Young Sheldon

 I have so many thoughts about Young Sheldon that I am probably not going to be able to write them all here. In the early seasons, it manages to be much funnier than the Big Bang Theory, but the later seasons have a problem that I will talk about in a moment. Obviously, it is a prequel to The Big Bang Theory, but did you know it's also a spiritual remake of Malcolm in the Middle? If you've forgotten that show, it's about the titular character Malcolm, who is a gifted child. And because he is a gifted child, he's put in the advanced class, which ruins his social life. The show only ever shows him do one thing that a normal person could not do, and it's more of a parlour trick than any sort of sign of intelligence. This seems to me to be realistic in its depiction of kids who are "gifted". The character of Sheldon, on the other hand, is shown to be supernaturally intelligent, with an ability to understand a wide range of topics that are connected to maths and physics. His only shortcoming is in social interactions. And it's obvious in the Big Bang Theory that he has some sort of autism, but because it's played for laughs the writers have never admitted this, so they are stuck with the same problem in this series. They just want you to believe he's a jerk. And the fact that he clearly can't understand social cues is not treated with any sympathy whatsoever. And as a child of the '80s, I would say that's completely accurate, but the show was not being made in the '80s. We have a much better understanding of autism in the popular culture now. The other thing that strikes me about this show, and it's one unexpected reason of its popularity, is the fact that it is the spiritual successor of yet another show - the Wonder Years. That show was a nostalgic look back at kids who were growing up in the 1960s, and it aired during the 1990s. So this show is a nostalgic look back at the late '80s early 90s, and it's airing in the 2020s. My grandparents had some of the same furniture that Sheldon's family uses, the same phones, and the background is full of these details that you recognize if you grew up during that time period. Missy has a crush on Alf.  Alf was my favorite thing growing up. Unfortunately, that's a show that's immune to reboots. But back to Young Sheldon. The problem with Young Sheldon is the same problem that Malcolm in the Middle had. While the actors playing the characters do an admirable job, they clearly went through puberty during the production of their respective shows. The actor playing Sheldon starts as this quiet tiny toddler of a child, and within a few seasons has this really deep voice and a big frame that starts to be a little bit unbelievable for the Sheldon character. And as the actor ages, the writers run out of ideas for his character, which forces the show to focus on other characters. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but if you can't make a child prodigy's young life interesting, then really what are you doing? This is most obvious in how Sheldon is treated in high school and how he is treated when he gets to college. In high school, he interacts with four or five different adult teachers, which makes sense as when you were in high school you had many different teachers. But when he gets to college, he only interacts with two professors regularly, and we only ever see him attend one other class. This is when they decided to give up on the character and his development. For those of us who went to college, think about how strange it would be if you only had classes with two professors. Very strange. And this is not connected to this previous problem, but is more evident with streaming you're able to catch the plot holes and inconsistencies much easier than you would have been with sitcoms during an earlier age-when Sheldon first goes to college it is a big deal for his family to bring him there because it's an hour drive away. Then, as time goes on, his college has moved to his town and his parents can drop him off before going to their work. Professor Sturgis can ride his bicycle from college to the town of Medford. It makes no sense whatsoever. You might think that I disliked the show, I really liked it, but I think it went on for a few too many seasons, that the 7th is its last.