The Big Bang Theory: The Graduation Transmission (8x22)

One plot thread was really cute, and the other was sort of just run of the mill. Let's take a look.

Leonard is going to give a speech at the graduation of his alma mater high school. He and Penny are all set to take a trip to New Jersey, but bad weather forces the airlines to cancel the flight. Penny calls his old school and arranges for him to give the speech via Skype. Leonard gives his speech, but half way through realizes that he's being really boring. He decides to address the rest of his speech to those kids who felt invisible through high school. He assures them that even though people pick on them now, they're spending this time becoming interesting. When somebody finally does take notice, they will be appreciated.

So, this plot thread was really great for the most part. There were a couple of missed opportunities, though. First, they missed the chance to go out on location and have Leonard and Penny act in a new setting. I don't really understand the point of throwing in the whole flight being cancelled wrench. It sort of seemed like just an excuse to save some money on shooting on location. This show often cuts corners like that and therefore misses out on some cool opportunities. The other missed opportunity was that when Leonard was making his speech about the forgotten and invisible kids, I felt like he could have said something more specific about people who are ignored in the science and math departments because they're women, or people who are marginalized because of their race or whatever. Everything he was saying felt like it was catered towards white nerd boys like himself. Maybe I'm just overly sensitive to this stuff due to this show's track record.

But I did like this plot thread a lot, actually. Penny and Leonard had some really cute flirtatious moments, what with Penny surprising Leonard with the Skype thing, and buying him graduation robes so he could make his speech all dressed up. The robes were from a costume shop, so they were really short and "sexy." On Skype, it didn't matter because nobody would see his legs. Very adorable! Also, despite some missed opportunities in the speech, Leonard actually said some pretty insightful stuff. It's always hard for kids to hear that high school is going to be the best years of their lives. It's so not true, at least not for most. I appreciated Leonard giving a shout out to all of the kids who desperately wanted something more.

The other plot thread saw Raj buying a quadcopter. He gives it to Howard and Sheldon to work on, since he can't get it to turn on. The two of them try to reset it, but eventually grow frustrated following the instructions in the manual. Howard takes it apart, saying that he can use his engineering skills to fix the problem. Meanwhile, Raj is talking to his dad, who sees the bill for the quadcopter and gets angry, saying that Raj is too frivolous of a spender. He cuts him off. Raj realizes he needs to return the quadcopter, but when he gets to Sheldon's place, he sees it take apart into dozens of pieces. Raj calls his mom and manages to sweet talk his way into money from her. His dad then calls and offers him even more money, as part of the ongoing conflict in their divorce. In the end, Howard gets the machine put back together again, but it still won't fly. Just as they are about to resort to calling tech support, the quadcopter turns on and starts flying around! It seems somebody else has tapped in to the wifi and is controlling it. They all duck for cover as the thing flies wildly around the apartment.

This plot thread was just okay. It had lots of elements that individually seemed like they would be pretty funny. Howard being flummoxed by the machine, despite his status as an engineer, was pretty funny. I also liked that Sheldon accepted Howard's authority on this issue, and didn't try to take over. Raj manipulating his parents had some potential as well, but it didn't end up being that funny. Raj played them like a fiddle, but maybe what this episode was missing was seeing the two of them together to work off of one another. I didn't really like the end of the plot thread. I didn't understand why the thing suddenly started flying. I wanted more of an explanation, and a funnier resolution.

However, there was one hilarious joke in this plot thread. When Howard goes to call tech support, he grumbles that he's probably just going to get some guy in a foreign country who's looking at the same manual that Howard himself has. Just as he calls, Raj's phone rings in his pocket. Everybody looks at him in surprise, until he pulls the phone out and checks the caller-ID. He says: "It's my father, asshole." That was the funniest moment in the whole episode!

So. There you have it. Not one of the best, but definitely not one of the worst!

7/10