The Big Bang Theory: The Emotion Detection Automation (10x14)

There was a very big part of me that wanted to be a fan of this episode. As I sat down to write this review, I even tried to convince myself that I liked it more than I did. But as well-meaning as I think some of these ideas were, it just didn't come through for me.

Cons:

The main plot focuses on Sheldon getting a prototype of a machine that can help him read human emotions. He causes trouble between Penny and Leonard by alerting each of them to the secret anger they're feeling, and lots of jokes are made about Amy being annoyed or sad. However, Sheldon then gets depressed, realizing just how bad he truly is at reading human emotions. Amy comforts him and says she's proud of him for trying to do better.

This sounds like something I might enjoy, but there are two problems: one, the machine itself is silly. Two, if this show is going to go down the "Sheldon is on the spectrum" path, then they need to be consistent about it. This show wants us to laugh at Leonard's off-putting jokes about Sheldon being a stray dog, or a robot, or how he needs to be "reprogrammed," and then take the moment seriously when Sheldon is upset about his disconnect with other people. I'm not saying the two things can't coexist in this show, and in fact there are individual examples of where they've done so quite nicely. But there's really only two ways to slice this: either we're supposed to think all the jokes at Sheldon's expense are funny, or Leonard and the rest of the gang are just awful people for making fun of a guy with a social disorder. This episode does not straddle the line.

The subplot with Raj brings me back to all the things I hated about his character up until recently, and it also informs us that Raj and the cleaning lady he was seeing have broken up, off-screen somewhere. What a wasted opportunity. Raj and Howard gather up all of Raj's ex-girlfriends to ask them why they dumped Raj, so Raj can get a better idea of how to be a good boyfriend. He learns that all the women he used to date went on to much better relationships after him.

Does he learn anything about himself? Nope. Is the comedy anything particularly astounding? Nope. If Raj could just actually grow as a character, that would be great. But apparently we're back to making weak jokes about his experience with women.

Even Leonard and Penny's portion of the episode failed to capitalize on the momentum from their earlier fight. At first, I was excited to see that everything hadn't been instantly smoothed over with them. They get into a fight about Penny's brother coming to stay, because Penny didn't talk to Leonard about it first. But there's no attempt to connect this fight with the earlier tensions in their relationship. Instead, it's just used as a joke as Sheldon uses his emotion detector to deduce Leonard's hidden anger. The conflict is quickly resolved. I'm willing to bet that the two will continue to have little micro-arcs in episodes, where they get in a fight, then it's solved. Rinse and repeat. And although this is better than the nothing they've had to do all season, I'd rather see them sustain a fight, or acknowledge they have a real problem. I don't know... the whole thing feels lazy.

Pros:

I don't have a lot of good stuff to say about this one, actually. I guess it was sort of fun to see all of Raj's exes razz him about what a needy, pushy, mama's boy he is. I also liked how sweet Amy was as she comforted Sheldon. Those two have really become the stand-out relationship in this show.

Oddly, the one joke that you would think would have pissed me off was actually one I quite liked. Raj's ex-girlfriends make the predictable comments about Raj and Howard being more like a couple, and once the girls are gone, Howard says that if things don't work out between him and Bernadette, they can give it a try. Raj makes a quip about how in that case, he'll be swooping in on Bernadette. But then they have a very funny conversation about how they would announce their relationship, if they would get invited to the parades, what kind of ring Howard would buy for Raj... obviously they were joking. Obviously they're not really implying a hidden romantic subplot between these two friends. But something about that scene made me kind of... want that. They both talked about it with an odd amount of sincerity, and total comfort with the thought of being together. It was played for laughs, but in a show that doesn't have the best track record with gay jokes, this whole section didn't feel mean-spirited. It was actually kind of... sweet.

But one oddly effective scene isn't enough to make up for the whole lot of nothing that populated the majority of this episode. Can we try, please, to sustain some A-plot in this damn show? Are the guys still working on their navigation system? Will Raj get a girlfriend (or boyfriend) who sticks around and actually helps develop the show in a new way? Can Penny and Leonard's relationship problems please become a real focus, so our two former leads can finally have something to do again?

I'm not counting on it.

5/10