SERIES YOUNG SHELDON

Young Sheldon (2017) CBS SERIES REVIEW

BY STEPHINE PAUL M. DUNGCA

“Bazinga!”

Despite his apathetic social skills, Sheldon Lee Cooper, Ph.D, Sc.D, has won the hearts of the audience not just with his sheer intellect but as well as his proposal stint with Amy Farrah Fowler in the last episode of the tenth season of The Big Bang Theory (TBBT). Now on its 11th season, the Big Bang Theory will continue to depict the now adult life of Sheldon as portrayed by Emmy award winner Jim Parsons.

But behind the understanding of Sheldon’s persona, co-directors Chuck Lorre and Steven Molaro went on to illustrate how this train-lover’s life came to be. Not that we’re talking about Mary and George Cooper’s reproduction process. It’s more on the 9-year old “young” Sheldon character played by child prodigy Iain Armitage.

Young Sheldon goes back to 1989 East Texas where Mary’s tater tots are a big deal. Knowing to have skipped three grades and now a freshman in highschool at age nine, young Sheldon identifies himself as the intellectual minute being of superiority. Sheldon’s religious mother (Zoe Perry), his older brother George (Montana Jordan), twin sister Missy (Raegan Revord), and football coach father (Lance Barber) will have to deal not only with applied-to-home advanced mathematics and science but also with Sheldon’s attitude as a young genius in general (which includes debating with the pastor at church, not holding hands in fear of dying and etc).

Jim Parson’s narration throughout the whole series is a factor that will continuously attach Young Sheldon to TBBT. But the catch is that Young Sheldon—in its four episodes so far— has presented quite clean comedy and family-oriented humor as compared to TBBT’s comedic style. Without the fake laughs in the background, audience will have to understand some jokes as coming from a 9-year old character to actually make it sound humorous. With Armitage’s on-point effort to imitate Parsons’ illustration of adult Sheldon, the potential with this prequel is still limited in building the protagonist’s character in contrast to what Sheldon has actually become. It’s more like having the answer already and formulating the most appropriate equation that will make the answer reasonable with it (quick maths).

Likewise, Perry would also have to work with the pressure since Laure Metcalf did an outstanding job as adult Sheldon’s mother in TBBT. So far though, Perry’s excellent acting and comical transitions are providing the right spices for the show. Perhaps it is because Laure Metcalf is Perry’s real life mother.

To conclude, Young Sheldon is not far in becoming “as good as” The Big Bang Theory. After all, it’s

still in its fourth episode. It can be anybody’s game right now. What we’re hoping for is that this show doesn’t break the Sheldon we’ve grown to love. If and when it would be on the verge of doing it wrong, we’ll just hope that Young Sheldon will hysterically shout at the end of the series, “Bazinga!” S