Young Sheldon is a spin-off/prequel of the immensely popular CBS sitcom The Big Bang Theory, following the adventures of a younger Sheldon Cooper and his family in a small Texas town. As the fourth season came to a close, Sheldon’s twin sister Missy (Reagan Revord), upset over a recent breakup with her boyfriend, yelled at her father and decided to run away, with Sheldon joining her. Meanwhile, their parents had a fight, and father George (Lance Barber) stormed off to the bar where he ran into divorced next-door neighbor Brenda Sparks (Melissa Peterman), who offered him some company. The fifth season picks up immediately where we left off, with the possibility of George’s infidelity looming.
While The Big Bang Theory was more of a standard multi-camera sitcom, Young Sheldon is single-camera, with no laugh track, and feels more like a dramedy than a straight up comedy. While there are some episode-specific story arcs, the season is heavily-serialized, following the ongoing antics of this crazy family, and the conflicts that arise among them. In the fifth season, twelve-year-old Sheldon is entering the Spring semester of his Freshman year at East Texas Tech. In addition to continuing to be an annoying thorn in the side of college President Hagemeyer (Wendie Malick) and professors Dr. Linkletter (Ed Begley Jr.) & Dr. John Sturgis (Wallace Shawn), Sheldon starts to become more a little more sociable, spending more time in the dorm and making friends with some classmates living across the hall—Darren (Caleb Emery) & Oscar (Ivan Mok). Some of Sheldon’s adventures this season include trying to get more science offerings at school, serving as a spy for his mother at a church lock-in, getting the yips during an exam, dealing with a tough, demanding new engineering professor (Lance Reddick), going to his first Comic-Con, running into old rival Paige Swanson (Mckenna Grace), and hitting puberty. Meanwhile, twin sister Missy is also dealing with her own changing body and the awkwardness it’s causing for her at school, fending off a crush from neighbor Billy (Wyatt McClure), brining up the awkward talk of sex at Sunday School, having a crush on new Youth Pastor Rob (Dan Byrd), and wanting to be treated as more of an adult by her father and others. The Sunday School works well in the season as it allows Sheldon to still be in classes with students his own age even though he attends college. Pastor Rob is also a fun addition to the cast.
Meemaw (Annie Potts) is still dating sports store owner Dale (Craig T. Nelson), but poaches his best employee Georgie (Montana Jordan) to help her with her new business venture, a laundromat with a secret back room casino. (This also leads to a fun Coach reunion, with Bill Fagerbakke guest-starring as a cop friend of Dale’s.) Meanwhile, Georgie decides to drop out of high school and work full time, moving into the family’s garage. He also starts dating an older woman, Mandy (Emily Osment), but keeps their age difference a secret, claiming to be 21 rather than 17. Meanwhile, George and Mary (Zoe Perry) continue to occasionally fight. George feels guilty about the feelings he’s having for Brenda, but also enjoys having someone who listens to and understands him. He’s also feeling pressure at work as the booster club doesn’t like how the football team has been performing, and have started to look at replacing him with a new coach. Finally, Mary has been trying to balance things at home with her job at the church. She is constantly trying to maintain her pious nature, but finds herself tested whenever she discovers the antics the rest of the family have been up to, and especially when she starts having “dreams” of Pastor Rob—which make things a bit awkward for her at work. Mary also receives a visit from Mr. Lundy (Jason Alexander), who cons her into becoming a Mary Kay salesman.
While I wouldn’t say I find Young Sheldon laugh-out-loud funny, I do find it quite enjoyable and amusing at times. I definitely appreciate not having the laugh track—that is one archaic thing I wish would completely go away (if you need to tell your audience when they should be laughing, the show is poorly written). This fifth season started off a bit slow for me, but then really picked up steam by the second half. The serialized nature of the story makes for a better binge as each episode flows nicely into the next. Though the episodes being just 20-or-so minutes long means some parts of the story end abruptly. Like with the Comic-Con episode, we never actually get to see Sheldon at the con. The serialized nature of the story also allows the characters to change and grow, rather than the typical timeless reset you get in a lot of half-hour comedies. Watching the 100th episode special included on the DVD, it was amazing to see how much younger the cast looked when the series premiered just 5 years ago, and how these characters have evolved and changed. It seems like they don’t really have much time left before “young” Sheldon will truly become his adult counterpart. Jim Parsons provides narration on all the episodes as the Adult Sheldon looking back on his younger days, and for two of the episodes, he is joined by a guest—Howard Wolowitz (Simon Helberg) and Amy Farrah Fowler (Mayim Bialik).
The series has some wacky and crazy characters, and the season does a nice job of giving each of the main family members their own story arcs, while also bringing in fun new and returning guest characters. The season builds to a big reveal in the show’s 100th episode that certainly shakes up the Cooper family. And I loved how the ended the season, turning it into a big origin story like moment for Sheldon.
New viewers may find it difficult to just jump into this fifth season without having seen the others, but those familiar with the characters should find it another enjoyable season. Warner Bros. has released this fifth season of Young Sheldon on both DVD and Warner Archive Blu-ray, the latter only available via online retailers. I was sent the DVD version for review. The picture quality is generally clean and quite good, and I didn’t really have any issues with it. However, it is lacking that slightly refined extra level of clarity and detail that you would get in an HD presentation, as the series originally aired on CBS. The audio track provides clear dialogue throughout and makes use of the stereo and surround channels to add ambiance as needed.
The season’s 22 episodes are evenly split across 2 discs. There is only a single bonus feature, an 8-minute retrospective, with the cast and creators looking back at the series as they celebrate the show’s 100th episode. The discs are placed in trays in a standard-size DVD case, which resides in a cardboard slipcover. There is no digital copy included.
What’s Included:
- All 22 episodes of the fifth season:
Disc 1 (3:39:35): “One Bad Night and Chaos of Selfish Desires”, “Snoopin’ Around and the Wonder Twins of Atheism”, “Potential Energy and Hooch on a Park Bench”, “Pish Posh and a Secret Back Room”, “Stuffed Animals and A Sweet Southern Syzygy”, “Money Laundering and a Cascade of Hormones”, “An Introduction to Engineering and a Glob of Hair Gel”, “The Grand Chancellor and a Den of Sin”, “The Yips and an Oddly Hypnotic Bohemian”, “An Expensive Glitch and a Goof-Off Room”, “A Lock-In, a Weather Girl and a Disgusting Habit”
Disc 2 (3:34:06): “A Pink Cadillac and a Glorious Tribal Dance”, “A Lot of Band-Aids and the Cooper Surrender”, “A Free Scratcher and Feminine Wiles”, “A Lobster, an Armadillo and a Way Bigger Number”, “A Suitcase Full of Cash and a Yellow Clown Car”, “A Solo Peanut, a Social Butterfly and the Truth”, “Babies, Lies and a Resplendent Cannoli”, “A God-Fearin’ Baptist and a Hot Trophy Husband”, “Uncle Sheldon and a Hormonal Firecracker”, “White Trash, Holy Rollers and Punching People”, “A Clogged Pore, a Little Spanish and the Future” - 480i / Anamorphic Widescreen 1.78:1
- Audio: English 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround
- Subtitles: English SDH
- Time Flies When You’re Having Fun: Young Sheldon at 100 (8:18)
The cast and crew look back at how the children have changed over the past 5 years while working in the series. They also talk about Sheldon’s iconic knock, their characters’ signature moves, their favorite episodes and scenes, incorporating the actors’ interests into their characters, filming the dinner table scenes, and more. Includes behind-the-scenes and archival interviews as well as new interviews with executive producers Steven Molaro & Chuck Lorre, and stars Iain Armitage (“Sheldon”), Annie Potts (“Meemaw“), Montana Jordan (“Georgie“), Zoe Perry (“Mary“), Lance Barber (“George“) & Reagan Revord (“Missy“).
Episodes: (7:13:41)
Extras:
Final Thoughts:
In its fifth season, Young Sheldon continues to be a fun and entertaining series that finds a nice blend of humor and character drama, while exploring the crazy antics, adventures and drama of the Cooper family, and following the young genius as he becomes The Big Bang Theory‘s oddball Sheldon. Warner Bros.’ DVD release features solid picture and sound, but the disc only includes a single 8-minute retrospective featurette. The release is recommended based on the quality of the series itself (it makes for a great binge), but I would opt for the Blu-ray release over the DVD, for the added resolution and clarity.
Young Sheldon: The Complete Fifth Season (blu-ray)
8% Off $24.99 $22.99 (as of November 12, 2024 10:18 GMT -05:00 – More infoProduct prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on [relevant Amazon Site(s), as applicable] at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.)
Young Sheldon: The Complete Fifth Season (DVD)
$15.16 $7.99 (as of November 12, 2024 10:18 GMT -05:00 – More infoProduct prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on [relevant Amazon Site(s), as applicable] at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.)
Young Sheldon – Season 5
$24.99 (as of November 12, 2024 10:18 GMT -05:00 – More infoProduct prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on [relevant Amazon Site(s), as applicable] at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.)
