The Big Bang Theory: The Thanksgiving Decoupling (7x09)

This Thanksgiving themed episode lacked a lot of the magic that usually comes from special holiday episodes of shows. It was basic, had some decent jokes, but it also had a lot of stupid moments and poorly developed threads. Let's take a look at the plot.

Howard invites everyone over to his house for Thanksgiving with his mother. While the group is initially hesitant, they all agree to go. The day is almost ruined, however, when Penny mentions how she and Zack got married at one of those "fake" chapels in Las Vegas at a previous Thanksgiving. The group then tells her that the marriage was real. Leonard is understandably a bit upset that his girlfriend is married, but he handles it poorly, making Penny feel terrible about her mistake.

At the Wolowitz house, the cooking falls to Raj. Bernadette and Amy are supposed to help, but they are much more caught up in the gossip about Penny and Zack. Howard is forced to spend time with his father-in-law, who ends up bonding with Sheldon over football and beer, and totally ignores Howard. Penny then invites Zack over to sign the annulment papers, and Leonard is mad that he's actually going to be there on Thanksgiving. However, they sign the papers after some hesitation from the dimwitted Zack. As everyone sits down to dinner, a drunk Mike (Bernadette's dad) tells Howard that he's not the worst son-in-law, and Howard is pleased. Penny and Leonard, who have been fighting throughout the episode, finally make up, as Penny apologizes for marrying Zack, and Leonard apologizes for the way he reacted to it.

So, as far as plots go, it was your basic fare. I guess I'll just briefly discuss the jokes that worked, and the jokes that did not. This show has had its problems with being politically correct before, and I have to admit there were a few moments in here where they were seriously edging up to the line.

The bad jokes: Raj makes a comment about Thanksgiving involving "Indians providing the food." That really just rubbed me the wrong way, because it was consciously playing on a very annoying misconception about Native Americans and proper terminology. At another point, Sheldon, clearly intoxicated, slapped Amy on the ass. She appeared delighted at the physical attention. This gag is getting old, and it seemed out of character for Sheldon to do something like that, since he doesn't ordinarily express any sign of physical attraction. Also, a lot of jokes were made at the expense of Howard's obese mother. Now, these jokes are still pretty funny when Howard is the one making them, but there was something slightly distasteful about Mike and Sheldon laughing about her. I mean, they are her guests, after all. Also, Penny not knowing that chapels in Las Vegas are real? Come on. Penny constantly vacillates between a character with real depth and intelligence, and one who is conveniently stupid for the plot. Some consistency would be nice.

The good jokes: Bernadette eating marshmallows in the kitchen was hilarious. There's this great moment when Howard comes back in the kitchen to complain about the fact that he's being ignored, but when Zack shows up, Amy, Bernadette, and Raj all rush out to follow the drama. Bernadette then rushes back in and says she really wants to hear about how sad Howard is, so she'll be back in five minutes. That cracked me up. I liked seeing the Zack character again, actually. His stupidity, unlike Penny's, always makes me laugh. Mike is a pretty humorous character, and drunk Sheldon was amusing (barring the spanking thing with Amy, which I already mentioned was eye-roll worthy).

So, as you can tell, I'm sort of split on this one. Some things were funny, some things were distasteful, and on the whole it just wasn't particularly memorable or special in any way. I guess it wasn't horrendously bad, but it did nothing to make me give it a good rating, either.

5/10