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It might be because by TBBT, Mary had mellowed quite a bit from her younger days. She no longer catered to Sheldon's every whim and would call him out for being a spoiled baby. She'd also been widowed for almost 20 years. In "Young Sheldon," she still very much babies him and her marriage is bad.

I always thought Tina was mad that Jen babysat them because girls Tina's age were getting paid to babysit, and Bib and Linda didn't trust Tina to babysit her own brother and sister. Jen must be 18 at least, because isn't there an episode where she drives her cousin's ice cream truck for the Belcher kids?

And didn't Gloria and Dottie bond over their memories of old Detroit?

Plus, you know, acting = pretending to be someone you're not. I thought this episode was really sweet. Once Thor started telling his story, and how he had to eat his friend, figured Oskar was an animal. I was just waiting for "...and the tail..." part. I like how Thor's revelations tied in with Isaac's, and his "coming out" to Hetty. I liked their conversation, but her story about the footman in "the '30s" didn't make sense. Did she mean a servant who worked in the house after they were both dead? Because otherwise the years don't work out. Vikings and Native Americans didn't necessarily consider homosexuality evil; we can thank Christianity for that.

Well, I see this show is back to making me cry every episode. Loved the Lizzie/Lois/Art subplot and Art and Lois's conversation. Riley's subplot was nice. At least he didn't compare his experience with Holly on training for two weeks with Vanessa's while he was deployed for months. Loved the exchange he had with his therapist. Edited to add: I like Riley with Holly, but I could also be happy if he got back with Vanessa. Dang Parker Young for being so freaking hot. I also got a kick at Art and Riley's talk, with Art telling him he had more than his muscles to offer, but when pressed by Riley, just offering to spot him on his next set. End edit I liked that Hazel took her job seriously, even if she did want to quit. She just needs to coordinate her clients better. I still don't like Lizzie and the professor as a couple.

Never cared much for Mr. Bean either, and if I realize a show I'm watching is veering into embarrassment humor, I turn it off. I get embarrassed by osmosis and I don't like the feeling.

I thought the spoof of DC Comics was pretty lame, with just a few highlights: the constant disparaging of Aquaman was hilarious; Superman's indiscriminate kissing to make everyone forget and then having it backfire on him; and Bane constantly breaking Batman's back.

Well, we do know she hates the Irish. :-)

Not all of us, Hetty. 😉 I'm surprised at how much I've come to like the show after my lukewarm reaction to the pilot and the first couple of episodes. I'm still not a fan of the actress who plays Sam (both the actress and the character come across as too earnest and perky), but I like the others (although Pete is a little annoying with all his earnestness). I think Jay is a stand out, both the actor and the character, and one of the things I really like is the interracial aspect of their marriage is such a non-issue, even among the ghosts for whom it might be.

Maybe Jacob doesn't want to believe Gregory is a homophobic asshole? I really can't stand the character. He doesn't fit at all with the other teachers, and he's basically a dick to them all, except for Janine. I do agree with Gregory that fruit should not be warm. I'm a picky eater, and there are ways to express your peculiar tastes with humor instead of being defensive about them. "United States of Al" is also filled with characters who are decent people, trying to work through their issues with humor and tears and not being jerks to each other. I don't think that showing Ava cares about her grandmother suddenly changes the character. Frankly, one-note characters -- whether good or evil -- are boring. I like that they added a little depth to Ava. Last episode, they tried to do that with Gregory -- that he's not just an asshole who doesn't connect with his students but has to deal with a father who doesn't respect education as a career (or at least teaching vs. administration). I wish they would drop the whole "documentary" concept. The actors' constant cutaways to break the fourth wall is really, really distracting and annoying. It makes the actors look like amateurs.

He's the only character who doesn't work for me. I dislike Ava for her corruption and sexual harassment of Gregory, but at least she can be funny in an over-the-top way. He's just a black hole of negativity, despite this episode's attempt to show that he's dealing with pressure from a father who doesn't understand that education can be a career or calling.

Color me surprised that Jacob is gay. ("But he doesn't look gay." 😉 ) I thought they were setting him up to be a romantic rival to Gregory for Janine's affections, and at first I thought he was joking that he had a boyfriend so he could get out of being set up. How could she not know he had a boyfriend? It seems to me the "softest" way to tell her he was gay would have been to work into conversation "My boyfriend and I..." as opposed to "I'm gay..." Jacob's relative openness about being gay also raises an unpleasant thought regarding Gregory's dislike or antipathy toward him: that Gregory has issues with gay people. Reaction to Jacob's casual outing of himself from Pink News: Abbott Elementary fans praise refreshingly casual gay teacher reveal: ‘Shows could learn from this’ I like that they haven't made Tariq into a total loser. He had a genuine connection with those kids, even if Janine was the one who set up the whole gig. She's definitely his enabler and he doesn't really have any ambition, but he's not evil. I got a kick that he was self-bleeping himself because he knew not to be inappropriate with kids. Maybe Melissa could use one of her "connections" to set him up as a children's entertainer. I thought Jacob's explanation of why he was reluctant to tell her he had a boyfriend -- so he wouldn't have to weigh in on her relationship -- was well played. I like that they're starting to flesh him out a little more. (Also, spelling it "Zak" would also be totally awesome.) It was kind of sad that Janine's realizing that she's moved beyond her 8th-grade boyfriend. Got a kick out of Barbara acknowledging that Ava's "Mormon/more men" quip was clever. And when Gregory explained to her at the nail salon why it was so important to get her kid to school on time, she understood and said that she would get him to class when he was supposed to be there.

Maybe we should should start treating the women who engage in sex with boys under the age of consent as the criminals they are instead of lauding the boy for having sex.

Which is why they should just create a new series, instead of reviving "Futurama." Fry and Leela have had two perfect endings -- the episode where he gets the Robot Devil's hands that ends with her watching Fry create an image of them kissing when he plays the holophone (I believe I've read that that was intended to be a series finale if need be), and the one where they spend a lifetime together when time freezes, and agree to go through it all again when the Professor figures out how to restart time. Maybe that's the reboot -- they start the series over from the beginning with new adventures. To be honest, I kind of got tired of Bender. That's the trouble with break-out characters like him. The writers start writing almost exclusively for them to the exclusion of the other characters.

This is part of what bothers me about the whole "Abishola wants to be a doctor" story. Abishola is, at the very least, in her mid-30s (Folake Olowofoyeku is 38). They haven't given an indication that Abishola was a teenage bride, so she was probably in her 20s when she had Dele, who is 13 or 14. Abishola's mother has had plenty of time to consider her a failure for not becoming a doctor instead of a nurse for many years, so why now? We learned the story of why Gloria became a nurse instead of a doctor; I think Abishola's story follows much of the same trajectory. She's going to be too old by the time she's finished (and yes, even excluding that horrible Patricia Heaton sitcom where she was a "50"-year-old first-time doctor). I have a friend who would have made a fantastic pediatrician and who even thought about it as a career change, but realized that by the time she finished med school and internship and residency, she would be thousands of dollars in debt and would never pay it off.

I think the pilot established that both Melissa and Barbara love their jobs and the kids, but they've come to accept the limitations that come with teaching in an underfunded school with a bad administration in charge. I could see her being touched by the kids' art projects and even keeping one that a kid made for her. I could also see, for all her tough exterior and bluster, that she believes in encouraging people. In the episode with Courtney (the disruptive kid), I think Melissa would have helped Janine if Janine hadn't insulted her. I know the show is trying to establish Gregory as the sardonic outsider who's really a good person deep inside, but all they've done, in my opinion, is show that he's a douche and unlikable. Gregory might not like Jacob precisely because Jacob's trying so hard to be nice to him. Who knows, maybe Gregory also thinks Jacob is trying to show how "enlightened" he is by having a Black friend.

It's not just women, and it's not just network sitcoms. Familial resentments and differences last a long, long time and often manifest themselves in stressful situations. It sounds like Olu and Abishola's mother have a lifelong antagonistic relationship, and they fall into lifelong habits around each other. No wonder Olu and Tunde moved to America.

I was more impressed that they thought Lizzie could call that day and get a repairman to come out the same day to fix the dishwasher, not three weeks from now.

Seriously? Niecy Nash is set to star in an FBI-set spinoff of ABC's The Rookie She can bring home the bacon, fry it up in a pan, and never never let you forget you're a man. She's from comedy shows, but she's going to be doing a drama? Is this a joke? No. Just no.

I'm thinking of adding Paramount+. They pulled all the Star Treks (except the movies) from Hulu, so the only way to see all the series is via Paramount+. I mostly like TOS and TNG, but I wouldn't mind watching the new one, "Strange New Worlds" with Christopher Pike at the helm of the Enterprise. And I know there are other CBS shows available, but most of those don't interest me. Does anyone do documentary services like Curiosity Stream & Nebula or Magellan? My cable company provides Curiosity Stream, so I can't get a discount on Nebula, and Nebula by itself is about $50 a year. Many of the educational YouTube channels I watch post extended videos on Nebula, and the content creators are quite open that YouTube censors them and demonetizes videos if they touch on certain topics.

I'm not a veteran, but I've met many Marines over the years through my job. There is a saying in the Marines "Every Marine a rifleman," which was coined by Gen. Alfred Gray, the 29th Marine commandant after the Vietnam War. So Hazel would need to learn how to shoot and be trained to kill an enemy. As a female Marine, she would most likely not serve in a combat role regardless. Although these positions have been open to women since about 2015, there are still very few female Marines in combat units. Who's to say what the situation might be in six years when Hazel turns 18 and enlists? I believe she would also have to do a version of SERE training, but perhaps not at the advanced level that Riley did. Marines themselves joke about brawn being more important than brains, and any time I've seen veterans from different branches get together, they usually joke about Marines being the dumbest. Riley has made those comments about himself, but no one is saying that Marines are actually dumb.

@Neiman -- I think you're right, but even if you have a degree in education administration, you would have some teaching experience. Gregory doesn't look much older than Janine or Jacob (Jacob seems older than Gregory), so how much time could he have spent as a teacher? I just googled "education administration" and this website popped up: Education Administration Degree Programs:

For some reason, my DVR didn't record the two most recent episodes. Yes, please to more Riley working out, wearing silkies and a sleeveless t-shirt. I am not liking Lizzie and the professor at all. I find him creepy, not charming, and I don't see any sort of chemistry between them. I'm not sure of the actors' ages, but he just seems too old for her. I'm kind of surprised at the way they ended the episode, with no real resolution and Al still hooked on gambling.

She's the same generation as Jacob and Gregory and as new to teaching as they are, but they dress "normally." Personally, I think her clothes are ugly. She looks like she's channeling the worst of 1960s hippie fashion. I just binged all the episodes to date. I like the show, and it's made me laugh out loud several times. Even though Melissa seemed to talk smack about her ex-husband, I really liked their conversation at the end. I'm glad they didn't make him a villain. I also like that these are flawed characters with vulnerabilities, although we haven't seen Jacob fleshed out yet. I want there to be more to him than awkward-white-guy-with-liberal-guilt-teaching-at-a-majority-Black-school. I'm not really feeling Gregory. He doesn't have the idealism of Janine or Jacob nor the competence of Barbara and Melissa. He's too cynical and jaded already, and in the episode where all the kids were giving him drawings, I felt like he just wanted to throw them away because he couldn't be bothered. "A.P. Bio" could have taken a lesson from this show on how to make teachers interesting. On "A.P. Bio," when any of the other teachers were involved in a subplot, the episode came to a screeching halt. What do all the teachers teach? Barbara -- kindergarten Janine, Melissa -- 2nd grade Jacob -- 6th grade Gregory -- ?

I just saw the trailer. Good lord, it looks like the suckiest bunch of suck that ever sucked, but then, it's a J. Lo movie.