Raj’s inability to speak to women came up again tonight when it came time to meet a woman Penny (Kaley Cuoco) hooked him up with. Seeing Raj stuff his face with pie was a little disgusting and sad. The story about one person being depressed when all of his/her friends are in relationships is hardly a new idea. It’s been done on virtually every show.

The twist to the way The Big Bang Theory went about it was to have Raj go out with a deaf woman, Emily, who is played by Katie LeClerc, from ABC Family’s Switched at Birth. Although it was a whole new twist to the familiar story, I really didn’t think it was executed very well.

Watching Raj go on a date with Emily required Howard Wolowitz (Simon Helberg) to join them since Raj didn’t know sign language. The situations were funny at first, but Raj’s big-shot attitude were really not that funny. Coupled with a remarkably predictable gold digger subplot, it made this aspect of the episode a big disappointment.

The revelation that Raj’s family is incredibly wealthy didn’t come as a big surprise to me. It was to the supporting characters, as we learned. I’m curious to see how Raj’s known access to money will change the way any of the characters act around him other than footing him with the bill for lunch. I don’t suspect any significant changes will be evident, but I think the writers could have some more fun with it in the future.

Rating: 6

The pairing of Amy (Mayim Bialik) and Leonard (Johnny Galecki) felt like a little bit of a strange idea initially because the characters often give off a very different energy. Mayim did a very nice job at the wedding party. Her Amy got Leonard to open up and have some fun eventually.

Due to her relations with Sheldon (Jim Parsons), I didn’t see Amy as falling for Leonard. It never happened and despite the way Amy felt, I don’t think Leonard necessarily fell in love with her. She’s just overreacting to his upbeat attitude. A guy CAN have a good time with a girl that doesn’t lead to love and/or sex.

Melissa Rauch, Simon Helberg

For Sheldon’s part, he didn’t take Leonard’s comments about his groin too well. Leonard obviously didn’t mean it in a sexual manner, so it made Sheldon’s little chop to Leonard’s shoulder all the funnier.

The marital business with Howard Wolowitz (Simon Helberg) and Bernadette (Melissa Rauch) was hysterical. I don’t blame Bernadette one bit for not wanting to live with Howard’s mother after they get married. Who would? Howard’s got some serious mommy issues and his mother, for her part, also has some attachment issues. It’s going to be like pulling teeth if we’re to see Howard leave the nest.

“The Pulled Groin Extrapolation” is another one of those good examples of how an episode can do very well and only have four characters at the center of attention. Not having Sheldon at the center of an episode is a nice thing to see every now and then. Jim Parsons is excellent no matter how large of a role he has to have in making an episode work.

Rating: 8.5

The unknown origin or a red chair drove Sheldon (Jim Parsons) out of his mind in this episode. We’ve all known Sheldon has had an obsessive compulsive behavior, so it wasn’t much of a surprise to see him go a little crazy when he learned Penny’s (Kaley Cuoco) “new” red chair was actually in the garbage. Someone didn’t want it and it wasn’t apparent why at first.

As the episode went on, it was clear that some sort of creature was living inside it. It was really silly, but it worked. I actually liked seeing Sheldon resorting to turning to Amy (Mayim Bialik) for help in asking Penny to get rid of the chair. As for her request to be kissed where she’s never been kissed before, how could you not laugh at that exchange with Shelton? “Like Salt Lake City?” I loved it! It was the line of the night.

Mayim Bialik as Amy, Jim Parsons as Sheldon

The cybersex story with Leonard (Johnny Galecki) and Priya (Aarti Mann) was pretty good, but I didn’t think it was as funny as the mystery surrounding the red chair. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing when Raj (Kunal Nayyar) and Wolowitz (Simon Helberg) demonstrated that kissing device. It was a really disturbing thing to watch. You have to hand it to Nayyar and Helberg for being willing to act so silly in that scene.

I thought the story with Leonard and Priya was too predictable for it to totally win me over. Listening to Sheldon give Leonard advice with the computer from the other room while he and Priya are stripping down helped keep it from being devoid of laughs.

Unfortunately I have missed a few episodes over the past few seasons, but I’m really happy to see the show is still really funny. I think the quality is down from where it used to be. I think part of that has to do with the start of a new season. In my experience, writers seem to come back a little rusty. The Big Bang Theory should be back to its true form in no time. I have faith in Chuck Lorre.

Rating: 7

The one-night stand between Penny and Raj was sure to bring about a healthy amount of drama within the group. There’s no way Leonard, for one, was going to love seeing Raj and Penny come out of his bedroom after having sex. Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on your point of view, Raj and Penny didn’t have traditional sex. Raj’s night pretty much ended with the putting on of the condom. I honestly didn’t expect that storyline, but it was worth the jokes that accompanied that revelation, most notably the “quickdraw” reference from Penny.

Kaley Cuoco as Penny, Kunal Nayyar as Raj

The drama that came about because of Raj’s penis poetry for Bernadette (Melissa Rauch) was very much overshadowed by the bulk of the episode. I wish the writers would have come up with another joke or two and dedicated another 30-second scene (or longer) to it.

I’m really glad to see the writers bring up the subject of Penny’s acting career. It’s been something that has bugged me for a while. She’s never really doing any acting… so why not move back to Nebraska? With Penny feeling uncomfortable for a while with the group after her night with Raj, it made for a perfect opportunity to explore that story again. Penny’s hemorrhoid commercial wasn’t exactly a huge acting gig, but it’s something. I just hope Penny is able to do a little acting every now and again to satisfy that area of the show’s story. I don’t necessarily want or need to see her become a huge success.

The season premiere did a fairly good job of addressing the drama brought about with the one-night stand between Raj and Penny, but I can’t say the episode had a whole lot of laugh-out-loud material. The show’s balance between stories seemed a little out of whack as well. I’ve come to expect more from Chuck Lorre and his writers. I trust they’ll get things ironed out as they get back into the swing of things. New seasons usually start off a little rusty.

Rating: 7

Sheldon is enjoying his time alone terrorizing the local Thai delivery place with his thoroughly intricate order when all of the sudden Penny screams for Sheldon’s help from across the hall. Sheldon scurries over to find that Penny has fallen in the shower and dislocated her shoulder. He isn’t surprised as he points out that she has no adhesive bath mat or stickers on the floor of her tub. He goes on to talk about the whimsical duck stickers he has in his tub as he helps her out of the tub, hence the title, “The Adhesive Duck Deficiency.” Seeing as how she can’t drive, she begs Sheldon to take her to the emergency room. He refuses because he can’t drive worth a damn but eventually he begrudgingly gives in once realizing how much pain she’s in. ”It does seem rather ironic that for want of 99 cent adhesives ducks we both might die in a fiery car crash.”

Johnny Galecki, Kunal Nayyar, Simon Helberg

Meanwhile back at the campsite, Wolowitz has gone to see if there are any potential babes in the nearby campsites. He returns having only found a couple of women in their fifties and he and Raj are excited at the prospect of desperate menopausal women. Then Wolowitz splits the cookies they gave him with Leonard and Raj while telling Raj more about the women. Apparently they drive VW microbus and wear tie-dye shirts. So you guessed it, the cookies are magic and the three little geeks get baked.

After getting Penny dressed, and accidentally feeling her up, Sheldon begins the long and arduous task of driving Penny to the ER at 20mph. Sheldon panics over every red light and the fact that Penny’s check engine light is on, which she claims is always on. Then he fills out her paperwork at the ER and for cause of injury he puts “lack of adhesive ducks.” Realizing that he’s giving Penny a migraine, he attempts to be more supportive but his comforting face is even creepier than his normal one. Eventually she gets sent home pumped full of pain meds and as Sheldon puts Penny to bed, she demands that he sing Soft Kitty to her (the song Sheldon made her sing to him when he was sick in season 1). In a scene that had me practically peeing in my pants, she then demands he sing it with her as a round.

Equally messed up, Leonard, Wolowitz, and Raj do everything from zone out while starring at the stars to eating every thing in their cooler in a matter of minutes. The funniest part had to be when Leonard ponders why he has such a sucky name, while Raj wonders what it would be like to speak the language of rabbits and become their King, and Wolowitz shares how he lost his virginity to his cousin. Three different conversations happening at once and all three funny as hell. Definitely the funniest part of the whole episode. I think the funniest line had to be, “One day, I hold a great ball for the president of France, but the rabbits, they hate me and don’t come. I’m embarrassed, so I eat all the lettuce in the world and make them watch.” Eventually they realize what Wolowitz has said and their stoned monologues turn to dogging Wolowitz. I don’t know, it could have been that some of the characters were drugged out, but this episode was one of the best episodes of Big bang Theory I’ve seen.

Rating: 9.6

Turns out, Sheldon has some childhood issues with fighting which stems from his parent’s dysfunctional marriage. It’s the funniest thing going on in the episode yet Sheldon is usually so hilariously arrogant that to see him acting all damaged is kind of sad. During the initial fight, Sheldon scurried off to make snow cones to drown out the yelling and successfully ended their argument. However, neither Leonard nor Penny is willing to apologize and their fighting worsens. It also begins to have a trickle down effect. While at the comic book store, Wolowitz agrees with Leonard while Raj sides with Penny. Soon the two are having their own platonic lover’s spat about the time Wolowitz ditched Raj at a cooking class because he was on a juice fast with his mother, ha. Then Sheldon has a meltdown and flees.

Jim Parsons as Sheldon, Kaley Cuoco as Penny

Unable to handle the disruptions their fight is causing him he decides to interfere, first visiting Penny at the Cheesecake Factory to try to convince Penny to apologize. In usually Sheldon fashion he makes things worse, so he then asks Leonard to apologize. I love how he doesn’t really care who apologizes to who or what they are even fighting about; he just wants them to stop. So after making the fight worse, he flees the apartment in search of a less screechy atmosphere. He heads over to Raj’s place but Raj is having an online-cam fight with his parents about attending a wedding in India so he can put in some face time with some girl who just got her stomach stapled before she gets thin. Then Sheldon goes to casa de Wolowitz but leaves after hearing Wolowitz and his Mother scream at each other while she’s on the toilet.

Eventually Penny and Leonard, who’ve gone searching for him, find him at the comic book store. He’s nesting in the corner, reading graphic novels, and ignoring their attempts to get him to come home. Penny promises not fight anymore to which Sheldon responds, “I’ve heard that before. Then the next thing you know I’m hiding in my bedroom, while my mom is shouting that Jesus would forgive her if she put ground glass in my dad’s meatloaf.” Leonard tells him to deal with childhood crap but its Penny who get through to him by giving him the “sometimes we fight, but that doesn’t mean we love you any less” speech that you’d give to an eight year old. Then she makes Leonard buy him a comic and a toy and all is well. Penny and Leonard work out their differences too and Penny finds a different couch for her friend Justin to crash on, Sheldon’s.

Rating: 7.9

While preparing for a day of kite-fighting with the guys, Leonard runs into Penny in the hall and learns she is having friends over for some football game. It’s about time an episode like this happened because you always hear about Penny’s friends but you never see her hanging out with anybody except Leonard and the other nerds. Seeing as how he wasn’t invited, Leonard suspects that Penny is embarrassed of him but she insists it’s only because she doesn’t want him to get bored considering none of her friends are scientists. She invites him to the next get together but after realizing he doesn’t actually have any friends who aren’t scientists, he starts to get nervous. 

Meanwhile during the Kite-fight, Wolowitz ditched Raj to hopelessly chase after some girl thereby causing Raj to lose his Indian fighting kite to Sheldon. The whole incident has Raj questioning his friendship with Wolowitz considering Wolowitz keeps ditching him for girls he doesn’t have a shot in hell with. Wolowitz tries to make it up to Raj for being a sucky friend, but the Hello Kitty replacement kite isn’t cutting it. Desperate to get Raj back, Wolowitz treats him to a day out at the La Brea tar pits where he again ditches him for some random girl walking by only this time Raj both expects and accepts it. Their relationship, though probably not that healthy, is definitely hilarious. 

Leonard tries to learn as much as possible about football so he won’t embarrass Penny and is shocked to find out that Sheldon already knows all about football. When asked how, he states, “I grew up in Texas. Football is ubiquitous in Texas. There’s Pro-football, college football, high school football, Pee-wee football, in fact every form of football except the original, European football, which most Texans believe to be a commie plot.” Whenever Sheldon talks about Texas I can never stop laughing. Other gems of his Texan knowledge include, “If you’re interested, I also know about frying meat that isn’t chicken as if it were chicken,” and, “If you like, after the game I’ll take you outside and teach you how to shoot close enough to a raccoon that it craps itself.” Leonard passes on the other offers but has Sheldon school him in football so when the big game rolls around he’s more or less ready. 

Unfortunately all his football knowledge doesn’t save him from making an ass out of himself. In fact, it helps perpetuate it and all his awkward text book observations have Penny trying to gag him with a piece of pizza. When Sheldon stops by to borrow bread from Penny (he used all his making toast in his new Cylon toaster) he asks Leonard if he is fitting in with Penny’s friends only he uses big words so Penny’s jock friends can’t understand him, lol. He then offers a way out to Leonard by asking him to go kite fighting but Leonard refuses to give up seeing as how there is only 3 minutes left in the game. Then Penny informs him that’s its only three minutes away from half-time not the end of the game, to which Leonard bolts. As her friends stare at her puzzled Penny just shrugs, stating, “Yep, that’s my boyfriend…he’s really smart.” 

Rating: 8.0

So, “The Creepy Candy Coating Corollary” is pretty much split into two separate storylines. The first being Wolowitz wanting to be setup with one of Penny’s friends and the second being Sheldon facing off against one of his hated enemies in a fantasy card playing game. The episode starts with Penny being forced to play some fantasy card game called Mystic Warlords of Ka-whatever with Leonard, Wolowitz, and Raj. Sheldon, who finds the game unchallenging due to his photographic memory, sits out attending to more important things. He then inadvertently ruins the game for everyone when he innocently states all the cards left in the deck and Penny is only too grateful to leave. Once she’s gone, Wolowitz reminds Leonard of the pact they made stating that if either one of them ever got a hot girlfriend then they had to get their girlfriend to set the other up with one of their hot friends. Meanwhile, Raj wants to use Sheldon’s photographic memory in a Mystic Warlords tournament to win $500.

Wil Wheaton

After constant pressuring from Wolowitz, Leonard informs Penny of his pact, choosing to ask her after having just impressed her with some love-making skills he learned on Google. She reluctantly agrees to set Wolowitz up and goes to work planning a double date. Enter Wolowitz’s date, a pretty yet kind of mousy looking girl who Wolowitz strikes out with repeatedly in an attempt to find any common interests. When all seems hopeless, a phone call from Wolowitz’s over-bearing mother saves the day and suddenly sparks fly as the two bond over maternal war stories. Leonard just watches the dysfunction in wonder as Penny pats herself on the back for a job well done.

Meanwhile over at the comic book store, Sheldon learns that Wil Wheaton (Star Trek: The Next Generation) has entered the Mystic Warlords tournament. He recalls that when he was a boy, he idealized Wheaton’s character, Ensign Wesley Crusher, and traveled all the way to Mississippi to attend a Sci-Fi convention only to be horribly let down when Wil Wheaton decided not to appear. He has since vowed “eternal hatred for Wil Wheaton” and placed him on his all time enemies list in-between Joel Schumacher and some bully from childhood who used to put dog poop on his bicycle. Raj takes advantage of Sheldon’s rage and gets him to enter the tournament as his partner. The tournament proves all too easy for Sheldon who takes down such comic book patronages as “lonely Larry” and “Captain Sweatpants.” A few matches and several Wrath of Khan quotes later, Sheldon has his dream realized when he begins to decimate Wil Wheaton.

One card away from victory, Sheldon decides to go into his tirade of why he hates Wil Wheaton when Wheaton suddenly reveals that his grandmother had just died and he had to attend her funeral instead of the convention. He rubs more salt into the wound by apologizing for disappointing such an obvious fan and Sheldon’s guilt gets the better of him. Much to Raj’s disappointment Sheldon throws to game only to learn when Wil Wheaton starts bragging, that there was no funeral and Wheaton’s grandma never died. It ends with Sheldon screaming Wheaton’s name in fury in a very over-dramatic Star Trek fashion.

Rating: 8.5

So the episode basically starts with the whole gang celebrating Columbus Day by sitting around watching Chris Columbus movies (Goonies, Gremlins, etc.) It doesn’t take long for it to come out that Raj is probably going to get deported because the research project he was running ran into a dead end. When the university finds out, they’ll fire him and his visa will be revoked.  Raj, not wanting to return to India because he has grown to love his friends and the taste of beef, asks the group or ideas. Everyone agrees that Raj should try to get another job at the university except for Sheldon who thinks Koothrappali should “wander the high seas as a stateless pirate.” 

Raj attempts to get another job in the astrophysics department. However, his nervous disorder that keeps him from speaking to women presents a problem when one of his other colleagues is a woman. Needless to say he doesn’t get the job after making an ass out of himself by drinking alcohol to dumb down his nerves. Luckily, or not so luckily depending how you look at it, Sheldon comes along to save the day by offering Raj a job to work with him. Correction ‘for’ him. To which Koothrappali responds, “Okay, please don’t take this the wrong way but I’d rather swim butt naked across the Ganges, with a paper cut on my nipple, and die a slow agonizing death from a viral infection, than work with you.” Despite his big words he takes the job out of desperation. 

Meanwhile, with Raj now driving Sheldon everywhere, Leonard and Penny get to enjoy the apartment Sheldon-free. However, it doesn’t take long for a new pest to present itself. Wolowitz, who is used to spending all his free time with Koothrappali, has now found that he is alone and bored and begins to intrude on Penny and Leonard’s alone time. He goes into full suffocation mode until they finally snap but then they feel bad for hurting his feelings and begrudgingly decide to just put up with him.  

Things are similarly worked out for Sheldon and Raj when Raj quits working for Sheldon because of Sheldon’s superiority complex. After realizing that the equation he and Raj were fighting over was right only after Raj fixed it, Sheldon asks Raj to return to work for him. Koothrappali still desperate for a job accepts Sheldon’s half-assed apology and the two return to sitting around starting at a dry erase board. 

One thing that did get a little old was all the Indian jokes. It was like as soon as Koothrappali had more than a few lines to say the writers had to make sure to get in as many jokes about India as they could; overcrowded, cow gods, outsourcing. Some were really funny but it started getting old. Okay we get it, he’s from India, move it along. Another thing that was kind of a let down was how uneven the storylines seemed. The main storyline overpowered the side story so much, there really didn’t seem to be a point in having it. Luckily this episode still generally had good dialogue to fall back on. This wasn’t by any means one of the best episodes the show has produced, but it was entertaining none the less.

Rating: 7.7

This episode starts off with the Penny cooking french toast in Sheldon and Leonard’s apartment, a task made entertaining because it utterly annoys Sheldon who insists it is oatmeal day. The scene establishes that Penny and Leonard’s relationship has obviously progressed since last episode when they almost gave up on each other. Here we find out she stayed the night at Leonard’s because they broke her bed, so obviously the disappointing sex situation has been rectified. Though Penny and Leonard’s friendship was always funny, I think they are funnier as a couple. The dynamic is no longer Leonard embarrassing himself in front of Penny but rather the two of them setting up jokes for one another. It brings a fresh angle to show that I think made it funnier.

Not to mention Penny has always been funny on her own. Unlike Sheldon’s jokes which are funny because they spew from an overly intelligent brain, Penny’s absurd homespun comments are funny for the opposite reason. Example: after Sheldon explains that they are not watching cartoons, they’re watching anime; she responds with, “Anime, ya know I knew a girl in high school named Anna May. Anna May Fletcher. She was born with one nostril, and then she had this bad nose job and basically wound up with three.” WTF!

Sheldon is growing increasingly annoyed at the constant presence of Penny in his apartment. After Leonard basically tells him to get used to it, Sheldon is left with no other choice than to devise his own plan for dealing with Penny. He does what any roommate would do, he starts using chocolates as positive reinforcement for what he considers correct behavior. Every time she agrees to be quite or moves out of his seat, he throws her a chocolate. When Leonard catches wind of Sheldon’s plan he puts a stop to it, refusing to let his girlfriend be trained like a dog. By far one of the funniest moments in the show came when Sheldon then sprays Leonard with a water bottle for being uncooperative yelling, “Bad Leonard!”

Meanwhile, outside of Sheldon and Leonard’s apartment, Wolowitz and Koothrappali have devised yet another way to meet girls. This time the women of choice are “goth chicks” and Wolowitz and Koothrappali have dressed accordingly, hence the name of this episode, “The Gothowitz Deviation.” The showpiece of their new all black outfits are tattoo sleeves. For those who don’t know, tattoo sleeves are thin, flesh colored pieces of material with a tattoo print on them. Worn by posers and douche bags alike, they go over your arms and it looks like you are tattooed. Though this bait works, and Wolowitz and Koothrappali score two genuine goths, their excitement is short lived when the two ladies take them to a real tattoo shop. Wolowitz tries to get a tat on his ass but after the first prick, succumbs to the pain, and their ruse is exposed. The girls ditch them for being phonies and both guys are left fabricating an alternate ending to their night to tell other people.

Both storylines were equally funny and had me in hysterics all night. Although, the element that made this episode, and has been consistently making the show worth watching, is the dialogue. I can’t find smarter or funnier dialogue in any other show. What other show employs behavioral psychology as a comedic plot device? What other show has an astrophysicist wearing tattoo sleeves, talking about John Grisham novels with goth girls? There is an originality to the show that isn’t often found in other sitcoms today and I for one am loving every second of it.

Rating: 9.2