Summary
- Young Sheldon season 7 premiere flips original premise, focusing on Mary embarrassing Sheldon instead.
- Show shifts focus from Sheldon to family subplots, with Sheldon becoming a supporting character.
- Sheldon's subplot in season 7 episode 1 shows him supporting his family, reversing the original dynamic.
When Young Sheldon’s season 7 premiere saw Mary embarrass Sheldon, this subtly flipped The Big Bang Theory spinoff’s original premise. When Young Sheldon was first teased as a spinoff from The Big Bang Theory, it was easy to immediately ascertain the show’s appeal.
Sheldon was a ludicrous character in adulthood, so the question of what he acted like as a child was intriguing. Meanwhile, the fact that this science-obsessed prodigy grew up in a religious community in small-town Texas offered a whole world of conflict for Sheldon to become embroiled in. However, this premise changed over the years.
As Young Sheldon continued, the show focused less and less on its title character and more on his family. George Sr, Mary, Georgie, Missy, and Meemaw all got subplots of their own that gradually began to dominate the spinoff’s action. By Young Sheldon’s season 6 finale, Sheldon had become a supporting star in his own series.
As he boarded a plane to Germany with Mary, his subplot was largely forgotten amid more dramatic storylines. A tornado hit Sheldon’s hometown, and the impact this had on his family became the finale’s focus, meaning viewers didn’t see Sheldon in Germany until season 7.
Young Sheldon Season 7 Made Mary The New Sheldon
Season 7, episode 1, “A Wiener Schnitzel and Underwear in a Tree” proved worth the wait as the premiere brought back the show's German storyline. Mary and Sheldon’s shared plot flipped Young Sheldon’s original premise as Mary proved a fish out of water in Sheldon’s college much like Sheldon feels out of place in Texas.
When Mary drunkenly joined her son’s conversation with fellow science students, mortifying him in the process, Sheldon’s mother ironically proved that she could fulfill her son’s original role in Young Sheldon; The Big Bang Theory spinoff was originally focused on Sheldon embarrassing his family with his antics.
Whether he was accidentally endorsing Communism or rationally debunking religion in front of a horrified crowd of churchgoers, Sheldon used to embarrass Mary and the Coopers all the time in Young Sheldon’s early seasons.
However, asYoung Sheldon’s cast of characters gradually won over viewers and this recurring story began to get tiresome, the spinoff moved away from this conceit. In season 7, Young Sheldon reversed the formula, with the titular young genius being the one embarrassed by his mother’s shenanigans rather than the other way around. For once, it was Sheldon who was cringing with his peers.
Why Young Sheldon Season 7 Episode 1’s Sheldon Subplot Worked
What made this episode’s subplot a success was not just its reversal of the show’s original premise. Instead, it was the fact that Sheldon didn’t begrudge his mother’s drunken tomfoolery. Sheldon helped his drunk mother and didn’t resent her, proving that he is as solid a support to his family as they are to him.
While Young Sheldon’s impending tragedy means the clan won’t always be stable, the Coopers are a unit. Throughout Young Sheldon, The Big Bang Theory’s spinoff proved Sheldon’s family was more supportive than he claimed, and he was more supportive of them than viewers might have guessed.
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