The Big Bang Theory: The Killer Robot Instability
By fred | January 13, 2009
(S02E12) Back in 2008, The Big Bang Theory had a great run this season. It repeatedly hit ratings-high and that was much deserved as it delivered some of the best episodes in the the show’s history ever to date. So of course, over time I might have grown to expect a lot from this show, a lot of laughs that is. But whether my expectations were high or not doesn’t change anything about the way I feel about this episode : I hated it.
I know that this is a show about geeks (and the hot girl next door — I also heard something about a female geek at some point, but I feel I have yet to see her this season…) and that being realistic has never been the main concern of the show. I know we are dealing with some very “unusual” characters here, which often seem to live in their own world rather where things aren’t quite the same as what we’re used to ourselves.
But this time, they crossed a line.
Basically we had two stories going on this week. For first one was that after hurting Howard’s feelings, Penny was made aware that he had feelings and then forced into having to apologize. And while I liked the interactions between Penny and Howard past the offense, sucker-punch included of course, and actually I liked Penny’s interaction with everyone all around (her not getting the Hulk reference was just great), there’s one bit I didn’t like (that much) : when she lashed out on Howard.
Of course Howard is weird, creepy and pathetic, and of course he’s twisted enough not to see why calling her “doable” isn’t a compliment; but the way she “attacked” him felt quite odd. It was actually uncomfortable to watch, especially because it didn’t seem to come out of frustration, like she couldn’t take it anymore and just exploded, it felt mean and done with an intent to willingly hurt.
But the worst part of this episode was with the boys and “M.O.N.T.E.”, their killer robot. Now at first this was just pure fun, it’s exactly the kind of geeky things you’d expect them to do, but as I said earlier, while I’m fine with them being geeks and living in a somewhat different world, as long as it stay there it’s fine, and usually hilarious, but this week they turned our boys into idiots, careless, indifferent idiots, and that’s not funny.
I can see them destroy their toaster oven, it’s not a problem, it’s actually what you’d expect them to do, it makes sense. But when they go on and have MONTE go through their door like it did, we’re crossing a line. I know it was meant to be funny as Penny got scared and all, just like Sheldon’s line about how she’d be dead if MONTE had wanted to kill her and all, but that was plain wrong to me.
Because the reality is that you don’t destroy the door of your apartment just like that, it’s not like the toaster oven, it’s a pain in the ass to change, it needs to be done right away otherwise anyone can get it, plus it probably doesn’t even belong to you! More importantly, there could have been anyone on the other side of the door, anyone who could have had his or her leg badly hurt, because that thing wouldn’t have stopped but gone though it like butter. There were being right on unconscious, putting people’s live at risk and not even caring (or realizing) it !!
And it didn’t stop there unfortunately, because soon enough Sheldon was mocking Howard’s work, only to find out he couldn’t even… open the toolbox!?? Really?? I’m sorry, but that’s not funny, that’s insulting. We’re not making fun of Sheldon being a geek, or different, we’re new treating like a pure moron who, facing a door, doesn’t know how to open it unless there’s a button “push to open” on it.
Later on, fighting Kripke’s robot – by the way, what the Hell was that accent?? – they did it again, running around in the university, destroying doors and trying to cut somebody’s leg off or something. It was just wrong. And not funny.
This week it felt to me like they crossed a line, like we weren’t laughing with or even making fun of our beloved geeks, but hurting and insulting them for the sake of it, trying to generate laughs at their expense. But it was wrong, mean-spirited, and unfunny. Even episode can’t be a hit, and this one as certainly a miss. I’m confident the next one will have the show back on track with its usual level of hilarity, but this week made for one disappointing introduction to 2009.
What about you : How did you feel about this episode ? Did it make you laugh ? Did you mind Penny being so mean to Howard ? Or MONTE running around ready to hurt anyone who who have had the misfortune to be at the wrong place at the wrong time ?
Posted in Reviews
Shows: The Big Bang Theory
Totally agree. That penny rant was very uncomfortable to watch and I wonder what the decision making process was when they decided to put that in.
all scenes with howard and his mom are gold though.
I thought Sheldon not being able to open the toolbox was a bit stupid.
What did M.O.N.T.E. stand for?
Yeah, Howard and his mom are always good! :)
@momofageek: the Mobile Omni-directional Neutralization and Termination Eradicator
I found Sheldon not being able to open the toolbox funny. As an engineer, I liked him insulting engineering as a little brother to physics yet he can’t understand how to open a box. Most of this episode was bad though and I agree with what you said about Penny and Howard.