[ SECRET POST #2767 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2767 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Work. Again. Sorry if response time is slow. :(

Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 011 secrets from Secret Submission Post #394.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 1 - too big (also random unsubstantiated claims about famous people) ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[lyriel]

Yes, they certainly do. I am not putting down people who work in retail, at all. Every job is harder and more complex than it looks from the outside. There is nothing wrong whatsoever with spending your whole life in retail if that is your personal choice.

The point is not that Penny is a waitress, or that she didn't go to college, or that she's not into math and science. That's not the point, at all. The point is that the TBBT writers are guilty of "telling, not showing" with this character. We're told that Penny has good social skills but we're shown the opposite. She seems hostile towards almost everyone she encounters. She had no friends until more female characters were added for that specific purpose.

All of the characters on this show have their share of negative qualities, but we, the audience, are told that the nerds are freaks and Penny is "normal." That's the problem.

If Penny is such a social maven, why does she spend 24/7 with the guys and depend on them for almost everything? She's no better than they are, at all. Her neuroses just take a different form.

She's one of the most unpleasant characters I've ever seen, but this show expects us to believe she's "the normal one."

[blitzwing]

She does have friends, pre-Bernadette and pre-Amy. We're told that she's going out dancing with some in one episode (like you said, the show tells a lot of information, rather than showing it), not to mention the ones at the parties and ballgame-watches.

It's just that, unlike the guys, we really only are shown her life re: the guys of the show. Before the later seasons with the added female characters, the guys had plenty of scenes sans Penny, but Penny had almost none sans-guys, and when she *was* shown alone, it was usually directly before running over to the other apartment (and the guys).

I don't think we can surmise that Penny "had no friends" early on at all, when the canon was telling us otherwise, even if it wasn't showing us so.

[lyriel]

You have a point, there. I think the key issue is that the writing is inconsistent. And the "telling, not showing" makes things pretty unconvincing for the viewer, since TV is a visual medium.

My primary beef with this issue is that we're told the guys are "pathetic losers" and Penny is normal, even though the guys are so very, very accomplished and successful. Do they have some negative traits? Yes, sure, of course. But she's not any better than they are. She's not. She doesn't represent a happy, psychologically healthy, well-adjusted life, which is apparently what the show wants us to believe. Watching Star Trek makes you a loser, drinking and fighting are cool and socially acceptable. That's the message, here.