[*luminous*]

"The Tam Turbulence"

SHELDON SEES HIS CHILDHOOD BEST FRIEND, TAM, FOR THE FIRST TIME IN 20 YEARS, ON “THE BIG BANG THEORY,” THURSDAY, OCT. 11

Jerry O’Connell Returns as Sheldon’s Older Brother, George





“The Tam Turbulence” – When Sheldon won’t tell anyone why he’s never mentioned Tam (Robert Wu), his childhood best friend, Leonard takes matters into his own hands. Also, Bernadette and Penny take out Raj’s fiancée, Anu (Rati Gupta), for dinner to get the skinny on her.

REGULAR CAST:
Johnny Galecki (Leonard)
Jim Parsons (Sheldon)
Kaley Cuoco (Penny)
Simon Helberg (Wolowitz)
Kunal Nayyar (Koothrappali)
Mayim Bialik (Amy)
Melissa Rauch (Bernadette)

RECURRING CAST:
Jerry O’Connell (George)
Rati Gupta (Anu)

GUEST CAST:
Robert Wu (Tam)

STORY BY: Steve Holland, Steven Molaro, Maria Ferrari
TELEPLAY BY: Dave Goetsch, Eric Kaplan, Jeremy Howe
DIRECTED BY: Mark Cendrowski

Promo, Sneak Peeks, Promotional Photos + Press Release

[WeBuiltThePyramids]

Thanks for opening.

[*luminous*]

The Penny/Bernadette scenes were funny. Otherwise it was just a "meh" episode for me.

[WeBuiltThePyramids]

Originally Posted by *luminous* (View Post) The Penny/Bernadette scenes were funny. Otherwise it was just a "meh" episode for me.

Same. I'm not gonna type up everything I said on the podcast I recorded this morning, because it'd be sooo much, but basically, the Tam thing is obviously a one off, so it was basically filler, (I also feel like “oh my gosh Sheldon had a mysterious friend as a kid we don't know” isn’t the kind of big huge reveal plot you do 12 years into a show that is only having 12 seasons) and it took up SO MUCH TIME of the episode when I feel like there should have been more screen time on the other plot since Anu is actually going to be a part of the rest of the season.

[soundsgood]

Originally Posted by WeBuiltThePyramids (View Post) Same. I'm not gonna type up everything I said on the podcast I recorded this morning, because it'd be sooo much, but basically, the Tam thing is obviously a one off, so it was basically filler, (I also feel like “oh my gosh Sheldon had a mysterious friend as a kid we don't know” isn’t the kind of big huge reveal plot you do 12 years into a show that is only having 12 seasons) and it took up SO MUCH TIME of the episode when I feel like there should have been more screen time on the other plot since Anu is actually going to be a part of the rest of the season.

Same. This episode was a waste of time. I don't have any interest in seeing characters from YS, but even so there was absolutely zero storyline behind the fact that Tam was his former best friend.
Thankfully Penny and Bernadette with Anu were fun, but that's very few for an entire episode.

I'm more and more wondering if they keep bringing YS characters on TBBT because they're not sure about the solidity of the audience of the new show.

[SargeantFuzzyBoots]

I didn't enjoy seeing Tam as an adult as much as I'd hoped. He just wasn't funny like he is in Young Sheldon where he's my favourite character along with Meemaw. And the scenes where Sheldon imagined him in Leonard's place hurt my heart. I just wish there was more growth from Sheldon in regards to his friendship with Leonard and I think this would have been a good opportunity to show that, but seeing his life as perfectly fine with or without Leonard is pretty sad and rather insulting.

[soundsgood]

Originally Posted by SargeantFuzzyBoots (View Post) I just wish there was more growth from Sheldon in regards to his friendship with Leonard and I think this would have been a good opportunity to show that, but seeing his life as perfectly fine with or without Leonard is pretty sad and rather insulting.

Sheldon is one of the most selfish character I know, there’s absolutely zero growth in 12 seasons towards Leonard on that, and yes it’s sad. I didn’t like the montage with Tam in place of Leonard either.

[WeBuiltThePyramids]

Originally Posted by SargeantFuzzyBoots (View Post) I didn't enjoy seeing Tam as an adult as much as I'd hoped. He just wasn't funny like he is in Young Sheldon where he's my favourite character along with Meemaw. And the scenes where Sheldon imagined him in Leonard's place hurt my heart. I just wish there was more growth from Sheldon in regards to his friendship with Leonard and I think this would have been a good opportunity to show that, but seeing his life as perfectly fine with or without Leonard is pretty sad and rather insulting.

I don't watch YS but Roxanne said she didn't feel like they were the same character - like if not for the name and being Vietnamese she wouldn't have believed it

[SargeantFuzzyBoots]

Originally Posted by WeBuiltThePyramids (View Post) I don't watch YS but Roxanne said she didn't feel like they were the same character - like if not for the name and being Vietnamese she wouldn't have believed it

It's hard to even describe what Tam's character traits are in YS - like he's very much the straight man to Sheldon's crazy, but has his own quirky lines at times; he's just very nice and chill - so there's still a ways to go in developing the recurring characters there. I think the storyline they used here didn't really highlight anything about Tam, especially with how most of Tam's scenes were just him being confused about why Sheldon was angry, so there just wasn't much to work with in terms of his character.

[ennaxor]

Yeah, I still haven't seen much of Young Sheldon, so it'd be hard for me to pin down Tam anyway. But on Big Bang he just felt like some random dude. (Which, for anyone who hasn't seen Young Sheldon, he was anyway.)

[WeBuiltThePyramids]

Originally Posted by ennaxor (View Post) Yeah, I still haven't seen much of Young Sheldon, so it'd be hard for me to pin down Tam anyway. But on Big Bang he just felt like some random dude. (Which, for anyone who hasn't seen Young Sheldon, he was anyway.)

What's that? I hear a ding ding ding noise.

[FileXxX]

I gotta say, I really liked these flashback scenes with Tam. Thought that was very creative. Other than that, Bernie and Penny were awesome.

[Whimsical Elf]

I can't believe how fast the episodes are flying by!

I wasn't sure about the Tam storyline to start with, but he really grew on me. At one point, I did think they were going to do more with Leonard/Sheldon off it - maybe Sheldon was scared he'd lose Leonard the way he lost Tam, or more on Leonard's feelings about Tam. However, it was fine and I liked the flashbacks to old episodes.

Anu is great, and the girls were great together. Not sure what would happen if we threw Amy into that mix, but bring on more scenes with them together. I like her a lot now.

[Captain Riterra Smith]

Well this may be just me or it may not, but I'm just not able to tell yet if having Anu and Tam in the last season (given such limited set up and payoff) actually counts as filler, or they are building blocks to Raj's and Sheldon's characterization respectively. I'm just not ready to pass a verdict yet. Nor will I ever say it's too late in the game for a character to learn something or reveal a new facet of emotion.

[smoguntia]

OK I haven't seen the episode yet but I have to ask. It's their last season and they still have so many storys to tell do they really need to do waste their last episodes with a Young Sheldon storyline?

I wish they would stop mixing YS with TBBT and keep with the history we got during the last 12 years. YS is an Alternate Universe for me