“Young Sheldon,” premiering tonight on CBS, comes with all the social media bonafides to keep the clickbait culture in a state of apoplexy, with some 31 million views of the trailer since May. Fortunately this prequel to “The Big Bang Theory” is also extremely clever and well acted by an ensemble cast headed by nine-year-old wonder boy Iain Armitage (“Big Little Lies”), who plays Sheldon Cooper, the th🅷eoretical physicist we know as Emmy winner Jim Parsons.
Parsons, who also serves as one of the show’s executive producers, along with Chuck Lorre, Steven Molaro and Todd Spiewak, narrates the beginning and end of the pilot, which takes viewers back to the Cooper home in East Texas. The year is 1989 and the family’s life is about to turn upside down when Sheldon, also 9, starts his first day at high school. Eldest sibling George Jr. (Montana Jordan) is dreading attending the same classes as his much smarter kid brother. Twin sister Miss (Raegan Ravord) is relieved to have this know-it-all out of her hair. It’s up to Sheldon’s mom (Zoe Perry, the daughter of “Roseanne”s Laurie Metcalf and “Scandal”s Jeff Perry) to keep the peace at home and to prevent her little genius from getting his butt kicked by the snotty teens lying in wait outside the building before first period. Or, as she says while walking her kid to first period, “Lord, look after my son. Don’t let him get stuffed into a gym bag.”
Sheldon doesn’t do himself any favors in the public relations department. On his first day, this full-time dork manages to embarrass his fellow students and his teachers. One complains he questioned her educational qualifications (she graduated from Oral Roberts University). Sheldon’s never wrong but he rarely goes about expressing his knowledge in the right way, a trait that carries through to his life as an adult as we have seen on “Big Bang.” This disconnect gives “Young Sheldon” plenty of conflict between the characters and much of its comedy. No one really knows what to do with the boy who knows too much–not his football coach, George Sr. (Lance Barber), nor the educators at the local high school. But Sheldon’s mom is adamant that the boy stay there because the family can’t afford to send him to private school. Suffice to say, the premise offers the show’s writers plenty to explore during the first season.
Perry, the spitting image of her mom, is flat-out terrific as Mary Cooper, the parent Sheldon calls “his Christian soldier.” Jordan perfectly captures the frustration of the teenager who is both embarrassed and surpassed by his brother. Of course, the success of the enterprise rises and falls on Iain Armitage’s shoulders. He reveals himself as an adroit performer who can play the show off, the little boy and the kid who doesn’t know how he comes by his own gifts. In his best scene, Sheldon walks past the school music room and, hearing a teacher practice the violin, goes in and picks the chords out on a nearby piano. “How long have you played the piano?” she asks. “I don’t play the piano.” he says.
Like the little boy who can pick out E-flat on the piano, “Young Sheldon” has perfect pitch.
[Note: Although both “Young Sheldon” and “The Big Bang Theory♓” are airing Monday night, they won’t return for their second episodes on CBS until Nov. 2.]