"The Big Bang Theory", "Back to You", "Kitchen Nightmares" and "Survivor" (and "Big Brother" note)

"The Big Bang Theory" - Another funny episode. I loved Penny's line to Sheldon that someday, she'll get the hang of talking to him, and Leonard's response that his mother's been saying that for years. I think it's interesting that they've made it so Penny likes half of the foursome (Leonard and Raj) and more or less dislikes the other half (Sheldon and Spock). It still bugs me that they pretend The Cheesecake Factory is something else entirely. Sheldon made a reference to a business in Reseda, so they're definitely in Southern California. I'm not sure why Penny needed people to actually order drinks though. I mean, can't they just give her names of drinks to test her? And Sheldon with his Diet Coke was a riot. In response to his request for a wedge of lime, I loved Penny's response of "then swim to Cuba". And the magic grasshopper allows Raj to actually talk to Penny. That was cool. However, he was such the bore with Lolita on their date.

I loved the twist they gave Sheldon. He's been the uber-geek one, but yet, they showed a completely different side of him with the Indian [Lolita: "Us Indian or come to our casino Indian?" :) ] fairy tale that he'd learned as a kid when he'd apparently fallen in love with the Indian princess. You totally believed that Lolita was much more into him than Raj, but as far as Sheldon was concerned, it was ultimately nothing. When he returns from the date, and Leonard asks if he's going to see her again, he's honestly incredulous at the question, because why on earth would he see her again since he already has a dentist. He also had no idea that it was bad form to leave with her when she was Raj's date.

I did disagree with one thing, though. While I thought it was funny to have Sheldon playing the keyboards and belting out songs, I thought it was wrong to have Penny spike his Diet Coke. It just really struck me as wrong for her character.


"Back to You" - I thought it was a decent episode, though it really didn't do much in the way of story. It was mostly interesting bits. (I'm a little disappointed that the bit about Montana's Hispanic heritage was apparently only being used in the first show.) I loved the scene of the birthday cake sliding down and being whacked by the windshield wipers, though even if that hadn't happened, who would have wanted rain-soaked cake? And I laughed at the exchange between Kelly and Montana when Montana comes in out of the rain and had no idea it was coming, and when Kelly points out that she's the weather girl, she is completely oblivious to the irony. The whole bit about the raccoon was actually pretty hysterical.


"Kitchen Nightmares" - This was an ok episode. It always kind of amazes me that chefs keep telling Gordon that he has no idea about anything about cooking. Ummm, hello? It also surprises me how many of these places lack any kind of major signage to tell people they're there. Next week's episode should be interesting. A restaurant in Pomona? OK...


"Survivor" - This was a good episode. I felt sorry for P.G., but she really needs to learn to shut her mouth. Yeah, ok, so you're frustrated, but making the target on your back bigger and brighter is *not* the way to go. It's kind of funny that she's the only Chinese person there and yet she hasn't been part of any winning team that gets to experience some local culture. I was glad she won immunity, though - it threw a nice wrench into things. I used to like Frosti, but I think I totally lost respect for him because of his connection with Courtney. What the heck was up with that? She's almost literally a stick - she might as well be a boy because she's got zero curves. I don't get that we see her eat, and she chose to eat during the immunity challenge even though she'd also eaten on the boat as part of the reward challenge, but she still weighs 4 pounds. I can't even imagine why Frosti finds her attractive. I think I noticed that Eric has bigger boobs than she does. I still want her to go. Eric was pretty funny with his goat noises. And if they kicked off Frosti because he's a big threat, then they might want to start *really* looking at the big pink elephant in the room - James. Strong and two idols? Yeah, I'm thinking it's time to go through with that blindsiding thing they'd planned on previously. And what was up with the end of tribal council? Guess we'll have to wait until next week.

On a slight tangent, I did notice that one of the ads during the show was a casting call for "Big Brother". That show only runs in the summer, but with the current writers' strike, they're looking for more reality programming, and there had been talk about them doing the next "Big Brother" early. Now would be a good time to start casting to get the show up and running in January or February if the strike is still going on.