Young Sheldon Series Premiere – “Pilot” Review. Meet Moonpie

Season 1, Episode 1

Air Date: Monday, September 25, 2017, 8:30/7:30c on CBS

Rating: ★★★★★

“I’m not planning on being in the ninth grade very long.” – Sheldon Cooper

Young Sheldon

Nine-year-old Sheldon Cooper (Iain Armitage) is a gifted child prodigy with a genius level IQ. Armed with one of the world’s greatest minds, Sheldon is about to face his biggest challenge – high school. Will his classmates like Sheldon for his mind or only see the awkward child with no social skills? Anyone who has seen The Big Bang Theory (TBBT) should be able to guess the answer.

Confession, I’m a big fan of TBBT. In fact, one of the few traditions I follow every Black Friday is buying the latest season of the show on DVD because of the low price. So, when CBS announced it was creating a spinoff based on Sheldon’s character, I was curiously optimistic. Unfortunately, Young Sheldon will not be added to my future holiday shopping list.

When television tackles a prequel, it’s usually to show the events that went into molding the younger version of a character into someone audiences are familiar with. For example, Gotham explores the childhood experiences that drive Bruce Wayne (David Mazouz) to transform into Batman; Smallville showed how Clark Kent (Tom Welling) eventually became Superman; and Bates Motel delved into how Norman Bates (Freddie Highmore) became the eventual Psycho antagonist. Like these other characters, we already know who young Sheldon grows into.

<i>Young Sheldon</i> Series Premiere – “Pilot” Review. Meet Moonpie 2

First day of high school.

The problem with Young Sheldon is the nine-year-old central character is simply a smaller version of TBBT’s Sheldon, complete with all of his idiosyncrasies. Parsons’ portrayal of Sheldon is of a genius with the social skills of a child, which is essentially what we get in Armitage’s performance because he is a child. Armitage does an admirable job filling Parsons’ shoes but unlike similar prequels, it’s hard to see room for character growth.

The other issue with Young Sheldon is TV series are a lot like baking bread. You take a combination of ingredients like milk, water, yeast, eggs, and flour and mix them together to create something tasty. The same applies to shows because the right mix of casting can make or break a series. The writers of Young Sheldon see TBBT’s Sheldon as the show’s yeast, the central ingredient that makes the bread or, in this case, a show successful. The trouble is yeast by itself tastes awful and by building a show based on only one ingredient, the writers fail to acknowledge that while Sheldon is an essential part of TBBT, the series is nothing without the remaining ingredients, namely the cast, that make the show so successful.

The one bright spot with Young Sheldon is Zoe Perry’s performance as Sheldon’s mother, Mary. TBBT first introduced Mary, played by Laurie Metcalf, during the first season and she has appeared sporadically throughout the series ever since. Perry draws upon Metcalf’s essence for the role and is spot on in creating the younger character. It doesn’t hurt that Metcalf is Perry’s real-life mother. Despite the series being about Sheldon, it’s Mary who really helps bridge the two shows.

Unfortunately, the same can’t be said about Sheldon’s twin sister, Missy (Raegan Revord). She was played by Courtney Henggeler when she was also introduced during TBBT’s first season. Given Missy’s limited screen time on TBBT, it would have been nice if she and Mary had more screen time on TBBT’s last season as a lead-in for the Young Sheldon pilot.

After 10 seasons of the highly successful Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady series, it’s easy to see why the idea of a spin-off series was considered. Unfortunately, nothing new is gained from the series premiere of Young Sheldon that helps viewers better understand the older Sheldon. New characters, like Sheldon’s brother George Jr. (Montana Jordan) and their father George Sr. (Lance Barber), do little to add to the story. It’s not that the Young Sheldon cast isn’t talented; they simply don’t recreate the magic of TBBT.

Interestingly, Young Sheldon is strikingly similar to ABC’s Speechless. Both series feature a special needs child whose overprotective mother’s focus on that child leads to the other siblings feeling neglected. The biggest difference between the two series is Speechless has more heart.

Tune in to the series premiere of Young Sheldon Monday, September 25 at 8:30/7:30c, only on CBS. The show moves to its regular timeslot, Thursdays at 8:30/7:30c, starting November 2.

Tweet me @Staffaroadtrip or leave a comment below to let me know what you think about Young Sheldon – “Pilot.”

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Greg Staffa

I provide testosterone to the site. You won’t be reading about how nice a actress looks in a dress or how much of a hunk Matt Bomer is in my reviews. I describe colors using words like brown, not taupe. My twitter name is @staffaroadtrip because I love road trips and have done two different 48-state road trips since 2008. My favorite show is White Collar.