Young Sheldon Wouldn't Survive Past Season 1 Without Ditching TBBT Canon
So, we all remember Sheldon Cooper's disapproving comments about his family on The Big Bang Theory.
A broken family with an alcoholic father, a fanatical mother, a short-sighted older brother, and a "contentious" twin sister. Poor Sheldon, what a mess this family is!
However, with the release of the first season of the prequel Young Sheldon, certain aspects began to be reinterpreted, if not retconned. But was it a retcon in the first place?
Imagine if the events of the prequel actually corresponded to Sheldon's memories.
It would not only be a drastic change in tone, but a terrible drama about a traumatic childhood with tyrannical parents and brother-hating siblings. Without a doubt, the show would hardly have lasted beyond the first season!
To begin with, Sheldon has always been a very impressionable person. Let's not speculate on whether he's a neurodivergent, but he hasn't always interpreted what's going on around him correctly, sometimes exaggerating things unnecessarily in his mind.
For example, in the prequel, we see that George Cooper Sr., for all his faults, is not at all like Sheldon described him. Yes, he doesn't have a healthy relationship with alcohol, he doesn't always understand his children, he has problems with his earnings and with his wife. However, George is actually a loving and caring father who always tries to support them in difficult times and treats them equally.
Of course, this does not negate the fact that certain moments were very traumatic for the child prodigy, which influenced his own tendency to victimize himself, to see his family members as villains rather than as living people with their own ups and downs.
What makes TBBT a good show, however, is that it shows us Sheldon growing up emotionally as he interacts with other adults and reflects on his past with his mother and siblings.
Before meeting his older brother, Georgie, after a long time, he thought he was a dimwitted bully, but after talking to him, Sheldon realized that the big brother had always cared about the family, sacrificing his personal life and career, which eventually made Sheldon apologize to him.
That's why Young Sheldon is a great show about real people and their real relationships. And it's nice that the writers decided not to follow the exact description of the Cooper family as they did in The Big Bang Theory.