Why the hell are people ragging on “Young Sheldon?”

Facebook has erupted with people trashing this perfectly sweet family comedy.

With a style that is 180 degrees away from “The Big Bang Theory,” “Young Sheldon” tells the backstory of Sheldon Cooper (a perfectly cast Iain Armitage) as he starts his first day of high school at the age of, I dunno, eight. Nine. Something like that. He’s in the same class as his mortified older brother and is immediately ratting out kids who aren’t following the dress code. We see the groundwork being laid both for the pain-in-the-ášš that is his older self, but the same one who has love deeply buried in him that he was able to become engaged to Amy in the preceding episode of BBT. It is filled with tons of sweet moments, and yet all over Facebook people are slagging in, a number of them doing so without even bothering to watch it.

Is this where we are in Trump’s America, where even a delightful new program that should be unassailably adored is slammed by know-nothings who can’t even take a half an hour to see it and develop an informed opinion?

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24 comments on “Why the hell are people ragging on “Young Sheldon?”

  1. Well, as an opening episode of a sitcom… it’s just not very funny. It’s certainly not awful, and a show needs to set up its situations (it’s not always easy as a guy waking up in a bathtub and needing a new place to live).

    I’m willing to give it another episode or three, but if it’s just heartwarming and not funny, I’m out.

    Gifted kids often have more in common with other gifted people regardless of age — he needs a role model, a foil, a buddy. The music teacher is a possibility (Sheldon should pick up a violin or something in BBT, “Oh, I’ve always been able to play, you never asked”), Chess Club, the local book store — places where he can be Sheldon and maybe not fit, but at least have a context.

  2. As a TLDR summary, I’ll paraphrase from Chinatown:

    Forget it, Peter, it’s the internet.

    ….

    Everything in pop culture gets slagged on even back when Usenet groups were the big thing. It’s just that there’s more of it.

    Some of it is a view that it’s just a crass money grab. (As if no sitcom has ever been spun off before)

    Some of it is an aversion to Prequels. This includes fears of sloppy continuity, sub-standard actors taking on the roles of long cherished actors, that character growth is limited due to the nature of a prequel. Or maybe Star Wars episodes 1 through 3 poisoned their minds against the concept of prequels (maybe with an assist from Star Trek: Enterprise).

    A good chunk of it is quite simply, “Haters gonna hate”.

    1. As Shawn says: “It was ever thus.”

      Instant and unjustified criticism has been around a lot longer than Trump. It is sad that he so predominant in your thoughts that something he has absolutely nothing to do with somehow is indicative of his presidency.

  3. I wouldn’t trash it because I haven’t seen it but I wouldn’t give it a chance either because BBT is a terrible show. Probably the terribleness of BBT is a big factor in why it’s being dismissed out of hand.

    I guess. I haven’t seen anything about the show one way or the other.

    1. Thanks, I came to say similar. Notably that I, too, won’t criticize something I just had no interest to see. I found every character insulting and/or tedious on BBT, and it’s attempt at “insert nerd ref here” jokes often showed that the writers did not even understood their subject matter. Better to leave that to Graham Linehan and such. (Moss vs Sheldon, NO contest)

  4. “Sweet” is exactly how I described it to Robin after we watched it. He thought it was basically Wonder Years 2017 but I liked it more, particularly knowing that the actress who plays Sheldon’s mom is Laurie Metcalf’s real-life daughter. And I loved the surprise (at least to me) narration by Jim Parsons!

  5. Not as funny as Big Bang, no. But does have its moments, yes. Maybe better next time?
    .
    Either way, I wish it could go back in time and be seen at a young age by some people (and I were one of them) who operated on the basis of living in a perfect world, only to spend quite some time to grow out of that naive and ineffective world view. At least, those I think of did. Sheldon, if one goes by such episodes as the one where he tries to get his driver’s license, never quite managed it.

  6. It gives people a righteous sense of purpose to see pixels align in a way that communicates their displeasure.

  7. It would be nice to say that it’s a Trumpian thing, but pre-hate predates 45.

    I have seen more than one post saying, in essence, “I would rather hate it now than be disappointed later. ” As Shawn said, Haters gotta hate.

    Is this one available on the regular network, or is it another CBS Access thing?

  8. I saw the whole episode and thought it was so-so. Yes, Iain Armitage captured Sheldon’s mannerisms perfectly — but that’s part of the problem. We already have a show full of Sheldon Cooper, and it’s literally on right before YS. In addition, this isn’t seeing how Sheldon grew and evolved into the character on TBBT; this *is* Sheldon from TBBT, only as a kid instead of an adult.

    The only possible difference between YS and TBBT is that on TBBT, when Sheldon wants something or throws a fit, everyone gives in to him. (A rare exception was when Penny feuded with him in “The Panty Pinata Polarization.”) On YS, we could see Sheldon finding people not only willing to stand up to him, but who indeed might stuff him in a gym bag. We’ll see if they do anything with that.

    1. Agreed. It’s been fun to watch Sheldon’s evolution on TBBT, but he wasn’t a very likable character when the show started. Not interested in seeing how a child becomes that closed off and egotistical.

  9. Watched it, wasn’t impressed with it will give it chance as it can get really after all it’s only one episode and it needs it to build up I’ve learned awhile ago to ignore the internet trolls as most of them are negative

  10. who can’t even take a half an hour to see it and develop an informed opinion?
    .
    But how are they supposed to know what their opinion is unless they find out from someone else?
    .
    If they actually came up with one on their own, it might not be the same as the mob!

  11. As much as I think Trump is the ultimate human šhìŧ stain and his diehard supporters are proving themselves made in his image, I can’t blame Trump’s America for people not having an informed opinion before trashing something.
    .
    The new Doctor Who had more than its fair share of teeth gnashing and bashing before anyone ever saw the first episode. Hëll, I remember when CBG ran a story about Mark Verheiden getting Timecop in development. One of the comments in the letter pages a few weeks later was a fan whining about the lack of imagination of what was obviously a Robocop/Doctor Who ripoff.
    .
    Then there was the fan hate from some quarters seen before Next Generation even aired.
    .
    Or the announcement of “Mr. Mom” getting the lead role ruining the Batman movie.
    .
    Fandom has always been like this.

  12. A factor contributing to the hatred of the show is that lots of people hate TBBT and so probably hate anything associated with it. I know TBBT is the #1 rated comedy (show?) but I’ve read a lot of comments that it’s making fun of geek culture; someone even described it as “nerds in blackface.” I think those people just can’t find the humor in the genre they love (like the STAR TREK fans who still can’t forgive William Shatner for doing the “Get a life” sketch) and the four main character certainly embody different types of geeks.

  13. There are lots of fans out there who HATE, HATE, HATE TBBT. Some of them watch a few first season episodes, decided that it was trashing fans, and never looked again as the characters grew and evolved. Lots of the people dumping on YS (who never watched it and never will) fall in this category.

    Others dislike it because it’s “not very funny”. But it’s not supposed to be a big guffaws comedy; it’s, as you say, sweet, in the tradition of the Wonder Years. Very diferent from TBBT.

    I love how the relationship between Sheldon and his mom is consistent – she doesn’t always understand him, but she loves him unconditionally and ALWAYS has his back. The insight into Sheldon and his dad (who is dead by the time of TBBT) is interesting. He clearly wishes Sheldon could be more “normal”, but he, too, loves his son. I will be very interested to see how they develop Sheldon’s siblings. We’ve met the grown-up sister before, but George, Jr. is a blank slate. Given how the core TBBT cast has evolved and grown, I have high hopes fof them, too.

  14. “Is this where we are in Trump’s America, where even a delightful new program that should be unassailably adored is slammed by know-nothings who can’t even take a half an hour to see it and develop an informed opinion?”

    Oh, come now. People were ragging on things they’d never seen long before Trump came along.

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