The Big Bang Theory: “The Adhesive Duck Deficiency” – Review
Review, Television | Gerald So | November 17, 2009 at 9:53 am
Penny slips in the shower, dislocating her shoulder. With Leonard, Howard, and Raj away observing a meteor shower, she calls on Sheldon for help.
As often as Penny and Sheldon antagonize each other, they’ve been there for each other in times of need. In Season 1’s “The Pancake Batter Anomaly,” for example, Penny takes care of a ill Sheldon while Leonard, Howard, and Raj go to great lengths to avoid him. In Season 2’s “The Financial Permeability,” Penny needs money for monthly expenses, and Sheldon loans her as much as she needs with no strings attached.
I liked how “The Adhesive Duck Deficiency” meaningfully challenged both Sheldon, who had to drive Penny to the emergency room without a license, and Penny, who under almost any other circumstances would have asked someone else for help. Jim Parsons plays Sheldon with such distinctive mannerisms that it was fun to see how he’d react throughout the episode—from knocking on every door in Penny’s apartment on the way to help her, to his pondering every question as he filled out Penny’s New Patient form.
I had one question about Penny’s dilemma: Would Sheldon realistically be able to hear her call for help when he was in his apartment and she was not in the main room or the bedroom, but the bathroom of her apartment?
In contrast, I thought the B story was unimaginative filler. While camping out to observe the meteor shower, Leonard, Howard, and Raj make the mistake of accepting marijuana-laced cookies from a pair of aging hippie teachers. I know one of Big Bang’s premises is that Leonard and friends are book-smart, not street-smart, but I thought at least one of them would realize their mistake. The realization in turn might have led them to react some other way than the typical stoner trip followed by the munchies.
This typical reaction made them seem less intelligent than they are supposed to be. Not only that, but their drug haze causes them to totally forget about their job to observe the meteor shower—something, it seems to me, that real physicists would never do. I would have been similarly let down if, in this season’s premiere, Leonard, Howard, and Raj had falsified the data from Sheldon’s monopole expedition without keeping the actual data.
In closing, I found Sheldon and Penny’s adventure funny and watchable because it stayed faithful to their characters. The B story flopped on the same token; it went away from how I expected Leonard, Howard, and Raj to act.
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I disagree totally on the B story. Their stoned behaviors were absolutely hilarious! I do admit that Jim Parsons steals the moment every time he is on camera.
I agree with your review! How on earth did he hear her?
Also someone pointed out to me that she was able to wrap herself in her shower curtain but not turn off her shower, and when he went to help her out she basically pulled herself out.
But all of that pales in comparison to the fact that THIS WAS THE BEST EPISODE EVER!!!
Forgot to mention– I actually found the B-plot funny. Well the plot itself was non-existent, but I mean my goodness it had me laughing. My favorite was Raj’s ghost stories all ending with “She had slept with her cousin!” at Howard’s expense.
Sheldon has extremely sensitive ears, we learned a few episodes back (“damn his Vulcan hearing!”)
Sheldon does have good ears, but I still think his hearing Penny from across the hall, through several closed doors, was a stretch. When he heard her, I expected her to be slumped on the couch or on the floor somewhere in the main room of her apartment, not in the bathroom.
Is it me or do Penny and Sheldon have more rapport/chemistry than Penny and Leonard? Their episodes always sparkle.
I wouldn’t say Penny has more chemistry with Sheldon, just that she has different chemistry with Sheldon. They will always push each other’s buttons and get on each other’s nerves, which makes for great comedy, but I don’t think they have much romantic chemistry because Sheldon is so not interested or ready for a relationship.
I’d say Penny has more rapport with Leonard, partly because he’s more accepting of her than Sheldon is. Outwardly, Leonard is the least outstanding of the four guys, but he’s also the most well-adjusted and willing to meet new people. Penny is nurturing and accepting of all the guys (even Howard), but Leonard is the one who most challenges her preconceptions of what a physicist/nerd is. If not for what she saw in Leonard, Penny probably wouldn’t have befriended Sheldon, Howard, or Raj. At his best, Leonard’s the kind of smart, honest guy Penny has always wanted to be with. (Granted, not much of their deeper compatibility has been shown since they officially became a couple, but it is the foundation of their friendship).
A bit tired by the “(Knock knock knock Penny!)x3″ gag.
The writers should try to elaborate the plot
i think sheldon and penny have chemistry not in the romantic sense. rather, their clashes are just more amusing. the penny/leonard romance is the closest thing to a plot for the series, so it’s almost more functional than entertaining. you could probably just have sheldon and penny and it’d be just as good.
that said, i wonder if they’ll introduce some sort of weird sheldon/penny romance. with the boob grabbing, tatoo feeling, and that somewhat awkward silence before singing the rounds partially in response to penny’s comments, i can only guess that we’re going to be seeing some sort of triangle. also, i didn’t like that sheldon peeked. other than the pilot episode, the show seems to indicate that sexual relationships is something that sheldon just isn’t interested in so having him sneak a peak was both out of character and a little creepy.
Just watched this last night. I think I enjoyed the Penny Sheldon interaction. Im going with air vents to how he heard her though. The B storyline was boring and unimaginative and I agree with Gerald in that they would just have known better. I loved the fact that her tattoo said soup rather than courage. I was always against the whole leonerd penny dating situation anyway I think the team works better with them not dating personally.
I also found the stoner humor of the B plot to be disappointing. One of the reasons that I have enjoyed watching this series so much (as opposed to most anything else on television) is that the humor often depends on physics/mathematics jokes, various aspects of nerd culture or life more generally in academia. (Raj, Howard, Leonard and Sheldon are all supposed to be working at CalTech, after all). I wonder if the writers will continue to betray the show’s major premise (by making the leads act of out of character) in order to secure a wider audience for the show.