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| Kaley Cuoco, Melissa Rauch, and Mayim Bialik |
We’ve had a lot of
fun this week with Emmy predictions, so I figured we’d close the Emmy Week with
a Bechdel Test examination of one of the frontrunners for a number of the
trophies: The Big Bang Theory. For
those who have been with it since the beginning, The Big Bang Theory started as the Bechdel Test’s worst
nightmare-four guys, one girl, and our female lead Penny (Kaley Cuoco) never
seemed to get her own plotlines or even a last name (she still hasn’t gotten
the latter).
But thankfully
through the years they’ve added Bernadette (Melissa Rauch) and Amy (Mayim
Bialik), which gives us a fighting chance on the Bechdel Test. In fact, one could argue they made the
show infinitely better-the show was able to expand Howard, Penny, and Sheldon
far more with these actresses to bring out different sides of them, and the two
ladies should get a chunk of that credit (fittingly, they are both now in the
credits). But did it help with the
Bechdel Test?
As a reminder, these
are the criteria for passing the Bechdel Test:
1. The show needs to
have two named characters.
2. The two
characters need to talk to each other.
3. The conversation
needs to last thirty seconds and be about something other than a man. This thirty second rule is something
that has been added specifically at the Many
Rantings of John to ensure that a simple “hello”/”hello back” conversation
doesn’t get a show an accidental pass.
The Date Night Variable (#6.1)
A tight call, but
I’m going with a FAIL. Penny and Amy briefly discussed their
beauty regiments, but the subject quickly turned to Sheldon and Leonard and
their respective relationships, so it’s a toss. Otherwise, we got some ugly stereotyping late in the episode
(Leonard was the “girl” in the relationship since he wanted to discuss it and
didn’t like sports) and a fairly enjoyable anniversary dinner between Sheldon
and Amy (I love the way that Mayim Bialik has grown that character through the
years).
The Decoupling Fluctuation (#6.2)
We easily hit a PASS in the opening scene of the show,
with Bernadette, Amy, and Penny all discussing wedding presents and where Amy
would want to register (the cadaver lab, natch). After a fairly rudimentary premiere, we get a considerably
stronger second episode, with Sheldon and Penny having a heart-to-heart about
her conflicted feelings about staying with Leonard (Sheldon and Penny episodes
are always the best). And Howard’s
interactions with Mike Massimino are always hilarious (for those who don’t
know, he’s an actual astronaut in real life).
The Higgs Boson Observation (#6.3)
This episode brought
us another recurring female role, though not a main character in Alex,
Sheldon’s stunningly patient grad assistant (played by Margo Harshman). She didn’t get us a Bechdel Pass
(instead, we got that PASS from Amy
and Penny discussing Amy’s beauty regiment), but it’s nice to have another
female presence at the University, since Sara Gilbert has disappeared without
any sort of plot explanation.
The Re-Entry Minimization (#6.4)
Sometimes the
Bechdel Test pass or fail is very debatable. It’s arguable that Penny and Amy’s interactions during the
Pictionary game fails, since their conversation is being driven by Sheldon, but
I’m giving it a PASS, since they’re
technically discussing the game.
The episode was Howard-driven, which usually is a bit of a pass for me
(Howard’s character always seemed a bit much for me).
The Holographic Excitation (#6.5)
It’s incredible the
amount of guest stars (and always connected to the characters) that the show
can get now that it is such a massive hit. Buzz Aldrin’s cameo as a man who can’t stop talking about
being an astronaut was such a stroke of genius, it made up for what was a
relatively routine episode, with Amy and Sheldon fighting about the speed of
their relationship and Howard and Bernadette quarrelling over Howard’s constant
chatter about his space expedition.
The episode also FAILS the
Bechdel, as the only brief interaction between female characters is Bernadette
and Penny chatting about their costumes at the comic book store, but it doesn’t
hit thirty seconds.
The Extract Obliteration (#6.6)
Like Aldrin in the
last episode, the re-appearance of Stephen Hawking as one of Sheldon’s Words
with Friends competitors is a great wink to the Celebrity World of the
Geeks. This episode is a PASS for our female characters, as
Penny, Amy, and Bernadette discuss Penny’s recent interest in going back to
community college and their help with her term paper.
The Habitation Configuration (#6.7)
One of the best recurring
bits on this series is Sheldon’s complicated relationship with Wil
Wheaton. Random factoid about
me-Wil Wheaton was my first celebrity crush. I used to watch Star
Trek: The Next Generation with my dad, and would hope every time we watched
that it would be an episode with dreamy Wesley Crusher.
But while this
episode was terrific in that sense (Parsons wisely chose this episode as his
Emmy episode submission), we get a FAIL on
the Bechdel Test-the ladies only share a scene together at the Cheesecake
Factory, which consists of Penny and Bernadette talking about Howard and his
failure to move out of his mother’s house.
The 43 Peculiarity (#6.8)
The most
estrogen-lacking episode so far this season, I don’t believe Amy or Bernadette
even show up during the episode, leaving us with just Penny, who finally admits
she loves Leonard in this episode, and Alex, who flirts with Leonard, though he
doesn’t pick up on it. The two women never share the screen, though, so FAIL
The Parking Spot Escalation (#6.9)
As a series,
particularly an ensemble series, gets on in years, the absolute best way for it
to remain fresh is to explore relationships on the show that don’t always get
their due. It’s a weirdly
underutilized tool at the writers’ disposal. Case in Point: I loved that this episode had more of an
interaction between Bernadette and Amy (who clearly spend boatloads of time
together, even though the focus of the women’s scenes is always Penny), as they
fought their own version of a Howard vs. Sheldon fight over a parking
space. The feud also resulted in
an easy Bechdel PASS (in multiple
scenes), as they discussed Amy’s bikini wax and Bernadette towing Amy’s
car. Here’s to hoping that we get
some Bernadette/Sheldon or Amy/Howard scenes in the future-mix up the chemistry
people!
The Fish Guts Displacement (#6.10)
In a particularly
silly episode, Mayim Bialik got her chance to shine (this was her Emmy
submission episode). The episode
has Sheldon particularly naïve to the ways of Amy and her lust for him (she
tricks him into, amongst other things, giving her a bath and spanking her), but
Bialik sells it wholeheartedly. We
also got a PASS, with Amy and
Bernadette discussing Amy’s illness.
The Santa Simulation (#6.11)
Ugh, after two great
passes, we got a depressing FAIL this
week, even though the ladies were out for a girls’ night. The point of a girls night, not that
Hollywood writers seem to know this, is not just to go out and pick up men, but
for some reason since all three of these ladies are romantically involved, they
had to add Raj to keep the conversation alive (and to hijack them discussing
anything other than his love life).
The Egg Salad Equivalency (#6.12)
Let’s start with the
good-Regina King is always a welcome addition to anything she does and, thanks
to a discussion about Alex between Penny, Bernadette, and Amy, we got a Bechdel
Test PASS. But the rest of the episode was a low point for the
series. Sheldon has been many
things, but a clueless racist and misogynist isn’t usually one of them, but
this episode had him being both. I
don’t know that I laughed once during this episode, and all four of the guys
should have been fired. This was
cheap humor, and this show should know better.
The Bakersfield Expedition (#6.13)
One of the great
oddities of television is the fact that some of the worst episodes of a series
can be followed with a genuine best episode of the series, and this is one of
them. While the guys trek through
the desert was relatively standard fare, the women got a home run this
episode. From their brunch
discussions of the guys’ fascination with comic books, to their subsequent
discussions about comic books, we got to see great, hilarious character work
for all three women-Melissa Rauch, Kaley Cuoco, and Mayim Bialik should all be
extremely proud, as should the writers, as this was probably the most and
longest PASS the series has ever had
on the Bechdel Test.
The Cooper/Kripke Inversion (#6.14)
We got a return of
one of the series more annoying creations, Barry Kripke, a walking sexual
harassment lawsuit (he makes early season Howard look positively gallant), and
we get no interaction between the female characters-Amy is sidelined and
basically just talked about, Bernadette is in a tussle with Howard over money,
and Penny is just stunned that Sheldon may want to have sex someday. FAIL
The Spoiler Alert Segmentation (#6.15)
Another FAIL, though not for a lack of female
characters-Bernadette, Amy, and Penny all appear throughout the episode, the
latter two pretty significantly, but the only interaction between female
characters is at the very end of the episode, when Penny and Amy are talking
about Sheldon and Leonard and their inability to comprehend their diverse
feelings about moving in together (Amy being pro for moving in with Sheldon,
Penny against moving in with Leonard).
The Tangible Affection Proof (#6.16)
Our third FAIL in a row (bummer), though we had
five speaking female characters in the episode, and one non-speaking one (Kaley
Cuoco’s sister Briana played her ex-best friend). The episode had a pretty significant interaction between
Bernadette and Penny, but the bulk of it was spent discussing Penny’s ex and
Leonard, so that caused the fail.
In other news, Sheldon and Amy continue to see their relationship
progress (I have a feeling that next season’s finale cliffhanger will finally
mean they’ve had sex).
Th Monster Isolation (#6.17)
The FAIL streak continues, though we again
got a significant portion of the episode given to our female characters. Penny, in particular, saw a lot of
growth, showing that all of those acting classes have not been in vain and that
she can actually pull off a strong Blanche DuBois (though she completely
abandoned the Southern accent). In
other venues, we also learned a bit more about Raj’s potential girlfriend Lucy,
who is just as disturbed as he is.
The Contractual Obligation Implementation (#6.18)
We’re back, and in
an episode that was about trying to get more women in science, it was
heartening to know that the Bechdel Test was a major PASS. The girls spent
the day playing hooky at Disneyland (with everyone dressing as their favorite
Disney Princess…well Bernadette at least). I’m so glad that Sheldon remembered the fact that he did
know two successful female scientists toward the end of the episode, so that
their endeavor to get women into the sciences wasn’t totally in vain.
The Closet Reconfiguration (#6.19)
This was such a
beautiful episode, I almost want to give it a pass as it showed how far Howard
has come through the series in such a positive way, and it may have been the
first time ever that The Big Bang Theory (an
oddly unsentimental show) made me cry.
The girls shared a couple of scenes, but like most of the episode, it
focused on their discussion of the letter from Howard’s father’s letter, so FAIL, but that scene where they all
read what might have been in the letter was wonderful.
The Tenure Turbulence (#6.20)
Perhaps Sheldon is just racist.
Once again we had a series of cheap racial jokes with the fabulous
Regina King for some reason being the brunt of them (is this all Chuck Lorre
can do with a talented actress of color?
Really?), though we got a PASS on
the Bechdel Test (Amy and Penny discussed the ways that they would be a better
asset in flirting with the tenure staff).
The Closure Alternative (#6.21)
We got a fascinating topic worth investigating (shows that get
cancelled and never have resolution, in this case SyFy’s Alphas), and even a Bechdel PASS,
with Bernadette and Penny discussing Penny’s lack of passions (though I thought
it was a major cop-out that her passions ended up being her friends).
The Proton Resurgence (#6.22)
Bob Newhart recently won an Emmy Award for this episode, and he’s by
far the biggest draw here, in what was a fairly “throwback” style episode for Big Bang, with Penny, Leonard, and
Sheldon all staying within their own story and Raj, Bernadette, and Howard in
theirs (no sign of Amy anywhere).
This led to a Bechdel FAIL,
though, of course.
The Love Spell Potential (#6.23)
A great episode, one that I personally think should have been the
season finale (we’ll get to a complaint I had about the season finale in a
moment): the gang all play Dungeons and Dragons together. Since all seven of the main characters
were there, in some fashion (Raj left rather early), we got a Bechdel PASS amongst the women, and we also got
a truly solid piece of acting from Mayim Bialik (she could have just as easily
have submitted this episode for Emmy consideration).
The Bon Voyage Reaction (#6.24)
I know that the whole point of this finale was to focus on Raj, who, in
hindsight, had quite the character journey this past year (writing about all of
these characters, you see that for him, as well as for basically everyone
except Leonard and Bernadette, this was a transformative year), so his ability
to now talk to women probably makes sense, but I think that’s going to take
away a lot from his character. I
hope that what this means is that he still can’t talk to women, but can talk to
Bernadette, Penny, and Amy since they are his “family” (as was pushed through
most of the episode’s narrative, and since he’s always been able to talk to his
mother and sister). Oh, and
Bechdel Test FAIL to close the
season.
Final Scorecard
Bechdel Test: 12/24 (50%)
Bechdel Grade: F
Another season where we hit 50%, but we just come up short of a passing
grade. Overall, watching all of
these episodes with a closer eye (rather than just having it on in the
background during TBS), you get to see a bit more of the dialogue for being
racist, sexist, and homophobic (I still like the show, but it shouldn’t quite
get the free pass that it does from some critics, as the jokes come from a
baser place than we’d hope despite the strong cast). The show of course passed the reverse Bechdel in every
single episode, and with stories about Penny not really having interests and
the sexual harassment storyline, at least the writers seem to be becoming aware
of their shortfalls in political correctness.
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