The Big Bang Theory: The Proton Resurgence (6x22)

I had a lot of fun watching this episode! My biggest complaint was simply that it didn't connect the two story lines at all. It's not a big deal, but there was no interaction between the Penny, Leonard, and Sheldon plot and the Raj, Howard, and Bernadette plot. I would have liked to see just a hint of a connection, such as Howard calling to ask Leonard's advice about the missing dog, or something. But I'll look at each section separately, and examine their pros and cons.

Sheldon and Leonard remember back to their childhood and their favorite TV show, starring a scientist called "Professor Proton." Apparently he's still for hire, so the two boys decide to pay him to come hang out with them, basically. Penny tags along with them as well. When Professor Proton shows up, he's being played by Bob Newhart, which is hilarious and awesome. It turns out that Professor Proton, real name Arthur, is fed up and discouraged with his life as a scientist that nobody respects. Sheldon tells him about how much his show meant to him as a kid, and Arthur is happy to hear that his work influenced Sheldon and so many others. His pace maker starts to malfunction so they have to take him to the hospital, but he's okay in the end.

There were so many jokes that I loved from this section of the episode. I loved it when Sheldon kept Leonard awake because he was so excited to meet Professor Proton, until finally Leonard just gets up and hits Sheldon.

Arthur's reaction to meeting the boys and Penny was really funny. He had been taking forever to walk up the stairs, and Leonard apologizes, saying "we should have told you about the broken elevator."  He responds: "I agree."

He also asks if Sheldon is dangerous, which I thought was funny, and when told that he is a genius, says "that doesn't answer my question." Later, he asks Leonard if "that blonde girl" is really his girlfriend. When Leonard says yes, Arthur says "you're the genius." I laughed!

Arthur was completely flabbergasted by Sheldon's fan-boy behavior, and even at one point asked if this was really happening. One of my favorite moments, however, was when Arthur says that he can power a clock with a potato, and Penny exclaims: "Shut up! You can do that?!" Later, she asks him how it works - is it a trick potato or a trick clock? - and Arthur asks Leonard "what do you two talk about?"

Sheldon's speech to Arthur was really sweet, and his devotion to his childhood hero, while played for laughs somewhat, was actually a very sincere character moment for Sheldon, and I loved seeing it.

In the other thread, Raj gives his dog Cinnamon to Howard and Bernadette to watch for the day, and they manage to lose her. They try to find her, but meanwhile someone calls Raj and Raj gets the dog back. Bernadette gives him crap for not telling them right away that the dog was safe.

What I liked about this episode was that it subverted some of my expectations. It was a rather simple premise, but it's hilarious that at the end, instead of Raj yelling at them for losing his dog, he gets yelled at for not easing Bernadette and Howard's worry. I don't have too much left to say, other than that there was a fantastic moment in here:

Howard and Berny are out looking for Cinnamon, when they realize that maybe she doesn't recognize her name without Raj's accent. They try using it, and Bernadette actually does a pretty good job. Disturbingly, Howard tells Berny that the voice is a turn-on. This made me laugh out loud!

I actually surprisingly don't have much bad to say about this episode. As I mentioned at the beginning, I just would have loved a stronger connection between the two plots. Other than that, I had a lot of fun with this one!

8/10