So thereâs this guy whose comments always sort of bothers me even though I half agree with what heâs saying, and I couldnât resist commenting but it turned into an essay and now I just want to share:
âI kinda disagree with your notion on âimproved characterâ⌠frankly I donât think a good character has to be likable. He/she has to have flaws and bring something to the story. By that notion, I personally wouldâve probably prefered a mean Billy because I prefer continuity. This idea that Sheldon has got his entire history wrong is discrediting one of the most popular and iconic characters in Big Bang into nothing more than an idiot. Never mind that Young Sheldon is deliberately not showing key events mentioned in the Big Bang show. Sheldon says that Billy put something deep into his nose. Maybe that was his mind, that whatever was put in his nose wasnât that deep and he just thinks that. Thatâs fine. But the fact is that it must have happened. I saw an article the other day by screenrant (horrible publication like most papers about entertainment that just spat out drivel to appease the creators instead of what people are really thinking but then are people really thinking when they watch these shows?) that Missy apparently forgot her childhood and how she and Sheldon split rooms when they were older and how the easy bake oven story might happen in the future except why would a 12-year-old Missy play with an easy bake oven when easy bake ovens are mostly for elementary kids. This Missy seems keen to grow up. Anyway, I do agree that Billy has become developed. There are hints that heâs going to grow troubled. Theyâre making Billy more relevant and I do love complicated characters. So if theyâre going to do the same to Billy as they did with George Sr, show why Billy became mean to Sheldon (Iâm sure there was a justifiable reason. Sheldon says previously that he wished he was more mindful of Billyâs feelings about his father leaving him when he complained about how heâll never get back the data he lost in his computer and how Billy would never understand that) then Iâm okay with that, just like I do like how theyâre showing a very understandable reason why George Sr is kind of distant to Mary and why heâs having problems committing to his marriage (though he is tryingâŚ) and his family and that the guy made so many sacrifices for his family over his own happiness. George Sr, in my opinion, is the best character in the show. As is George Jr. (even though I wouldâve preferred to see what was said in Big Bang. A drunk father who was too macho, manly, and domineering, and kind of an idiotâŚGeorgie is the only one that fits continuity which is why I have the least problems with him but Iâve come to love George Sr honestly. I love his story arc and how much the character tries, honestly, he tries so hard with his family to be a good husband and father and everyone just puts him down. This man deserves better. He deserves a reward.) though I honestly do wonder if that âcheatingâ will even happen because well you know everything Sheldon says in Big Bang is just a misunderstanding and heâs basically wrong aboutâŚeverything⌠sighs. tbh that does seem to be what the writers are doing. 187 IQ genius, idiot about the things going on around him.â
Iâm sorry Young Sheldonâs lack of continuity and itâs excuse of Sheldon just didnât know, misunderstood the situation, and was just basically wrong about everything will always annoy me. Why you ask? Because the moments where he becomes fragile, where he breaks down and spouts out some childhood tidbits of his are so genuine and seemingly traumatic for him, that Iâm like seriously?Â
Youâre just going to sidebrush the fact that this character seemed bothered that he could never relate to his father because his father wanted him to be into football, hunting, and archery when he wouldâve preferred to do science.Â
Youâre going to sidebrush the arguments his parents had that he listened to but apparently âmisunderstoodâ when his dad was shooting up his motherâs china or when his mother prayed for the will to not grind up glass in his fatherâs own meatloaf?
Youâre going to sidebrush the fact that his mother said that his father once fought a bobcat for a stick of liquorice?
Or the fact that his father after getting angry at the Dolphinâs win, wanted to shot the television and actually did. (I hope this gets shown in Young Sheldon).
Or how Sheldon used to cry after hearing his parents argue and how his mother admonished his father to stop yelling because Shellyâs crying and George Sr answers âHeâs upset because his name is Sheldonâ.
Or how Missy mentions that Sheldon created a Death Ray against the neighborhood kids who used to pick on him but instead pissed off the neighborâs dog (I believe this mightâve been off-handedly mentioned in Young Sheldon though when Georgie asks one of the neighborâs to buy a snowglobe and again when Mary confronts Brenda and Herb about their dog and Brenda mentioned I think the Death Ray)Â
Or how he messed with her Easy Bake oven and it fizzled out her eyebrows so that her mom had to scribble on eyebrows when she entered the second grade (the series happens a bit later when Sheldon is 9 years old so I guess this could be excused but god that screen rant article annoyed the hell out of me).Â
Or how he created a CAT scanner and tried to use it on her hamster Snowball but ended up killing Snowball and suffering radiation burns. How about that saying that came about after that incident, âNot a Snowballâs chance in a CAT scannerâ. That saying is NOT even mentioned in the entire series!!!
Or how he tried to bring free electricity in his own neighborhood only for the Feds to come and ruin his project⌠(though actually I think they did try to make an episode⌠an episode probably exist of this actually so thereâs at least that)
Or how he messed with the staircase for an experiment and broke his fatherâs clavicle.Â
And how he had to go to boarding school (which was never shown in Young Sheldon. It just shows him going to high school with his older brother).Â
Or how their dog Lucky got run over by a truck.
Or how Sheldon asked for a centrifuge for his birthday and got a dirt bike instead and was so upset about it that he came to hate birthdays. They donât even show him hating birthdays! Just that he didnât want to attend a birthday party. What about his own birthday? His and Missyâs?
Am I missing anything else? Please be free to add more if anyone can think of anything.
The point is, Young Sheldon is a good show, but it sucks as a prequel in my opinion. Itâs retconning so much.Â
Exhibit 1, Sheldonâs family which is hinted to be poor IS NOT POOR. They are middle-class.Â
Exhibit 2, young Sheldon for some strange reason is dressed up like heâs a young version of Bill Nye or Urkel instead of the superhero tees thatâs shown throughout the series and we know how neurotic scientist does not like change. Why is he dressed up like a middle-schooler as an adult but like a grown up (a dorky grown up) as a child?Â
Exhibit 3, George Sr is shown to drink a lot but no where does it indicate that his drinking is causing problems to the family aside from the fact that itâs eating their finances. Itâs hinted that George Srâs drinking has caused problems in his marriage with how much Mary wanted him to stop. In Young Sheldon, Mary barely tries to do anything about George Srâs drinking.Â
Exhibit 4, Mary in Big Bang seems exasperated by Sheldonâs neurotics, in Young Sheldon, she indulges them (though it is likely she changes her methods of dealing with Sheldon later onâŚ)
And again like I mentioned, it doesnât bother to show the scenes mentioned by Sheldon. Instead it deliberately tries to make it like heâs got his personal memories wrong. He. The guy with the eidetic memory who can remember Pennyâs outfits and menstrual cycle and also when Howard and Leonard made a pact to never date Priya. Like wth is with this show. Iâm sorry as a Big Bang fanâŚIdk how you can like Young Sheldon without ignoring the fact that itâs a prequel. Because itâs a great show, but it sucks as a prequel.