‘The Big Bang Theory’ season 8, episode 7 review: A Billy Bob Thornton surprise

Tonight, “The Big Bang Theory” did something that was pretty predictable story-wise, but then somehow busted out a cameo appearance that nobody saw coming.

Somehow, CBS managed to sneak out a surprise Billy Bob Thornton appearance on the show without anyone really knowing. He was a doctor who called up Penny with flowers, after she flirted with him while out on a routine sales call. This has been a pretty banner year for the actor on TV, given that he also won rave reviews earlier this year for playing the role of Lorne Malvo on “Fargo.”

This time around, pure fun. We loved the idea of the show pulling something like this out of nowhere, especially since they are rarely able to pull this off. One of the biggest reasons why they probably managed to pull this off is because production happened on a super-short window for this half-hour, and there was only a tiny period of time that this had to be kept a secret.

Not only was this episode funny, but there were some interesting social commentaries in it to boot, including one that was all about whether or not it is degrading for female scientists to wear revealing outfits to bring attention to themselves and their work. This was the Amy / Bernadette conflict, and the former was none too pleased about it at first. This story didn’t really go anywhere in the end, but it did at least tie into everything in the end. Episode Grade: B+.

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