One major complaint about recent seasons of The Big Bang Theory’s spinoff is likely to be addressed in Young Sheldon season 7. When Young Sheldon began in 2018, the show was a surprising departure from its predecessor. Where The Big Bang Theory was a traditional multi-camera hang-out show with a laugh track, Young Sheldon was a nostalgic single-camera family sitcom with a voiceover from Sheldon’s older self. The jokes were less bitter, the characters were treated more sentimentally, and the entire enterprise was softer and sweeter in tone than The Big Bang Theory’s original run.
Now, as Young Sheldon season 7’s release date nears, the spinoff has distanced itself even further from The Big Bang Theory’s formula. In season 6, Young Sheldon devoted most of its screen time to Mandy’s pregnancy, Georgie’s journey into parenthood, Meemaw’s attempts to keep her gambling room a secret, and Missy’s teenage rebellion. This continued a surprising trend that has been noticeable since season 4 aired in 2020. Recent seasons of Young Sheldon focused more on the drama of the Cooper family’s unsteady home lives than the antics of the show’s ostensible lead character.
Young Sheldon Season 7 Can Show Why The Spinoff Doesn’t Center Sheldon
Sheldon’s supporting role in his own show will make sense in season 7
While Young Sheldon has reduced the title character to a supporting star in his own series, season 7 can explain the reasoning behind this creative choice. Sheldon’s trip to Germany could prove to him that, not only is there a whole world outside of his hometown, but his family and community get on fine in his absence. The fact that Young Sheldon’s season 6 finale already barely featured him has laid the groundwork for this revelation. In season 6, Georgie and Mandy’s relationship took up a lot of screentime, as did the crumbling trust between George Sr and Mary.
Missy and Meemaw’s stories came next, with Sheldon’s grant database subplot arriving dead last. The grant database storyline didn’t receive as much focus as these other plots because its stakes were lower, something Young Sheldon season 6 tacitly admitted when the database was a disastrous failure, but nothing of note happened to Sheldon afterward. However, Sheldon was not sidelined solely because his character’s plots are less engaging. Instead, as Young Sheldon season 7 can prove, the spinoff was more invested in fleshing out the Coopers than a character who viewers already know and love from The Big Bang Theory.
Young Sheldon Focusing On The Coopers Makes Sense
The Cooper family is newer to viewers while Sheldon is familiar
While Young Sheldon’s early seasons centered on Sheldon, it makes sense for the show to flesh out his family as he grew up and became more similar to his Big Bang Theory self. The less young its main character is, the more Young Sheldon could feel like a clone of The Big Bang Theory. Georgie’s Young Sheldon season 7 storyline, Missy’s antics with Paige, and George Sr and Mary’s inability to get on the same page ensured that this didn’t happen. If the Coopers received less of the show’s focus, Young Sheldon would be too similar to its predecessor.
Sheldon is a fun character but his obstinate nature and unchanging attitude mean he could easily become frustrating if he dominated a show’s action. This is doubly true for Young Sheldon since it can’t depict Sheldon growing too much. A lot of what made his character shift in the later seasons of The Big Bang Theory so affecting was the fact that Sheldon really learned from his relationships with Penny, Amy, and his friends, and became a more considerate person as a result. Young Sheldon can’t show a similar change since the prequel’s Sheldon needs to become his old, insular self.
Young Sheldon’s Final Season Can Justify Sheldon’s TBBT Attitude
The spinoff can finally explain why TBBT’s Sheldon felt so alienated from his family
While Young Sheldon’s spinoff can explain Georgie and Mandy’s future, season 7 can justify Sheldon’s attitude toward his family in The Big Bang Theory. In the earlier show, he was often dismissive of the Coopers, referring to his siblings as “Mouth breathing idiots” and maintaining a distant love/hate relationship with his pious mother. Sheldon’s outlook towards the Coopers could come from the fact that they just kept living their lives when he moved to Germany, proving that he wasn’t the center of their world. This, in turn, would set up his personality in The Big Bang Theory.
While Sheldon is self-centered in the original show, he is also notably independent of his family. He rarely contacts them and is quick to rely on his friends over the Coopers, a trait that Young Sheldon season 7 can explain. If Sheldon returns from his European summer to discover that his family has not noticed his absence and moved on without him, he could become the more self-absorbed character seen in the earlier series. While this would be a dark character detail for Young Sheldon to focus on, it would justify The Big Bang Theory character’s outlook.
