Young Sheldon Avoiding This TBBT Plot Story Made Sheldon Worse md24

Although Young Sheldon did a great job of expanding The Big Bang Theory’s fictional universe, the spinoff did fumble one major element of its title character’s backstory. By Young Sheldon’s finale, it was clear that the sitcom had managed the impressive feat of emerging from its predecessor’s shadow.

By the time The Big Bang Theory’s finale aired, the sitcom was one of the biggest shows on television and the most popular sitcom since Friends. As such, Young Sheldon had some pretty big shoes to fill, and the show took an ambitious, risky approach by dropping The Big Bang Theory’s laugh track and switching to a single-camera style.

These changes went on to define the show, and Young Sheldon’s best episode would never worked if the series maintained the broader, zanier tone of The Big Bang Theory. That being said, there were times when Young Sheldon could have benefited from some more fidelity to the lore of The Big Bang Theory, like Sheldon’s changing backstory.

Young Sheldon Almost Entirely Avoided Sheldon’s Bullying Background

Sheldon Claimed He Was The Victim of Terrible Bullying In The Big Bang Theory

Throughout The Big Bang Theory, Sheldon often spoke about the brutal bullying he faced throughout his childhood and adolescence. Sheldon talked about his twin sister and his older brother tormenting him, but he also said there was a lot of physical bullying meted out on him at school during his youth.

Sheldon’s references to childhood bullying were often played for laughs in The Big Bang Theory, which left Young Sheldon in a tricky situation. The spinoff couldn’t depict this bullying comedically, since it would be difficult to make such downbeat material funny. However, the show couldn’t ignore it, either, since Sheldon’s childhood mistreatment seemed to shape his adult personality.

Sheldon bitterly believed himself to be smarter and better than almost everyone else in The Big Bang Theory, and it seemed reasonable to assume that this belief came from his childhood isolation, alienation, and bullying. However, as the spinoff continued and Young Sheldon’s Missy and Sheldon remained close, it became tougher to justify this outlook.

If Sheldon was a victim of terrible bullying, it would not be all that surprising for him to have become self-centered in adulthood. However, since the prequel cut his childhood bullying, Sheldon’s self-obsession now seems less justified and more unpleasant upon a rewatch of the original show. Two earlier sitcoms make this particularly unfortunate.

Cutting Sheldon’s Bullying Makes His Big Bang Theory Personality Worse

Young Sheldon Changed Sheldon’s Entire Original Show Backstory

Other coming-of-age sitcoms like Everybody Hates Chris and Malcolm in the Middle managed to make childhood bullying funny, and both those shows also featured bright, misunderstood young boys as their occasionally obnoxious antiheroes. Viewers weren’t supposed to always root for them, but their bullying storylines were no darker or bleaker than the rest of the surrounding shows.

However, since Young Sheldon had a lighter, warmer tone than these earlier sitcoms, The Big Bang Theory’s spinoff wasn’t equipped to handle bullying storylines. The one time Sheldon did have a serious issue with a bully, the entire punchline of the plot was that she was a smaller, younger girl than him, meaning he wasn’t in substantial danger.

As such, although Sheldon’s overwhelming self-interest seemed like a protective trait designed to shield him from bullies, Young Sheldon changed this. Remove the past bullying, and he’s just a self-centered character, thus making his role in The Big Bang Theory seem less likable in retrospect. This also hurts Sheldon’s Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage season 2 role.

In The Big Bang Theory season 11, episode 23, “The Sibling Realignment,” Georgie claimed that he alone was expected to help out his mother and sister after George Sr. died suddenly and Sheldon moved to California shortly afterward. At the time, this seemed like an inevitable outcome.

Georgie did not help Sheldon during his childhood and adolescence, when he faced constant bullying, so Sheldon abandoned him when their father died and Sheldon was afforded an opportunity for a brighter future. The feud between the siblings was balanced, which made their estrangement both tragic and justified.

Young Sheldon Failed To Fix This Big Bang Theory Inconsistency

The Prequel Had Chances To Justify Sheldon’s Obstinacy

However, Young Sheldon revealed that Sheldon didn’t face much bullying at all, making Georgie a better big brother than he seemed in the original show. While Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage season 2 may offer another, more detailed explanation for their estrangement, it seems as if the pair’s fight has been largely discredited by the prequel.

Although earlier sitcoms did manage to make the topic funny and relatable, it is very understandable that the creators of Young Sheldon wanted to avoid depicting bullying. After all, it’s highly unpleasant, and it is a hard subject to laugh about outside of Sheldon’s glib, throwaway references to unseen childhood traumas in The Big Bang Theory.

However, even if the creators wanted to avoid depicting bullying, Sheldon could still have struggled to be taken seriously in college, and that could have justified his arrogance instead. This would have been an alternative, equally understandable reason for the former child prodigy to feel mistreated, thus explaining the chip on his shoulder.

Sadly, this is not how things went down in Young Sheldon. The faculty were usually patient to a fault, and even Sheldon’s most easily irritated mentors were willing to work with the boy genius and explain things to him when it was necessary.

As such, even though Young Sheldon’s finale offered more insight than ever into Sheldon’s mind, the prequel wasn’t perfect when it came to setting up his story. Young Sheldon cutting The Big Bang Theory’s reminiscences of childhood bullying resulted in the spinoff making the original show’s hero less relatable.