The Big Bang Theory: The Celebration Experimentation (9x17)

This episode was trying to be one of those really memorable and powerful episodes. It brought back tons of guest stars and featured multiple celebrity cameos. But somehow, the execution was rather... blah.

Cons:

It's Sheldon's birthday, and the gang wants to throw him a party. They throw one, inviting everybody from Wil Wheaton to Leslie Winkle to Barry Kripke to Leonard's mother Beverly... and even Adam West, the original Batman! The episode started off really strong, but when it got to the actual party itself, I felt like all of the excellent possibilities with these guest characters were wasted. Having all of these interesting people in a room together should have made for cool different character combos. We could have seen Stuart interact with Barry Kripke, or Leslie talk to Adam West. It felt like there were a ton of jokes just waiting to happen... and they didn't.

Also, on the more emotionally poignant side of things, Sheldon didn't want his birthday celebrated because he has bad memories of his twin sister and her friends torturing him on his birthday. That's a great setup of some conflict and inner turmoil, and there were some good things about this idea. But there was never any real resolution. I thought that Sheldon's sister was going to show up at tell him that she loved him or something like that. But no... Sheldon's rough past was left firmly in the past, and we're not given any reason to believe he's over the trauma of past birthdays. The only reason he ends up liking his party is because everybody else says nice stuff about him. It just didn't really pack much of a punch, you know?

Pros:

That being said, I did like the beginning of the episode. When Leonard hears the sad story of how Sheldon had once been convinced that Batman was going to come to his birthday as a child, he decides to try and get Batman to turn up after all. Leonard, Raj, and Howard go to get Adam West, and then they spend the ride back to the apartment discussing all the different actors who have played Batman, and trying to rank them. They all agree that Clooney should go at the bottom of the list, and Adam West doesn't even know who Ben Affleck is! So funny.

Also, Penny and Sheldon got a really sweet moment. Sheldon was overwhelmed to see all of his friends and presents, since he had such bad memories of birthdays as a child. Penny follows him into the bathroom and sits with him, telling him that it's okay if he needs to hide out in here. She laments the fact that if she had known Sheldon and his sister back when they were kids, she probably would have been one of the bullies who tortured Sheldon. She's happy that she's gotten to be his friend over the years, and can't imagine what her life would be without him. I've always thought that Sheldon and Penny's relationship was one of the more special and powerful things this show had going for it, and I'm glad that a spotlight was put on it here. They even share a hug, which Sheldon says he used to hate, but now just finds terribly annoying. Progress!

Everybody else made speeches about Sheldon as well, and there were a few good moments mixed in. I enjoyed Leslie's rambunctious insults, and Leonard's heartfelt address of Sheldon as more than just his roommate. He says that Sheldon is is brother. That was pretty sweet, I must say. I particularly liked the part where Amy and Leonard were arguing over which of them should go talk to Sheldon when he ran off during his party. They both know him very well, and when Amy tries to pull ahead by saying she's seen him naked and vice versa, Leonard replies that the same is true for him. Penny, exasperated, leaves them to their arguing and goes in to talk to Sheldon herself.

I also liked Stephen Hawking's brief appearance at the end of the episode. He says "happy birthday to you," and Sheldon thinks it's just a statement until he repeats it. "Oh, you're singing! Go on," says Sheldon. I'll admit that I find the Hawking jokes a bit hit-and-miss in this show, but that one got me pretty good.

That's all I've got. I felt that Adam West and most of the other guest characters were extremely underutilized and could have, with a better script, made for a truly great episode. As it stands, it wasn't awful or anything... but it wasn't particularly special either.

7/10