Tom Beasley reviews the latest episode of The Big Bang Theory in a week where Raj and Howard formed a band and Sheldon continued to showcase an inability to cope with the changing relationships in his life…
After three slightly bizarre weeks at the start of this season of The Big Bang Theory, ‘The 2003 Approximation’ has the show back at its comedic best, with every character getting a moment to shine and narrative earthquakes taking a back seat. This was the show funnier than it has been for a very long time, shifting the relationship drama to a distant back seat in order to focus on jokes.
There were two main strands to this episode, with the first following Sheldon after the revelation that Leonard was to move out in order to live across the hall with new wife Penny. This triggered Sheldon to launch a disastrous hunt for a new roommate before eventually deciding to regress his existence back to 2003, before he met Leonard and before the pesky spectre of emotion had infected his personality. Elsewhere, Stuart told Howard and Raj that he was looking for a free band to perform live in the comic book store, prompting the best friends to resurrect an old idea of theirs – musical duo Footprints on the Moon.
It was Howard and Raj who got the opportunity to shine this week. Their escapades, as they wrote their infuriatingly catchy first single ‘Thor vs. Indiana Jones’, were a joy to behold. The show always works when it goes musical, as with Howard’s song to Bernadette in the seventh season, which remains the emotional high point of The Big Bang Theory to date. Bizarrely, the writing process for this song also brought back Raj’s girlfriend Emily, who was last seen trying to have sex with him in a graveyard. That’s a relationship that needs considerably more development.
The other half of the episode was less roundly successful, but did find plenty of humour in Sheldon’s search for a roommate as willing to bend to his whims as Leonard. There was less success in his remodelling of the apartment to resemble the sparse, pre-Leonard days and it was a strange moment of backwards momentum that had Leonard and Penny wilt and restore the living arrangements to their original setup. The step forward of the marriage at the beginning of this season has been almost completely erased by this refusal on the show’s part to allow Sheldon to be upset. His relationship with Amy has even cooled to the point that they could have a Skype conversation this week, even though it wasn’t a friendly one.
This was The Big Bang Theory completely back in its comfort zone and, whilst it excelled when it focused on allowing the characters to simply be funny around each other, the narrative decisions were often disappointing. It’s as if the show is trying to quietly bring the characters back to their original positions and hoping that the audience won’t notice. The genie can’t go back in the bottle, though, and a show in its ninth season should really be following through on its storytelling risks.
That said, the primary role of The Big Bang Theory is as a sitcom premise and, in that respect, ‘The 2003 Approximation’ was a successful half an hour of disposable television. As the series progresses, however, there needs to be some sort of resolution to the tensions that are currently plaguing the characters and their various relationships. With Laura Spencer, who plays Emily, now promoted to series regular, it seems that her and Raj could have turbulent times ahead.
Now, when can I get that song on iTunes?
Tom Beasley – Follow me on Twitter for movies, wrestling and jokes about David Cameron.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PL18yMRIfoszEaHYNDTy5C-cH9Oa2gN5ng&v=BqcluuxZR9E
Originally published October 16, 2015. Updated April 14, 2018.
