The Pulled Groin Extrapolation

This episode has too much Amy and very little, if any, funny jokes. Amy is arguably the weakest character of the show. They started her off as a sort of female Sheldon, but since then her character's personality has been wandering aimlessly while the writers tried to figure out who she is and what she is like. So far, none of their attempts are funny nor interesting.

After a battle between Bernadette and Howard involving living with his mother after their marriage, Sheldon has had enough and gets dropped off at a model train store. Sheldon refuses to take Amy to the wedding of a couple colleagues so Leonard is pushed into it. It turns out they actually have fun. Clueless Amy makes the most of it. The scenes in Howard's bedroom with Bernadette are really creepy.

In a nutshell about this season's ep of "The Big Bang Theory": Sheldon wants to stop at a train store and since Penny has to go to work, it's Raj driving him there as well as Howard and Bernadette to the movies. During the ride, Howard blurts out she's going to move in with his mother after the wedding which doesn't sit too well with Bern. But she eventually agrees to try it for a while. Meanwhile, Amy has stayed back at the apartment while Leonard tries to work on the computer. After some awkward talk, it seems Amy wants Leonard to be her date to a wedding since Sheldon doesn't behave himself well at those things, at least according to Amy. I'll stop there and say that while this ep wasn't as funny as the first two this season, it still had some moments such as Bernadette's impersonation of her future mother-in-law and Amy's characterization during the whole thing. So on that note, I rather still enjoyed "The Pulled Groin Extrapolation" ep of "The Big Bang Theory".

Bravo Mayim Bialik. Pretty much given the episode to shine by the writers she more than rises to the chalenge. She is very funny here, and I liked the way that they paired her up with Leonard for an episode too.

Bernadette isn't very funny in comparison, and of the two female characters they introduced midway through the shows run she is by far my least favourite. From the screechy voice to being a rather 2D character, I'm never disappointed when she doesn't appear. She is better here though marginally.

Overall, this is a fun, rather different sort of episode. AKA - one that doesn't rely heavily on Sheldon to carry it through.

On the plus side, Mayim Bialik is a good actress with lots of experience. That really is a very small plus, however, as her character in this classic TV series is, without a doubt, the most "forced" fit I have ever seen in all of the modern entertainment landscape.

I know the decision was made by Chuck Lorre to move the series toward a modern-day "Friends." Actually, I believe this was what he had in mind all along. The show would never have gotten off the ground starting off like that however, but with the strength of Jim Parsons, Kaley Cuoco, and the many other excellent professionals in the original cast, along with a great start-up story line, we all got hooked. Then the bait and switch took place.

OK, so if Sheldon needed a girlfriend, how could Chuck Lorre really think this was the best option he had? Sheldon's character could be summed up with a lot of different words - but obnoxious has never been one of them. This word fits the Amy character, and Bialik's perfect portrayal of her, "to a T." Leonard described Sheldon as "quirky." That is pretty accurate - not just for Sheldon but for almost all of the others. However, the obnoxious description only fits one character: Amy.

It is obvious that Bialik's entry into the show was long planned - with earlier references to her character Blossom mentioned in previous episodes. Her selection among all of the other available actresses could not have been her real-life scientific background, as Chuck Lorre has tried to explain - to head off, I believe, what he knew would be the resulting criticism of his choice. Jim Parsons, who stands at the top of the show's scientific pyramid, has admitted many times in interviews that he knows nothing about science or technology. So why this whiny, self-absorbed actress and her perfectly matched character?

As for the Friends plot swap, someone may say that "you can't argue with success," but to prove that that success was primarily based on the Friends-swap it would require an analysis with a very long, long path down a lot of decision trees. The show was a success when it was still about this daffy waitress with no last name and her relationship with bunch of nerds across the hall. It would have remained a success with the addition of few minor characters and guests along the way - sparing us the weekly pain of putting up with Amy.