Young Sheldon
Cast: Iain Armitage, Zoe Perry, Lance Barber, Montana Jordan, Raegan Revord, Annie Potts
Creators: Steven Molaro, Chuck Lorre
During this lockdown, there has been plenty of communication on social media to suggest that mothers with young children are running out of options when it comes to creating activities for the tots! Well, Young Sheldon currently available on (Amazon) Prime Video, based on the much loved geeky character Sheldon Cooper from the popular TV show The Big Bang Theory is perfect for family viewing and a good choice when everyone is cooped up at home. This, as you might have gathered is a prequel taking us back in time to establish the child prodigy that Sheldon was back in Texas in 1989 when he was primed to pole-vault into high school at the tender age of nine.
In Young Sheldon, we are introduced to the Cooper family comprising of Mary Cooper (Zoe Perry), George Cooper Sr (Lance Barber), Georgie Cooper (Montana Jordan), Missy Cooper (Raegan Revord), Meemaw (Annie Potts), and of course, Iain Armitage as the young Sheldon Cooper. The casting is bang on, each character as endearing as the other-- a delightful bunch.
Following faithfully in the footsteps of the main show, Mary Cooper, Sheldon’s mother is shown as the devout, god-fearing, church-going mother with a soft spot for her Shelly (Sheldon) who is an anomaly among his peers because of his exceptional scientific intellect. Sheldon’s father--George Sr. is the football coach who loves his beer and watching the game. Sheldon’s older teenage brother, Georgie, is interested in sports, cars, and yes, pretty girls. However, the two winners in this prequel, besides Sheldon, are Missy, Sheldon’s twin sister, and Meemaw. Missy is quite the opposite of her twin Sheldon — gregarious, outgoing, and unlike him, least interested in academics while their grandmother the impish Meemaw adds tremendous mirth to the family proceedings.
Sheldon, because of his extraordinary situation of being a young precocious prodigy in a grown-up world, is particularly complex as a child quite like his future, adult version. The young Sheldon (Iain Armitage) displays all the idiosyncrasies and phobias that we have grown to love in his grown-up avatar played impeccably by Jim Parson. Sheldon’s academic brilliance and the ensuing humour it gives rise to—the superlative IQ that makes him outshine his classmates, seniors, and faculty members in school-- are the highlights of the show. What makes the show eminently watchable is the fact that young Sheldon, despite his brilliance has all possible childish foibles, a massive superiority complex and no filters at all—an absolutely lethal combination for a kid navigating his way through school!
Armitage does a fine job of being both annoying and endearing in the same breath as he tackles sibling rivalry, disciplinary issues with all the restraint that he can muster. What does smoothen his path though are empathetic relationships. Particularly endearing in this regard is Sheldon's innocent banter with the school librarian and his friendship with Meemaw’s scientist boyfriend Dr Sturgis, many years his senior.
The first season starts off with the spotlight mostly on Sheldon and others in a supporting role. Actor Jim Parsons who plays Sheldon in The Big Bang Theory is the narrator and this adds to the show’s relatability and charm. Watching Sheldon’s precocious arguments with everyone around him is fun, but also sensitizing. It tables a whole lot of issues on raising children and the problems they face. George Sr, Sheldon's father, who is the football coach in Sheldon's school, seems clueless when it comes to dealing with his high-IQ son. Mary’s balancing act on her three kids who are as different as chalk and cheese, as we find out, is not an easy one. Just scheduling what to watch on TV proves to be a huge juggling act- Sheldon likes watching science shows-Professor Proton in particular, George-like girls in bikinis and Missy-regular cartoons and girlie stuff.
By the time Season 3 arrives, the supporting characters too get a lot of screen time–Georgie, Missy, and Meemaw, in particular, get to shine. Missy joins the baseball team, Meemaw gets a boyfriend in Dr. Sturgis and Georgie finds his talent as the Tyre-whisperer. Only trouble is that in the later seasons, the sub-plots can occasionally get a tad tedious.
But, in all its three seasons the show is exemplary for crafting episode after episode that can be watched by both grow-ups and children. There is painstaking detail on the costume and production design front to create a world that ticks against all the boxes of Sheldon’s account of his childhood. In fact, when in an episode of The Big Bang Theory you meet a grown-up version of Georgie, it appears as though he is indeed a grown-up version of Montana Jordan, the actor who plays the young Georgie Cooper. All the actors are brilliant in their roles, but Zoe Perry, Iain Armitage, and Raegan Revord are exceptionally watchable. No wonder the buzz around Season 4 is building up already.
There are warm and fuzzy life’s lessons–instilling the right family values and humour that feels gentle and genuinely situational, the show has a lot to offer. Unlike, what you may imagine, Young Sheldon is a show not merely for fans of The Big Bang Theory, but for anyone interested in watching a wholesome family show.
Chuck Lorre and Steven Molaro the creators of the show who have worked on several epic sitcoms like The Big Bang Theory and Two And A Half Men do a fine job of creating a spin-off prequel good enough to stand on its own-- a feat that is as rare as Young Sheldon's enviable intellect.
Rating: 3.5/5
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