To me, season 8 has been an incredible let down so far, but The Troll Manifestation lived up to old-fashioned expectations.
The picture used by IMDb for this episode (Bernadette in an ugly pink dress) made me fear it would be a 'gimmicky' episode in which the laughter would (or "should") be induced by cheap, silly events. I was wrong: this episode did pretty much everything right.
The episode has two main story lines: Leonard and Sheldon come up with a new theory; and Penny, Bernadette and Amy are confronted with embarrassing facts from their respective pasts. The nice thing is that both story lines are coherent, and not fragmented as so many story lines in recent episodes have been. Fragmentation in story lines make me feel that the writers have run out of ideas, and are going for easy, uninspired laughter.
Besides two solid story lines with good jokes, The Troll Manifestation had some cute details in the acting (Leonard slapping the table in excitement; Bernadette sympathetically sighing "Oh, Amelia...") . It was also nice to see that Sheldon was actually being an adult with some childish quirks, instead of some infantile jerk who seems to go out of his way to annoy people.
I hope the writers will be able to keep this up!
The picture used by IMDb for this episode (Bernadette in an ugly pink dress) made me fear it would be a 'gimmicky' episode in which the laughter would (or "should") be induced by cheap, silly events. I was wrong: this episode did pretty much everything right.
The episode has two main story lines: Leonard and Sheldon come up with a new theory; and Penny, Bernadette and Amy are confronted with embarrassing facts from their respective pasts. The nice thing is that both story lines are coherent, and not fragmented as so many story lines in recent episodes have been. Fragmentation in story lines make me feel that the writers have run out of ideas, and are going for easy, uninspired laughter.
Besides two solid story lines with good jokes, The Troll Manifestation had some cute details in the acting (Leonard slapping the table in excitement; Bernadette sympathetically sighing "Oh, Amelia...") . It was also nice to see that Sheldon was actually being an adult with some childish quirks, instead of some infantile jerk who seems to go out of his way to annoy people.
I hope the writers will be able to keep this up!