TV Review: TBBT Series Finale(s)

Many of my blog posts from the years 2015 and 2016 were TV reviews of Season 9 of 'The Big Bang Theory'. It is a series that I have consistently loved. Recently, the series concluded with its 12th and final season. And here once again is my review of the end.

Season 12, Episodes 22-24

The Gist: A wrap on Leonard's tough relationship with his mother, Sheldon's 'fear of changes' resurfaces and a much deserved Nobel.

Key Points:

1. Since the start of the series, Leonard's mother is portrayed as a lady Sheldon, who speaks her mind bluntly, treats Leonard as a specimen, develops friendships with others but her son, so on and so forth. But throughout, the woman seemed to be just another oddball of a genius, one of many in the series. Never once did I view Beverly as a negative character (and yes, the series had a couple- Priya Koothrapalli and Dr. Emily whatever-her-last-name-was). With the series nearing its end, it was nice to see mother-son duo truly acknowledge their parent-child relation and the love that actually is. A neat way to begin to end a neat show :)
2. Sheldon Cooper and Joey Tribbiani have 3 things in common- (a) I love them both (b) Sheldon has his spot on couch and Joey had his chair in front of Stevie the TV (see image) and (c) Both of them detest changes. Much like towards the F.R.I.E.N.D.S. end-where Rachel's decision to move to Paris and Chandler-Mon's plan to take home to suburbs-makes Joey lose his shit, Sheldon doesn't care for changes. Amy's new avatar, the broken elevator suddenly being fixed and fast and getting so much attention for his Nobel Prize achievement takes an expected toll on Shelly Cooper. This ultimately results in Sheldon realizing that change is the only constant and Penny getting.. (well that's for point 3).
3. ... pregnant. That was Penny-getting-pregnant. When in penultimate episode Sheldon is down because of all the changes, Shenny get together and drink. What happens to Sheldon is that he makes peace with the fact that changes will constantly happen. What happens to Penny is - one more time- Penny gets pregnant. The reason I am being repetitive here is because this once again is a neat way to end her character arc. 
4. Of course the last episode is the most significant one. ShAmy get their much deserved Nobel Prizes and Sheldon thanks everyone for being there for him. 

My Say: 

1. ShAmy are awarded Nobel Prizes for a theory they formulated on their wedding day.  What a poetic justice to the brainiac couple :) 
2. Howard and Bernie, a couple whose lives were the most normal, finally get a chance to be just-the-two-of-them-and-no-kids-and-no-Stuart when ShAmy invite them to Sweden to celebrate Nobel honour. They may have enjoyed their share of publicity on account of being "Sheldon and Amy's best friends" in all the Nobel Prize related news interviews, but Sheldon's Nobel speech does the most justice to them.
3. Leonard in the pilot had declared "Our babies would be smart and beautiful". Penny never saw herself as having children. Even in the earlier episodes of the last season, Leonard is so convinced that Penny does not want to have kids and he does, that he is ready to donate his sperm to Zack (Penny's beloved idiot ex). Digression- Leonard had tried to donate his sperm in the pilot episode too. Anyway, a drunk night with Sheldon charms Penny into pregnancy. The series had started with these two exchanging Hi, Hi, Hi, Hi! and ends sweetly with a baby on the way.
4. Raj has been conspicuously missing till now from my post. Raj had always been shown as the one who got and didn't get ladies. Women and love has been always the angle for Raj. Not being able to talk to women in a sober state, attracting ladies for being mocha colored and rich, falling in true love and getting heart broken, being with women who were either deaf gold-diggers or socially more awkward than him or morbid or who were practical and non-romantics. It has always been ladies ladies and ladies for Raj. This ends when Howard helps Raj realize that any woman who doesn't realize his love is woman who doesn't deserve his love. This realization happens when Raj is on the way to London; another parallel to F.R.I.E.N.D.S. where Rachel is on the way to Paris. Raj had almost given up his friends for a woman, much like Rach almost gave up her friends and Ross for a career. They both thought that that's what they wanted, but they were almost leaving behind something which was much more important. I like that the show does not end with a Raj who is finally married. Because not everyone gets to have that. A creepy Howard was the first to become a family man and a romantic Raj is still single.  

And with that, I guess I have said as much I can, right now. I love TBBT, I love it!