Young Sheldon has only one Halloween episode and, to make matters worse, The Big Bang Theory spinoff's outing barely even featured Sheldon himself.
Mary smugly smiling while dressed as an angel in Young Sheldon season 2
SUMMARY
- Young Sheldon has sidelined its titular character on several occasions, which is a missed opportunity for the show to explore Sheldon Cooper's development.
- Season 2's Halloween episode barely features Sheldon, instead focusing on his brother's romantic pursuits and his mother's concerns.
- Young Sheldon should revisit Halloween to explore the origins of Sheldon's love for the holiday, as costumes were a significant part of his character in The Big Bang Theory.
While Young Sheldon does have one Halloween episode, The Big Bang Theory’s spinoff wasted its eponymous hero in this outing. Although Sheldon Cooper is the title character of Young Sheldon, he isn’t always the focus of the show’s main storylines. This made sense in the early seasons of The Big Bang Theory’s spinoff since the character was still a child and, as such, the show needed to focus on his family members to increase the sitcom’s stakes. However, as Young Sheldon has continued, it has become increasingly striking to see the series ignore its ostensible hero for entire episodes at a time.
While Young Sheldon season 7 might make Sheldon the show’s primary focus again, the show’s early seasons have already missed a few major opportunities by sidelining him. While The Big Bang Theory technically wasn’t Sheldon’s show, there is no episode of the series where Jim Parsons didn’t appear as the character. In contrast, Young Sheldon pushed its hero to the background as early as season 2. This proved to be a problem in one holiday special as Young Sheldon ended up ignoring Sheldon’s experience of an early Halloween in favor of his brother’s storyline.
Sheldon, Meemaw, Missy, Georgie, and Mary all stare distraught in Young Sheldon season 1
Young Sheldon season 2, episode 6, “Seven Deadly Sins and a Small Carl Sagan,” mostly focused on Georgie’s attempts to woo Veronica, a rebellious girl that Sheldon was tutoring. As Mary worried about a local Hell House and its depiction of the seven deadly sins, Georgie worried that his romantic prospects would be put off by the attraction’s depiction of lust. While Young Sheldon season 2’s sweetest moments kept the show’s connection to The Big Bang Theory alive, “Seven Deadly Sins and a Small Carl Sagan” ignored Sheldon almost entirely. His role in the episode was reduced to a gag referenced in the title.
As Georgie tried to woo Veronica and Mary tried to discourage local teens from pursuing a life of vices, Sheldon went trick-or-treating with his sister Missy. Few of his neighbors recognized his costume since Sheldon was dressed as one of his idols, Carl Sagan. However, he was finally given some credit in the episode’s ending, leaving Sheldon overjoyed while Georgie was annoyed with his mother for inadvertently ruining his date with Veronica. While Jim Parsons’ older Sheldon does narrate “Seven Deadly Sins and a Small Carl Sagan,” the outing still felt like it had little to do with Sheldon thanks to Georgie and Mary’s plots.
The Big Bang Theory characters dressed up for Halloween
Like Sheldon rebelliously visiting a comic con in season 5, episode, 12, “A Pink Cadillac and a Glorious Tribal Dance,” Halloween episodes are a great chance for the show to ground the character’s future love of cosplay. Sheldon had some hilarious Halloween misadventures in The Big Bang Theory, from dressing as Howard to attending Penny’s party dressed as “The Doppler Effect.” However, viewers get to see very little of where the character’s love for the holiday began. Since Young Sheldon focused on Sheldon’s family over the character himself, viewers never got to see the many childhood Halloween adventures treasured by The Big Bang Theory’s hero.
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