The Big Bang Theory: The Luminous Fish Effect

ORIGINAL EPISODES, MONDAYS @ 8:30PM ON CBS

Is "The Big Bang Theory" a front for a "Roseanne" Reunion? Last week we had a visit from Sarah Gilbert who played a coworker of Leonard's. This week Laurie Metcalf visited the set as Sheldon's mother, Mary. Not that I mind seeing the old "Roseanne" crew working together again but they should spread it out a bit. Anyway, Mary showed up these week after Sheldon was fired from his job. As we've come to know, Sheldon has a bit of trouble keeping his mouth shut and not telling people the absolute truth. It happened again except this time he told his new boss that he was a fraud. Thus, FIRED.

I wish I had more to talk about with this episode. It was only mildly funny and not all that much actually happened. The only storyline of tonight deal with Sheldon's antics after being fired. With so much time on his hands he attempted to develop the perfect batch of scrambled eggs;

breed luminous (glow in the dark) goldfish; and weave ponchos using a loom.

While all these activities were somehow funny, the only truly funny scene was his trip grocery shopping with Penny. Sheldon was beyond rude and annoying which made the trip that much better.

With the all of Sheldon's ridiculous activities taking place, Leonard decided to enlist the help of Mary to snap Sheldon out of it and get him back to work. At first she used appeasement which did nothing but keep Sheldon locked in his room for days. Then, well, she decided to kick his butt and force him to go back to work and apologize to his boss. Which he did... Unfortunately (or fortunately for Mary depending on how you look at it), Sheldon got his job back after his boss was "taken" with his mother. I liked the idea of the storyline but the writer's just didn't come through with the humor.

The big thing I'd like to point out about tonight though was it's effect on the Penny-Leondard relationship. Two things are significant: 1) When Mary said Penny and Leonard made a good couple BOTH of them had awkward but smirky looks on their faces. This could mean that Penny does think Leonard is interesting. 2) Penny clearly can't stand spending time with Leonard (at least alone) which means that she hangs around their apartment for some other reason. Maybe that reason is Leonard. Hmmm...interesting.

Hopefully next week will be much better than last night's episode. I'd hate to think the writer's peaked four episodes into the first season. In the end, Sheldon actually did create a luminous fish - sadly, this was the funniest scene of the night.