‘The Big Bang Theory’ season 7, episode 20 video: Sheldon’s string theory crisis

For the entirety of its run on TV, “The Big bang Theory” has shown Dr. Sheldon Cooper primarily working on one subject matter and one subject matter only: String theory, and trying to make some sort of substantial breakthrough in the field.

Unfortunately for Sheldon, most of this research has not panned out as he would have hoped … mostly because he’s not known for being one of the greatest scientific geniuses of our time just yet. Instead, he is still a guy living in an apartment with Leonard, complaining about everything from takeout to his favorite spot on the couch. While the character has grown personally with his relationship with Amy, his biggest move to date professionally was an accidental discovery of an element that does not even exist.

In the sneak peek below from Thursday night’s episode, Sheldon and Penny have a sit-down conversation that is stuffed full of funny, but also predictable, lines about how his career is going right now, and if there is anything else that he should be doing. Penny tries to compare it to past relationships that didn’t work out … which Sheldon then tries to say is about her and Penny.

This is a story with the potential to be amazing, but the show would be best served if they showed Sheldon moving on to a new field quickly. There’s not much comedy to be mined from string theory, and now that we’ve seen it for so many years, it has served its purpose. Let’s maybe find something that allows Jim Parsons to play different sides of Sheldon, and for him to have actual success. It’s funny how for a character who acts like a jerk as often as he does, we still want to root for him to succeed.

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Photo: CBS