The Big Bang Theory: The Helium Insufficiency (9x06)

The premise of one of these subplots had disaster written all over it, but they seem to have dodged a bullet. Let's take a look.

Cons:

The subplot this week concerned Amy's dating life. It turns out that Stuart has gotten a couple of dates on a dating app (clearly meant to be Tinder, although they don't say it). Penny and Bernadette think it would be a good idea to set Amy up on the app as well. They all sit around and examine the different men, making fun of them and giving Amy advice. However, we then learn that Amy has already been on a couple of dates with men. She's putting herself out there. Her friends are shocked that they haven't been told. I was worried when this plot thread started that there were going to be some really icky jokes concerning dating culture and Amy's sex life. For the most part, they managed to avoid veering in to offensive territory, but they replaced it with a lackluster plot thread. It wasn't completely awful, but it didn't really have any jokes that hit the mark, and, like almost always, I felt that there were some missed opportunities.

The same can be said for parts of the main plot. I liked it a lot, as I'll talk about in a minute, but it was missing a proper resolution. Leonard and Sheldon need helium for their experiment, and they're indecisive about breaking the rules to get ahold of it. There are some parts of this plot thread with Barry Kripke that don't need to be there. He pops into the story and then is dropped out of it without ceremony. It was just sort of a weird pacing issue, I think. Not a huge flaw, but it was there.

Pros:

That being said, both plots had redeeming qualities, especially Leonard and Sheldon's. I absolutely loved the character of Kenny, who was the guy supplying Leonard and Sheldon with the illicit helium. They take the helium from him, then later give it back to him, and then buy it back again, as they keep changing their minds about breaking the rules. Kenny was so funny. He was obviously a troublemaker, but then he gets into intellectual conversations with Sheldon about linguistics and little known facts about the origins of words and phrases. The contrast was so hilarious, and the punch line at the end of the episode was perfect. We see that Kenny has come over to the apartment to watch a movie with Sheldon and Leonard. Despite the fact that they're very different, they get along! Michael Rapaport did a great job - I appreciated his work in this show as much as I did in Friends.

I also really liked this plot thread because I like stories that focus on the boys' careers. One of my favorite ongoing plot threads the show has ever done has been Leonard and Sheldon writing a paper together. Their ongoing research quest brings them together, and gives us a chance to see them working as a team. It helps explain why these two are actually friends.

In Amy's plot thread, I was mostly indifferent to the humor but I loved the moment when Raj rejected one of the potential dates for Amy because he was an Indian guy, and "we already have one of those," and then commented that if they could find someone Hispanic that would really round out the group. This was a surprisingly insightful comment about the show's lack of diversity and how media representation in general can just come down to one token character from a few minorities.

I guess that's what I've got for the time being. Another shrug-worthy episode of an underwhelming show, with a hilarious guest character to keep me on my toes.

8/10