The writer and television producer Chuck Lorre helped create a lot of successful sitcoms, with “The Big Bang Theory” and “Two and a Half Men” (both broadcast on the CBS network) being undoubtedly its most popular. But also often as “The Big Bang Theory” crossed with his prequel program, “Young Sheldon”, the actors of the first had not appeared as much on “Two and a Half Men” (and vice versa), perhaps largely because of the somewhat different tones of the series. Anyway, there was a veteran of “two and a half men” which made an appearance on “Young Sheldon”, and she was perfect for the Sweet-Sweet Family Comedy.
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It would be a reference to Melanie Lynskey, who absolutely makes rules. The “Yellowjackets” and “The Last of Us” veteran played on “Two and a Half Men” like Rose, a terrifying and manipulative person who romanticized the character of Charlie Sheen (also named Charlie). The two finally fled to Paris together to marry before Charlie was killed at the start of season 9 following the dismissal of Sheen. Naturally, Rose continued after that trying to seduce Walden Schmidt by Ashton Kutcher (the character who replaced Charlie on the series). Meanwhile, in the real world, it seems that Lynskey has remained in terms of friendly work with Lorre, which led him to make a fun camée on “Young Sheldon” in 2021.
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Lynskey played a philosophy teacher on the young Sheldon
Although Sheen had rather hard words for “The Big Bang Theory” after his dismissal, Lynskey clearly had no problem with the series or his spin-off. Indeed, she joined the cast of “Young Sheldon” in season 4 by playing the teacher of philosophy of Sheldon, Dora Ericson, at East Texas Tech. Due to the schedule constraints at the beginning of the cocovated pandemic, Wallace Shawn, who portrayed Sheldon’s mentor in college, Dr. Sturgis, could not film some of the first episodes of season 4, then Lynskey Ericson teacher worked like a good foil for the genius boy in the meantime. Professor Ericson is also a very different character from Rose, so fans of Lorre shows were surely delighted to see Lynskey attacking such disparate roles.
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To summarize, in the episode of season 4 “a class of philosophy and verses which can continue you”, Sheldon (Ian Armitage) takes his first university course, his philosophy and discovers that the fanciful professor on the free and fanciful spirit teaches. His very rigid and logical vision of the world is contradicted by his lessons, which treat more in the fantastic and metaphorical, and he argues with her on everything. She finally breaks her young vision of the world and causes an existential crisis that lasts in the next episode, where she finally helps her to embrace philosophy and science in tandem, encouraging her to question everything and find joy in questioning.
It is a great moment for Sheldon because it pushes him towards the field of science that he will eventually study while teaching him to be a little more flexible in his thought – and all this thanks to excellent writing and even better performance of armitage and Lynskey. I would take this philosophy lesson!
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