Early episodes of the Big Bang Theory are really rough
I recently watched all of Young Sheldon on Netflix and really loved it. I'd seen some BBT before but never really watched it. I always found it kind of funny and kind of mediocre.
But since I loved Young Sheldon, I decided to give it a go.
The first episode has a "joke" about a "transvestite" in the first 5 minutes. And the primary source of "humor" in the first 3 or 4 episodes is about how these 4 creepy dudes don't know how to handle themselves around their new hot neighbor, Penny. It's not funny, but there's a laugh track of people just DYING laughing.
This gets better. By ep 4 or 5, we're starting to get some actual jokes that aren't just "look how much of a creepy piece of shit these guys are." Oh. And btw, the SHOW thinks it's "oh look at these poor guys who are socially inept." NAH bro, they're creeps.
But like I said, it gets better. Somewhat. I'm still in SSN 1, and I have hope for the seasons that follow. Hoping it gets with the times as the times come.
So anyway, today I watched episode ... like 15 or so?
And Sheldon's hot sister Missy visits. I point out that she's hot because the entire episode is back to the same "humor" of episode 1.
They ogle her. They won't stop talking to her. They keep trying to impress her. And then it gets worse.
Leonard talks to Sheldon in private and convinces him to be protective of his sister, to get Howard & Rajah to back off. It backfires and Sheldon tells Leonard to stay away too.
But all these "dude" conversations between them are about who gets to "have" his sister. Like she's property. Like she belongs to any of them.
Penny & Missy walk in on them being dirtbags. And Missy walks Sheldon into private and tells him he doesn't get a say over her love life. Good on her. And in terms of the show, it ... comes up short. By a mile.
What the show should have portrayed was all of them being respectful to Missy. Flirting, sure. A little jealousy between friends, maybe. But on top a foundation of respect, respect that was never present, and never is toward any women in this show.
But let's consider another way to play this out, something I'd really love to see TV model. Let's say one of the friends is being a creep. Pushing too hard. Being inappropriate. Not being respectful.
Well then one of the other guy friends should pull him aside and tell him to knock it the fuck off.
Of course, women can take care of themselves, and I think its great when a show models a woman standing up for herself and a man being held accountable in that regard.
But I also think men need to hold eachother accountable, and I'm not sure I've ever seen this modeled in a show.
And in the end, none of them were held accountable. Sheldon got hit in the balls by Missy for being patriarchal and wanting to control her reproductive organs. That's something.
But the other three were not held accountable at all. All three of them proceeded to GO ACROSS THE HALL (she abandoned Sheldon's apartment for Penny's to get away from them) to ask her out one-by-one and be turned down. Asking her out isn't necessarily a bad thing. It can be respectful. But none of these guys were respectful at any point in time. And the show makes a joke of it, like its no big deal.
This was a bad episode. There's a bit of this energy in almost every episode so far, but it hadn't been this bad since the first few episodes. They all suck. But Howard, especially, is a total piece of shit - and the show, again, thinks its just funny and cute.
I'm gonna keep watching it. It is moderately entertaining.
I doubt I would have picked up on ANY of these problems 15 years ago. Hm.
And oddly enough, Sheldon - the one who has the least amount of social skills - is the least bad person in the show, at least with regard to women. The only time Sheldon has been a misogynist was this episode. The others are misogynists in literally every episode so far.
I just needed to bitch about this. *shrug*. Old shows are rough. Don't even get me started on How I Met Your Mother (Ted is the worst person, even worse than Barney)
P.S. Definitely part of my problem with this stuff is that its wrong. But perhaps it irks me so much because I hate the influence that these kinds of things had on me when I was young, and how it affected my behavior toward women as a teen & young adult.