‘The Big Bang Theory’ season 8, episode 5 review: We want to watch ‘Back to the Future’ now

Who would have ever thought that Penny would be the responsible one on “The Big Bang Theory“? It was somewhat jarring, but this was one of the chief focal points on Monday night’s episode.

With that being said, we’re also not entirely sure if we enjoyed the storyline that much. Responsible Penny just isn’t as fun, and part of that may just be that the character is a completely 180. You can make the character grow up and allow her to not be glued to her computer studying, and maybe that will come in future episodes. Seriously, the best part about these characters and their trek to Vegas was the physical comedy at the end with Amy falling off of the bed. The rest was just a little too predictable, especially when it comes to how Amy and Bernadette were acting.

While we were slightly let down for the Vegas trip (mostly because we’ve loved so many of these stories with the ladies in the past), we found the stuff with the guys to be completely silly, and yet brilliant at the same time. The writing here was really sharp when it comes to how their attempts to stay focused led to one continuous distraction over another. The stuff with the duct tape was wonderful, and the same thing goes for all of the “Back to the Future” stuff. Jim Parsons was especially good in here, thought it was easy in that he had most of the best lines.

In the end, this is not an episode that will go down in “Big Bang Theory” history, but it did remind us that there is something nostalgic and fun about seeing the original four guys all together and doing various shenanigans. Let’s hope for more of that, and also more balance for Penny soon. Grade: B.

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