By Melissa Haggar
The Big Bang Theory is back – and so is Sheldon, who returns forty five days after his departure from Pasadena with a refreshed outlook and ready to tackle any challenge. Only kidding! He’s pretty much still the same. Season eight opened with two new episodes for audiences to revel in, ‘The Locomotion Interruption’ and ‘The Junior Professor Solution’, the former covering Sheldon’s return to the gang and the latter focusing on his appointment as a Junior Professor so he can still study dark matter (and get a pay rise).
The Big Bang Theory is back – and so is Sheldon, who returns forty five days after his departure from Pasadena with a refreshed outlook and ready to tackle any challenge. Only kidding! He’s pretty much still the same. Season eight opened with two new episodes for audiences to revel in, ‘The Locomotion Interruption’ and ‘The Junior Professor Solution’, the former covering Sheldon’s return to the gang and the latter focusing on his appointment as a Junior Professor so he can still study dark matter (and get a pay rise).
Surprisingly, the series felt refreshed in a way, with Penny’s haircut ushering in a new era of the series, which at times has felt stuck in a rut. The first episode, however, seemed to be more on track in terms of where it was going, and the questions it managed to answer and solve. Sheldon’s absence and eventual return meant that characters had time to shake up their personalities a little, with Penny’s new look and subsequent job interview showing that her character is progressing in both appearances and her career. Cuoco-Sweeting did a brilliant job of portraying the more serious side of Penny at points where she really did try to perform in her interview, whilst still managing to retain some of the character’s classic humour and silly mannerisms.
The jokes and one-liners also felt less forced and more genuinely funny, in particular regards to Bernadette’s feisty nature and also Stuart’s continual presence at Howard’s Mother’s house. There seems to be plenty of directions which the comedy show could take now, and that’s a strong element of the series which means that we might get some even more exciting storylines in the future, as there is the whole Stuart/Debbie relationship as well as the impending marriage of Leonard and Penny to look forward to.
The jokes and one-liners also felt less forced and more genuinely funny, in particular regards to Bernadette’s feisty nature and also Stuart’s continual presence at Howard’s Mother’s house. There seems to be plenty of directions which the comedy show could take now, and that’s a strong element of the series which means that we might get some even more exciting storylines in the future, as there is the whole Stuart/Debbie relationship as well as the impending marriage of Leonard and Penny to look forward to.
‘The Junior Professor Solution’ offered Parsons’ character an opportunity to try and solve some of his conflict with Helberg’s Howard, over the former’s disregard for engineering in general. But it wasn’t just Howard and Sheldon who locked horns in the episode, Bernadette and Penny were at logger-heads over Penny’s disinterest in studying for her pharmaceutical job, and Amy was benefitting greatly from their feud, becoming the sort of ‘middle woman’ the two could confide in. This element of the episode was particularly humorous and possessed an air of Mean Girls, with Amy becoming the new ‘popular girl’ and gossiping with each friend about the other. The school-like behaviour was particularly funny coming from Bialik’s character that had never excelled in the social side of the classroom, and it was interesting to see her transporting herself back to those days which she missed, and how they have an impact on her behaviour now.
Overall, The Big Bang Theory seems to have benefitted from its break and returned with fresh, new storylines that still maintain the essence of the characters but offer them more personal development, and relationship development with certain characters that have not interacted properly for a significant period of time. It’s safe to say that certain things have changed in the series, but it seems to be revitalised and have a more vibrant energy to it that has been lacking in previous seasons of the show.
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