance and follow it to the hospital.
Both
plots come to a head when Sheldon sneaks away to pray in the hospital
chapel. No, he doesn’t pray to God but to famed legendary scientist
Pascale because he thinks that if Pascale was wrong and there is no
God, then no harm done, and if he was right, then Pascale would
surely be near God and able to pass along Sheldon’s message. He
prays for his father’s good health, and just like that, his father
is getting better again. The episode ends with the entire family
going back to church and Sheldon’s tiny bit of belief having
already dissipated back into atheistic doubt. All is well.
What’s
my grade? I give it a C+. The only
reason I see for this being this fall’s number one new show is that
it has The Big Bang Theory as a lead-in and is associated with that
show. If, however, this was not associated with that show in any way,
I doubt it would really be all that. Let’s start with the way CBS
rolled this thing out.
For
starters, I have a few issues with how networks and streaming
services premiere new shows these days. There almost seems to seldom
be a happy medium and it’s getting worse, not better. With Marvel’s
Inhumans premiering its first two episodes as a movie a few weeks
before the TV premiere; Star Trek Discovery premiering one episode on
CBS, then the second one on CBS All Access the very same night, and
the third the next week; and with streaming services premiering
entire seasons for binge-watching, I absolutely hate how we consume
TV. One of the biggest pluses for cutting the cord, other than the
cost, should be the ability to not fall prey to a network’s
whimsical maneuverings of their schedule. I have yet to cut the cord.
But even if I had, I would still have fallen prey to the same thing
when viewing Young Sheldon. For some dumb reason, CBS decided to
premiere this show not only out of its regular timeslot and date, but
a full month ahead of the second episode. The first episode came on
during premiere week on September 25th. The second episode
finally came on on November 2nd, and the show moved from
Mondays to Thursdays where it follows The Big Bang Theory. I can only
guess that the network is deathly afraid of the show dying without
the BBT lead-in. But in any case, having one episode of something
play, then skipping weeks before showing the next one, then having it
be off for at least another week during the Thanksgiving holiday,
especially during an era in which people want full seasons of shows
all at once, is courting cancellation. The time thing is needlessly
disruptive and can leave a bad impression on viewers, especially if
they didn’t love the first episode. And God the first show was
awful.
 |
| Missy, MeeMaw and Sheldon |
After
having seen Zoe Perry on last season’s Scandal, I can say without
doubt that she is a phenomenal actress. She shines in this series,
too. The show might actually be better if she narrated the show and
it focused on her perspective raising such a gifted child. She’s
really quite young in real life, but somehow plays older and has the
mother thing down really well. Out of all the characters on the show,
she actually feels the most geniune in all of her scenes. The comedic
lines are delivered with conviction, she showed true caring and
motherly concern for her family, and she is the one trying to balance
Sheldon’s genius eccentricities with being a regular kid. In fact,
both she and the husband character are pretty good parents, even if
they do play into a few stereotypical family sitcom tropes.
The
biggest problem with the show, outside of the dramatic tonal shift
between this show and The Big Bang Theory, is that the titular
character is not likable. Let me say that I abhor the “likable”
description for characters. I have watched and read enough book, film
and TV reviews in my life to cringe every time I hear that word. To
me, it is a cop out for whenever a reviewer doesn’t understand or
agree with the choices of a character, and it only applies maybe five
to ten percent of the time. Characters don’t have to be likable,
they have to be interesting, and their interesting-ness should
overpower any annoyance or outright disdain one might have for them.
Young Sheldon does not overpower my disdain.
Here,
on Young Sheldon, I know we must give him enough time to develop into
the character he is supposed to be, but that will take years/seasons
to happen. On this show, he comes off as a smart-alecky, know-it-all
brat who thinks that everyone around him is exhaustingly beneath him.
I had a friend tell me that she didn’t want to watch the show
because she felt that she would get pissed watching some
smart-mouthed kid talk back to adults and would feel compelled to pop
the character in the mouth once. She’s old school and from the
Midwest so don’t give me the PC “you can’t hit kids” thing.
And while I probably wouldn’t do that myself, I had the same
inclination.
Young
Sheldon is not endearing and seldom funny in his pursuits. Where
adult Sheldon has this almost Grinch-like or Cat-in-the-Hat-esque
mischievous grin upon his face even when putting down his fellow
geniuses or the non-superior-brained normies, Young Sheldon never
gives that particular type of warm invitation to come laugh with him.
Instead, he looks at everyone as if he is fed up that they don’t
think his way, and that they’re idiots for not. He’s got a huge
superiority complex that goes beyond America’s love of precocious
kids. This is only made more evident by the fact that he is
surrounded only by his family. Where on Big Bang he is circled around
three other geniuses in their own right, on this show he only has the
laypersons of his family. On Big Bang when he makes jokes about his
colleagues intelligence or eccentricities, its endearing because you
know that he is speaking with people who are close to his equals.
Here, we know that he has no equal. Everyone is mentally a peon to
him, even the adults, and he treats them as such, which is the most
annoying thing you can do in this particular political climate.
Again, I’m definitely not the PC-type (read my books to find out)
but saying that Texas is some stupid, backwards land where a child is
the smartest person serves to make fun of the average working Joe and
Jane in a way that might not be great viewing for everyone. I thought we were past the "small town life is full of simpletons"-trope about twenty years ago. If you’re
going to satirize the “simple-minded” religious of Middle
America, then you better be damn funny doing it, otherwise, they
might tell you to take a hike. And this show really ain’t all that
funny, even though I’m not one of the simple-minded.
Should
you be watching? If you’re a fan of The Big Bang Theory then yes
you should check it out. Some people won’t like the change in
format between the shows--going from the multi-cam studio audience
show that is The Big Bang Theory to a single-cam show of Young
Sheldon in which there is no laugh track. This is a big departure for
CBS in the comedy area, though ABC, FOX and NBC have all been doing
it for years with much success. The other non-studio-audience comedy
CBS has/had is the new show Me, Myself and I, which has since been
shelved, but not officially canceled. This show will be a little
different for most CBS viewers to watch as it doesn’t even have
strong musical cues to hammer home the jokes. I personally think that
was a bad idea to switch formats between the two shows, but it does
give some variety. As far as it being funny: eh! The first episode
wasn’t funny at all, but the next two episodes had a few good
laughs in them. Personally, I probably wouldn’t watch the whole
season and would only tune in now and then for Zoe Perry. I find that
the callbacks to The Wonder Years and Boy Meets World aren’t strong
enough for me to recommend it as the new go-to family show, but it’s
serviceable, as in it can serve up one or two laughs per episode.
Maybe. Young Sheldon airs on CBS Thursdays at 8:30pm.
 |
| Included this pic because Zoe Perry looks her age, a young 33. |
What
do you think? Have you heard of Young Sheldon? If not, do you think
you’ll tune in now? If you have heard of it, have you seen it? Did
you like it? Was I too hard on the show? Where do you think the show
can improve? And do you think we’ll one day get kid-cameos of the
other Big Bang characters somehow? Let me know in the comments below.
Until next time, “Let’s see: two
and two make five? That doesn’t sound right.”
‘I don’t know. Looks right to me
and I’m pretty smart. I’m a whale biologist.’
“But the numbers—”
‘Whale biologist!’
P.S.
OK, that’s not the actual dialogue, but points to you if you know
the reference to which that paraphrasing might refer to? Hint: It was
an animated comedy on FOX. That show had scientists too. And, uh..
Yeah. That’s all I have to say. I’ll think of a better sign-off
next time.
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