User Reviews

In this ep of "The Big Bang Theory": Sheldon and Amy are trying to start a TV show called "Fun with Flags", Leonard and Penny start dating again and critique each others quirks, and Raj has a love fest with his cell phone "Ciri"! Yeah, you read that last one right as Raj keeps asking personal questions of "her" and he's satisfied with the replies, no matter how impersonal they are! And look, Kripke (John Ross Bowie) has his own "Ciri" who can never understand him when he asks to "wecomend westauwant"! Oh, and how creeped out does Bernadette get when she and Howard are on a "double dinner date" with Raj and "Ciri"! In summation, "The Bata Test Initiation" was another hilarious ep of "The Big Bang Thoery".

From "Fun with Flags" to Raj's belief that Siri is a real woman to Kripke's lisp not being recognized. Finally the listing of things needing improvement in the relationship between Penny and Leonard. But the sight gag of all time is Sheldon in LIederhosen and Amy as a giant pretzel. Hilarious.

I was under the impression that Leonard and Penny were dating in secret based on the last episode (timey wimey though it was) so the fact that Sheldon and Amy knew about them here was confusing.

This was an episode of two halves for me - the Amy and Sheldon 'Fun with Flags' stuff was amazing. So very funny.

The Leonard and Penny stuff was engaging, though you do wish Leonard had a bit of a spine and wasn't quite so beguiled by Penny's beauty all the time. Though it must be said the work they have done on the latter character has been well well done.

As for Raj and his phone...yes. Not the show at its best. Funny, yes, but very very low hanging fruit in terms of seeking comedy.

While every episode needs multiple plot angles to engage all the characters, it became tedious over time for the writers to keep them engagING. We get to see "Fun with Flags" for the first time and Penny and Leonard begin their final approach to getting married as they start the "beta test" that led to them finally getting together and STAYING together....but in this episode we're weighed down with the ridiculous notion that Raj is falling for his phone and the Siri virtial assistant feature. It doesn't play well and Kunal Nayyar makes it even more evident as he labors to be funny. Raj is the weak point of the cast most of the time and this episode makes that abundantly clear. I as a viewer grew so tired of "Poor Raj" in the latter seasons and this is one of the earliest examples of the writers falling back on that plot device. What jumped the shark? Raj's sub-plot.