“Prepare yourself for a vigorous touching.”
Warning: full episode spoilers follow.
This week’s Big Bang Theory didn’t get off to the greatest start. The idea of an episode revolving around the guys trying to take up athletics was not appealing. And once the name “Barry Kripke” was uttered, my enthusiasm sunk even lower. Luckily, this episode gained some decent momentum after an underwhelming start and explored more of the fallout from Sheldon and Amy’s difficult separation.
I’ve heard The Big Bang Theory described as “the show that hates you” before, and I can see where it gets that reputation. Every so often, an episode comes along where the writers seem more interested in demeaning nerds and nerd culture than celebrating them. That dates all the way back to the first episode and the laughably stereotypical scene where poor, geeky Leonard faced off with Penny’s muscular bully of a boyfriend. The show has gotten better about avoiding that nonsense in the years since, but every so often you get an episode that feels like it’s laughing at the main characters rather than with them.
“The Perspiration Implementation” veered into that territory early on as it explored the gang’s quest to become more physically active. The humor was pretty much exactly what you’d expect. Plenty of “Ha! These nerds don’t like to exercise or get sweaty!” jokes and humor revolving around the fact that they’re hopelessly incompetent when it comes to physical activity. When you combine that with the fact that the subplot revolved around Stuart’s crippling social anxiety and general awkwardness, it was all a little much for one episode.
But again, the episode mellowed out some over time and became more enjoyable. There was a certain charm in seeing the guys try their hand at fencing and live out their fantasies of being swashbuckling heroes. The scene where they took advantage of Barry’s phone call to get a little horseplay in before resuming their stances was amusing. Howard and Raj also had a funny moment as they kept repeating Inigo Montoya’s iconic monologue and substituting different pop culture characters. Howard’s “My name is Darth Vader. I am your father!” was pretty great.
They’re conveniently color-coded.
It helped that Barry was far less obnoxious than he usually is. Generally, his only two defining character traits are that he has a bad lisp and an insufferable personality. Here, he was more of the straight man trying his best to teach an group of unruly pupils. The fact that he developed into a romantic rival to Sheldon was a welcome wrinkle to the conflict. Little by little, we’re starting to see Sheldon’s latent jealousy crop up as he realizes what he had with Amy. I’m almost disappointed that the Barry/Amy pairing didn’t go anywhere. But even when he’s used effectively, a little bit of Barry tends to go a long way.
It was definitely nice to see Stuart get some more face time this week as he continued to struggle with a failing business and the crushing loneliness that is his existence. It was nice to see the girls take an interest in his plight, even if he did his best to be a sleazy creeper the whole time. That’s Stuart for you. Their conversation did touch on something that’s a very real concern in the comics community these days? How do you make comic shops more inviting places when they have such a reputation for being He-Man Woman Hater Clubs?
For or better or worse, Amy wound up essentially stealing this storyline away from Stuart by the end. It was disappointing in the sense that it seemed like the characters were really getting to the heart of what makes him such an awkward, miserable person. Even Stuart should be allowed to have a genuine moment now and again. That said, Amy always deserves a little more room in the spotlight as well. It was nice to see her receive a major self esteem boost after being courted by two men in one day. Sure, those men weren’t exactly the cream of the crop as far as southern California goes, but baby steps.
The episode also ended on a strong note, as Amy and Sheldon were forced into an awkward encounter in the stairwell. This scene was handled very nicely. You really got the sense that the two were happy to see each other despite being stiffly on guard. That scene illustrates better than any other so far how much these two characters are suffering in the wake of their breakup. I was momentarily afraid the two might patch up their relationship right then and there, but luckily that didn’t come to pass. Inevitably the two will get back together (and probably during the course of this season), but there’s no reason to rush things along.
This episode didn’t start off so great thanks to some stereotypical “nerds can’t play sports” humor, but it eventually found its stride. It was amusing to see the guys reenact their Star Wars and Princess Bride fantasies. It was also nice to see Amy and Stuart in the spotlight more, even if the former’s character arc pretty much drowned out the latter’s by the end. And in the end, this episode continued the season’s strong focus on the aftermath of Amy and Sheldon’s big breakup.
