Young Sheldon Redeems George Cooper Sr While Confusing Big Bang Theory Fans

The original show focused on the lives of adult scientists, while the spinoff tells the story of Sheldon's family and the experiences that shaped his personality. And some developments in Young Sheldon come across as somewhat confusing for those who remember TBBT well.

While it is still the story of the future Nobel Laureate (this time portrayed by talented actor Iain Armitage), Young Sheldon is primarily a show about family and interpersonal relationships.

It follows ordinary people who have flaws and problems but still try to take care of their family. However, what we see in Young Sheldon often contradicts what Sheldon shared about his childhood in The Big Bang Theory.

The elephant in the room is Sheldon's father, George Cooper Sr. In The Big Bang Theory, Sheldon describes him as a poor white trash misogynist alcoholic redneck with anger management issues who doesn't understand his kids and is constantly arguing with and cheating on his wife.

Meanwhile, in Young Sheldon, we see just an ordinary dude who may have flaws but whose heart is ultimately in the right place. Lance Barber's George Cooper is a loving father doing his best to cope with the lifelong fallout of a shotgun marriage.

“The version of Sheldon's dad that we've been hearing about for years is how Sheldon remembers him, not as he actually was. Often, the things we remember from our childhood are an exaggerated version of reality,” Reddit user Wandering_To_Nowhere explains.

The George we see in Young Sheldon is far from wealthy, and he does have a drinking problem, and his relationship with his wife has issues, but the Vietnam War vet treats his children fairly and always tries to support them and his wife. However, it all ended in tragedy; Sheldon's dad died, so the impressionable kid that Sheldon was must have suppressed good memories of his father in a sour-grapes-style attempt to cope with the loss:

"It's easier to be pissed at George and tell stories as an adult that show him in a poor light than to feel the devastating pain without knowing than it will eventually end," Redditor Lybychick says, in an analysis of TBBT's Sheldon's narrative about his dad.

The spinoff takes a more serious approach in terms of both cinematography and script. But that seems to be what makes this coming-of-age series so great: it faces the issues of growing up and childhood trauma head-on by putting them in the context of a highly relatable realistic family.