....Wait there was a wedding?
The Finale of season 9 set us up nicely for Leonard and Penny's second wedding. The premier of season 10...did nothing with it. Just about as poor an opening as I have seen to a season.
The episode should have evolved around the happy couple, but they barely had any lines, the wedding was over in minutes and when they did take centre stage Bernadette and Sheldon overshadowed them. Why was Bernadette officiating? This has been done so many times now on TV that it just felt like a copy. The Sheldon speech was nice but he shouldn't have hung around, this should have been about them alone, it felt like a forced Sheldon highlight, which it wasn't. Even the structure of the ceremony was rushed. They should have stuck with just the one wedding as this follow up was frankly embarrassing.
The episode did however give plenty of time to Mary, Arthur and Beverly. Why give characters who rarely show up 2 full episodes of screen time, Sheldon and Leonards parents getting it on was a nice little touch last time, but the fallout didn't deserve a full episode. Now the parents are gone and probably won't be seen again for a while. Thrown into the mix was Penny's family who we see in full for the first time, even they got more screen time than the main couple. Penny's brother was a highlight however and the opposite of what I would have envisioned.
Howard's pursuit by the government was briefly touched upon but again left dangling with no progression.
It really is hard to find any positives here (being a massive fan of the show). Leonard and Penny were lost in the background, Howard and Raj barley featured, Bernadette only getting screen time to officiate the wedding, not one mention of her pregnancy and Amy playing a harp. Emily was missing all together.
A big loss for me where the elder generations, all minor characters were given main billing, simply baffling.
To shine some light on this, there were plenty of gags throughout, most were quite funny, but unable to save a dire episode. Leonard and Penny I think have officially had the worst TV wedding, even their first was better.
If this were a mid season episode it would have passed for OK, but for a season premier and a wedding it failed on both counts.
4/10