Young Sheldon... (spoilers for the show)

So there's a spin off of The Big Bang called "Young Sheldon".

The premise? Here is Sheldon at age 9 as school is about to start. Most 9 year olds would be starting grade 4, but he's starting high school in Grade 9 - just like his older brother. Oh, and his dad coaches football at that school. Now the series has a short life as Sheldon will start collage at age 11 (taking 2 years to do what it took his twin sister 6 years to do - graduate high school) and the next episode doesn't air until Nov 2, but here is a few quick takes on episode 1.

After typing this up, I started to think about spoilers.



I put the word "spoilers" in the subject line, and I've added a few more lines here.


Read further and you'll get minor spoilers.


You were warned.

So, here's my thoughts on episode 1:

1) It's funnier to hear about someone's rough childhood than watch it. The family is short of money and the mother is moving heaven and hell to try to get what's best for Sheldon, to the point she neglects her other kids to one degree or another. As his older brother says at one point: Nothing I've said mattered since Sheldon learned to talk.

2) They've hinted that Sheldon's mother was a no nonsense type who ruled her roost and believed in corporal punishment (she's half threatened that in several shows) Well that's one character that has changed. Yes, she flicks her daughter's face at one point and she pushes a student handbook against Sheldon's rear to hurry him out, but she also loses control of the dinner table. To the point that there's a food fight at the table and she can't do anything about it. Most non-spanking mothers could have controlled that situation... Yes, I know it's a sitcom, but it's trying to show the family a certain way and each time they shift from that picture it stretches the willing disbelief required to watch it.

3) Set in 1989, I was surprised that Sheldon wasn't invited to ride up in the front seat to make him feel special on his first day of school. Yeah, now all kids ride in the backseat, but the "kids always have to ride in back" rule started when passenger side airbags came in. Driver side airbags were only introduced in the US 1988, it took years for the passenger side ones to come, and the Coopers don't drive a new car.

4) It can be hard to watch adult Sheldon be annoying; it's much harder to watch 9 year old Sheldon (see point one about childhood hell only being funny in retrospect).

5) With the amount of disrespect he showed his teachers, I was surprise that he wasn't included in that meeting in the principal's office. I was also surprised that no one beat him up on the first day... Not only was he a target by being himself but "frosh initiations" were common back then. An entire school in Texas where no one got initiated? Seems fishy to me.

To partially rebut that last point, he was given a mantra to help him in difficult social situations: My dad is the football coach and my older brother's on the team. But that mantra can only get you so far when "older brother" doesn't like you much. (Maybe Sheldon's older brother love him, but most of the time he doesn't seem to like him. But that's brothers for you.)

6) We don't see him being bullied by his family as he had mentioned was a common thing. The closest we get is his twin sister saying that she's thinking of kicking him in the balls and him smirkingly revealing that they haven't descended yet (with a voice over saying that they didn't drop until he was 15).

7) His sister is more of a wise ass kid than on many shows, taunting her older brother about how mom's about to find his dirty books before informing him that he's not having a nice day. Again, this is a sitcom, but it seems to be going for believable characters and I'm having a hard time buying her talking back to her parents and older brother with impunity.

Eight) Wow, it was nice to see Bob Newhart again. Yes, he has a cameo. Or at least some footage of him shows up.

Well that post grew longer than I had planned to be. Anyone else want to chime in on their opinions of the show?

This is not uncommon when one child is "special" in one way or another, usually in a disadvantageous way. There's another sitcom called "SPEECHLESS" (starring Minnie Driver as the mom) about a teen who's in a wheelchair due to MS or some such and is almost completely paralyzed. His mom is an absolute militant about "mainstreaming" him at school and including him in all family activities, which in not necessarily a bad idea. But her militancy alienates almost everyone, even her son, and her two younger children (a teenaged boy and girl who have to share a bedroom) are often ignored as well as her husband. Most of the humor in the show relates to this and the mom trying to do better by her family as well as the older boy yearning fiercely for more independence, particularly from his mother's smothering.
It's not a bad show, but frankly I watch it mainly for Minnie Driver. I'd watch most anything with her in it.

I agree. Even if Sheldon is entirely disingenuous, which he seems to be, you'd think at least him mom would have wised him up a bit (especially in church, where he openly questions the existence of God). The school would likely come down on him a bit more heavily.

His balls didn't drop 'til he was fifteen? No wonder he's so weird. And so asexual (at least until Amy). And I seriously think Mom would disapprove (in a spanky way) of her daughter openly threatening to kick her brother in the balls.

As well, there were remarks from grown Sheldon about how often Missy got punished (emphasis on corporal discipline) in TBBT. I think young Sheldon's sister would have gotten a lot more spankings and probably some mouth-washing too. Let's hope that's the case...

True - that was one of the more authentic parts of the show. But this part isn't played for laughs, it is used to show how Sheldon's existence makes life hell for his family. Seeing a man choosing between his sons, well that just can't be played for laughs.


That's an example of how they are twisting the mom character in too many ways. She has a core of steel - except when the plot demands that she doesn't. She has strong, very strong views - but she drops them whenever the plot calls for her to.

Actually, the church scene shows how the Sheldon character is broken as well. Sheldon does not pick up on non verbal clues, he believes whatever his mother tells him because she doesn't lie, he is more self focused than his adult self - but he goes to church because doing so will make his mother happy. Missy gets dragged there, but Sheldon goes willingly because that's what his mother wants... but he has to be bribed to do everything else she wants.




That's one of the inconsistencies. Missy does something minor at the dinner table and gets flicked on her cheek - showing that Mom is no nonsense and goes there. Then a food fight breaks out at the dinner table - does Missy get another flick? Is there a "stop that or else" threat that the kids believe? Is there any form of discipline (including all of the non-corporal punishment options in the parental tool box) used?

No, the mother is completely ineffectual as the food fight goes on and on.


Played for comedic effect - and disregards how Missy spends her entire life kicking him in the balls. If that is true then it wouldn't hurt as much until he was 15 - and a visiting professor in Germany.

That said, I can remember how badly it feels to be kicked there before they drop. It hurts much more after, but it hurts before... Ah, speaking of bad things happening in childhood, back when I was kid their used to be something called "giving him the gas pedal". Usually it was one kid hold each leg as someone stood between them "pressed down" on the boys "gas pedal". Not fun then, not fun in hindsight, but still not as bad as Sheldon's childhood was.