I hated 'Big Bang Theory' but love 'Young Sheldon'
A short post about the long-running spinoff as it enters the finish line
For me personally, one of the more pleasant surprises to come out of the new age of content sharing is that Netflix started streaming Young Sheldon, the prequel spinoff of The Big Bang Theory, one of the most popular CBS/Paramount sitcoms in recent memory. This is, in my opinion, a huge boon for the series, as it can now be discovered by a much larger audience. In this short article then, I want to talk about the show and why I think it is absolutely worth catching up on.
Now, I want to start by stating upfront that I kinda hated The Big Bang Theory.
Ok. Perhaps, ‘hate’ is too strong a word, but it is simply not a sitcom that I ever enjoyed watching. Somebody would put it on the telly and I’d struggle to sit through it. And breakout character Sheldon Cooper (Jim Parsons) was a big reason why. Quite simply, he embodies something I despise about old-school network sitcoms: their tendency to generate humor by extensively focusing on the antics of downright despicable, often unsympathetic asshole protagonists.
A genius theoretical physicist, Cooper combined a huge ego with the personality of a manchild, a trait that made him so irritating that I loathed almost every moment he appeared on screen. So, I was pleasantly surprised to realize that I really enjoyed watching the early adventures of kid Sheldon (Iain Armitage), who is a 9-year-old child prodigy about to attend high school in Texas when Young Sheldon begins.
He is often smarter than everyone around him, yet also very bad at social interactions. But unlike his adult counterpart, young Sheldon comes off as much more likable and endearing. Partially, I’d say this is because when he acts like a petulant child here, it feels far more appropriate, for he actually is a child.
And despite the fact that he is indeed a genius, he still has to deal with a lot of the stuff that kids his age have, like an overactive imagination, having to live with siblings, and a simple lack of understanding of how the world actually works. So, even if you hated Sheldon on Big Bang Theory, you might just come to like him here.
This plays into the fact that Young Sheldon has a considerably different tone from its parent series. It is a lot more emotionally grounded than Big Bang Theory and so avoids overly outlandish or petty character behavior just to score cheap jokes.
In turn, it manages to work as a drama in addition to a comedy, and it grows more dramatic over time, particularly in its fifth and sixth seasons.* So, yes, the show is funny but it can also get serious and hit you emotionally in ways you’d not expect. I was particularly amazed at what it pulled off dramatically with Sheldon’s parents, his grandmother Connie (Annie Potts), and his older brother Georgie (Montana Jordan).
*Fittingly, the series also looks and feels different from Big Bang aesthetically, ditching the three-camera sitcom style in favor of a more cinematic format.
Speaking of which, did I mention that this is, despite its title, an ensemble series? All the family members are very-well developed, and get their own respective storylines, allowing them to function as endearing protagonists in their own right.*
*When I began to revisit the series recently with my parents, I was surprised to discover that Connie doesn’t actually appear until the third episode of the series. It seems that she was likely conceived as a recurring character before the writers recognized that she brought an amazing energy to every single second she’s on screen, and so made her a series regular.Â
Key to this is the fact that the series still adheres to the classic sitcom format of 22 episodes per season (extenuating circumstances notwithstanding). The writers thus have enough time to give every cast member their due, which also allows Sheldon to even occasionally be more of a guest star in some episodes.*
*Perhaps unsurprisingly, a new spinoff series focusing on Georgie Cooper and his wife Amanda is now in development.
Sheldon’s arrival on Netflix was likely meant to coincide with the show’s return for a seventh and final season on CBS in February 2024. This feels like an appropriate place for the series to end, with Sheldon graduating from college and going to grad school.
Sadly, due to the Writer’s Strike and then the SAG Strike, the final season has been shortened to 14 episodes, which means the series has to move at an accelerated pace on its way to the ending. The story arc about Sheldon and his mother going to Germany for the Summer, for instance, was compressed to just the opening three episodes of S7. This was a tad disappointing, as the show had barely one half-hour to show Sheldon adjusting to his new German teacher and classmates.
*This fits the unfortunate trend of long-running popular series with serialized stories getting abbreviated final seasons.
I hope 14 episodes is enough time for the writers to wrap up everything properly without rushing through storylines or cutting corners. There are a LOT of characters that need to get their due, and not a lot of time left to do it.
In any case, if you haven’t checked it out before, then now is the best time to catch up and maybe give the Young Sheldon finale a nice little ratings boost when it airs on TV.
But what do you think? Is Young Sheldon a good series? Is it better or worse than The Big Bang Theory? Anything you’re hoping to see happen in the final season? Please,
Loved young sheldon will miss it but I have tried to watch the Big Bang Theory and I don’t like it
I watched all of the Big Bang Theory, but, beyond the first couple of seasons (which I watched at the age of like 17-18, and I'm sure I would dislike today), it was mostly a hatewatch. Or at least happened at a time when I felt like I could not stop or drop a show partway through. 12 seasons though, oof, that was a slog. For that reason alone, I avoided Young Sheldon entirely. So this is interesting news! Especially as someone who has studied the portrayal of autistic characters and autism on TV (with Sheldon being a pretty frustrating/clearcut example of an autistic-coded character). I would be super keen to understand how (or if) Young Sheldon explores autistic identity with more (any?) nuance.