‘The Big Bang Theory’ season 8, episode 23 review: Leonard and Sheldon’s mothers meet

Tonight, “The Big Bang Theory” had a meeting of the mothers, and to go along with that, a story about how Bernadette is treating Howard in the same exact way she would treat a child. Let’s rejoice first and foremost that the show is finally taking that story on, because it becomes almost more and more of a caricature as time goes on. We’re hoping that this is not a “Two and a Half Men” effect, where on that show Alan become more and more of a one-note character until the end of the season.

The mothers that really did take center stage were Sheldon and Leonard’s, who both met for the first time tonight. As you expect, there were all sorts of fireworks that came out of this. Sheldon’s mother is a Texan and devout Christian, while Leonard’s believes in no religion and mostly the world of psychology. Cheers to Christine Baranski and Laurie Metcalf for a brilliant performance on the show again.

Through the lens of these two women, we did find out more about what makes these characters tick. With Sheldon’s mother, we were reminded more of what makes his someone who loves to be the center of attention. Meanwhile, Leonard’s mom explains almost all of his relationship issues. Everyone seemed to make some progress in the end, and we had some laughs by the end of the story.

We’re not going to even remotely pretend that tonight’s episode was really jammed full of substance. We’re still surprised by the relative lack of Amy lately (she was there tonight, but in a smaller role), but this episode mostly showed how to properly use guest stars to create wonderfully funny character moments. We’d watch this one several times over and still enjoy it. Grade: A-.

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