A very solid episode, with actual growth for a couple of the characters. Always a pleasant surprise with this show!
Cons:
The most predictable and least exciting plot of the night goes to Bernadette, Howard, and Raj. Howard feels the baby kick and goes into panic mode, convinced that they are not ready for a baby. He and Raj go out and buy baby supplies, including a crib, and they even bring a minivan home for a test run. Bernadette is slightly annoyed that they did all of this shopping without her. Howard hurts his back trying to lift the crib out of the van, and Bernadette drives him to the emergency room, eventually deciding that the minivan might be a good idea.
This plot thread was your classic sitcom fare with no real variation. A father gets nervous about having a kid and starts going overboard. Boring. And for this show, so many of the elements were same-old, same-old. Howard acts like a baby. People think that Howard and Raj are a couple. I've seen it all before, people!
Pros:
The one nice thing about the Wolowitz plot thread was that it continues to show Howard's growth as a character. When this show first started all those years ago, I hated Howard. He was the worst. But now, his marriage to Bernadette and impending fatherhood have changed him into a good man. He might go overboard sometimes, but he's got a good heart.
Penny and Leonard's plot thread continues the pleasant trend of giving the two of them something to do as a couple. Penny is asked to attend a small, unimportant Comic-Con and sign pictures for her movie Serial Apeist. All of Penny's "fans" are fans of the movie either because of her partial nudity, or because they love how bad it is. Leonard gains a following for being a nerd who ended up married to a hottie, and he tells all the other nerds the story of how he managed it.
This plot thread could have easily pissed me off, since it featured the annoying concept of people being amazed that a hot girl could end up with a nerd. We get it. Move on. However, instead of going down that irritating route, we saw more of the fun silliness that Penny and Leonard have together. They had a good time goofing off with these nerds, and Penny's annoyance at Leonard's "fame" was all part of the fun.
The most successful story this week was Amy and Sheldon's. Amy suggests that they have people over now that they're living together. At first, Sheldon dismisses this. But later, he decides to surprise Amy by hosting a brunch. He has Stuart, Bert, and a random Romanian neighbor over. This is meant to be a "test run." However, things go sour when Stuart finds out that he's basically an experiment so that Sheldon and Amy can work the kinks out and have their real friends over for brunch. Sheldon realizes that he knows what it's like to be left out, and he apologizes to Stuart for making him feel that way. He even proposes a toast in Stuart's honor. The two of them end up getting drunk on mimosas and complimenting each other on things like good handwriting and lack of cussing.
This plot thread had just the right mix of comedy and actual character development. Amy and Sheldon are not always on the same page with their living situation, and there's bound to be continued friction. But this time, Sheldon actually tried. He dismissed Amy's desires, but then reconsidered and decided to make an effort. The same thing happened later with Stuart. He hurt his feelings, and then realized what he'd done, tried to empathize, and made things right. Wow! That's a lot of actual nuance for Sheldon!
The neighbor who had learned English from watching TV was really funny. Everybody says "cheers" at one point, and she chimes in: "filmed in front of a live studio audience." Somebody mentions fifteen minutes, and she says "in fifteen minutes you could save fifteen percent or more on car insurance." There were several of these little in-jokes, and they were all excellently timed. I just love the idea of Sheldon inviting this random woman to come to brunch, and she actually accepts the invite!
That's all I've got. A surprisingly satisfying episode of The Big Bang Theory. Even a relatively unoriginal plot thread for Howard isn't enough for me to mark this one down too much.
8.5/10
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