The Big Bang Theory"The Euclid Alternative"
Original Air Date: Oct 20, 2008
Theresa - TwoCents Staff Writer
theresa@thetwocentscorp.com
As someone who also does not drive, I sympathize with Sheldon's desperate search for someone to take him to Pottery Barn to return his over-stimulating Star Wars sheets in this episode. His more pressing problem, though, is getting to work while Leonard is working nights on electrons.
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[photo: CBS.com]
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The Big Bang Theory
ReplyDelete"The Euclid Alternative"
Original Air Date: Oct 20, 2008
Theresa - TwoCents Staff Writer
theresa@thetwocentscorp.com
As someone who also does not drive, I sympathize with Sheldon's desperate search for someone to take him to Pottery Barn to return his over-stimulating Star Wars sheets in this episode. His more pressing problem, though, is getting to work while Leonard is working nights on electrons.
First, he wakes up Penny on her day off to drive him to work. After commenting on the state of her engine, making her play a game about elements, and barely containing his anxiety while she sails over the Euclid Avenue speedbumps, Penny decides to kick him out of the car. He gets Howard to take him home from work on his moped, but ends up screaming bloody murder the entire time, and gets kicked off of that vehicle too. Raj picks him up from the side of the road, but Sheldon's insistence on running his normal Wednesday errands - new comic book day and tomato soup day - is too much for Raj to take.
The gang decides to stage an intervention, presenting Sheldon with a new driver handbook and forcing him to go to the DMV. I love poor awkward Raj, only mustering a nod in front of Penny when Howard says they had to "speak up", and how he always gets left behind because people forget he's there. Kudos to the writers for doing it just enough to stay funny.
At the DMV, Sheldon proves too annoying for the workers - though really, what doesn't annoy DMV workers? - when he is critical of the wording of the learner's permit exams. Well, a car length ISN'T a standardized unit of measurement. He gets his permit anyway, just to shut him up, and the gang sets up a driving simulation for him in the apartment. As it turns out, Sheldon is horrifyingly bad at driving, and kills many virtual puppies. He decides to give up - excuse me, he "transcends the situation" - and explains that he is far too evolved to drive. Instead, he decides to live at the university until Sheldon is done with his project. Or at least, until Sheldon decides to tell him so. In a hilarious end scene, two Hispanic cleaning women are at the school late at night wondering at who's making crustless toast, when Sheldon becomes visible in a flash of lightning. You saw nothing!
So tell me what you thought of this episode, and debate whether the happiness that is more Penny/Sheldon scenes overrides the sadness that next week is a repeat. Comments down past the night's many awesome quotes!
Best Lines:
Sheldon: I can't take the bus anymore, they don't have seatbelts and they won't let you lash yourself to the seat with bungee cords.
Leonard: You tried to lash yourself to the seat with bungee cords?
Sheldon: I didn't try, I succeeded.
Leonard: Sheldon, sit down.
Sheldon: She's in my spot.
(Penny moves, looking angry)
Sheldon: Don't look at me like that, everybody knows that's my spot.
Leonard: Penny's taking you to the DMV, I'm going to bed.
Sheldon: Why Penny?
Leonard: Because rock breaks scissors.
Penny: Why didn't you just get a license at 16 like everyone else?
Sheldon: I was otherwise engaged.
Penny: Doing what?
Sheldon: Examining perturbative amplitudes in n=4 supersymmetric theories leading to a re-examination of the ultraviolet properties of multi-loop n=8 supergravity using modern twistor theory.
Penny: ... Well, how about when you were 17?
DMV Worker: Look at that sign up there. Does it say "I give a damn"?
Sheldon: No.
DMV Worker: That's because I don't.
Leonard: You don't need airbags.
Sheldon: What if a simulated van rear-ends me?
Penny: I'll hit you in the face with a pillow.
Ohh, not the pet store!
ReplyDeleteWho writes this show?! How do they come up with the long & complicated scientific explanations & theories? Is there a person at the table who went to MIT & then decided "Forget string theory, I'd rather write comedy for a living." The guy made a genius move!
ReplyDeletePenny + Sheldon is just too freakin funny. Her facial expressions alone are hilarious.
I would have been ever so happy to strike him with a pillow!
"Maybe if I turn off the nightlight I can keep the sheets."
Ha, Leonard's little pet store murmur was fantastic!
ReplyDeleteI have no idea if its the writers that put in all that scientific stuff, but I would imagine they hire a consultant? Otherwise, that's the smartest set of writers ever!
I can't see how "Sheldon " remembers his lines, they are so complicated. There has to be a ton of re-takes.This show is excellent.
ReplyDeleteSheldon driving.... too funny!
A friend of mine went to a taping, and I think he actually said Jim Parsons is pretty much a one-take actor, which makes it all the more impressive!
ReplyDeleteThe newest episode when Leonard et al. leaves Sheldon to go to a restaurant just go to show absolute proof of Sheldon's ridiculously scientific brain. Is there a medical term for this. Loved when his mom came. Well, love the whole show
ReplyDelete