The Big Bang Theory Review: “Viewing Party” Gets Tense

The mark of a great, long-running sitcom is how it bounces back from a bad episode. The last new episode was one of their worst of the season, but The Big Bang Theory made up for it in basically every way with this episode. The characters were all used and developed, and it was not short on humor.

This week on The Big Bang Theory: Leonard and Sheldon are having everyone over to watch Game of Thrones. When Sheldon mentions their quarterly roommate agreement meetings, Leonard refuses to go. The rift between Leonard and Sheldon quickly spreads though the group, separating into  two viewing parties.  An unexpected allergy scare puts things in perspective.

The best part of this episode for me was the turnaround for Raj. In the last episode, he was drifting toward his sad-sack tendencies. But, this week, Stuart returned as the ultimate sad-sack and Raj looked like a player by comparison. Or he’s actually a player, but hey, good for him! Any way you look at it, Raj’s dating two women provided some really great, funny moments, even though we all know it will blow up in his face later.

Season 9 for me has meant a lot of self-deprecation and acknowledgement of character flaws for Big Bang. Some of the problems in earlier seasons was this show accepting the status quo, and this season has done nothing but challenge it. “The Viewing Party Combustion” accurately depicted some of the unhealthy relationships that the show has driven home over the years, and pointed out real flaws in the way that the characters interact. In many ways, it was a departure from the norm, and it worked well. It was REALLY funny.

It was hard for me to stop laughing long enough to take things down, but regardless, here are some of my favorite quotes/moments from the episode:

• The whole ManBat/Batman conversation was a good one. Lots of fun wordplay.
• “Seriously, that guy’s dating two women?”
• “Tomorrow is our quarterly roommate agreement meeting”- because of course it is.
• “And I hope that sandwich DOES cause a party”- Leonard with the nasty comments
• I have to say. Howard’s Raj impression is hysterical. Every time he does it is pure gold.
• “Apparently perfect attendance isn’t cool anymore” – Sheldon
• “Maybe my male cycle synced up with Raj’s actual period”- Howard
• “I try to hide it in his peanut butter and he spits it out”- Leonard, on his unsuccessful attempts to get Sheldon to take his medicine.
• “How come your head has your face on it?”- Stuart with the witty comeback

As you can see, there was plenty to laugh at in this episode. Even the stuff I missed, with all of the bickering among the cast was really great. Of course, it only took their friend being seriously endangered to put their friendship back above everything where it belonged. Perhaps what this season has done best is turn these sometimes caricatures into realistic characters. I’ve been really enjoying it, and I’m sad that it’s almost over.

What did you guys think? Did you enjoy this episode? Let us know in the comments!

The Big Bang Theory airs Thursdays at 8/7c on CBS