Young Sheldon’s Highest-Rated Episode Isn’t What You Think — Here’s Why It’s a True Masterpiece

While Young Sheldon was very different from The Big Bang Theory in many ways, the show’s highest-rated episode explains why the spinoff needed to change its format to succeed. By the time The Big Bang Theory’s finale aired, its first spinoff, Young Sheldon, was already up and running. From its premiere on, Young Sheldon was an instant ratings success.

However, the show was far from a carbon copy of its predecessor. In fact, Young Sheldon changed the format of The Big Bang Theory just as much as Young Sheldon’s spinoff, Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage, changed its style and tone. Like Friends or How I Met Your Mother, The Big Bang Theory was a traditional multi-camera hangout show.

The series featured a laugh track and conventional sitcom staging, borrowed from creator Chuck Lorre’s work on earlier hits like Dharma and Greg, Two and a Half Men, and The Conners. In contrast, Young Sheldon was a single-camera family sitcom with a narrator, no laugh track, and a period setting.

Setting the series in the past was an approach borrowed from The Wonder Years and The Goldbergs, and this gave the series a sense of nostalgia missing from The Big Bang Theory. The premise, which followed a precocious child prodigy’s misadventures growing up in a small town with his dysfunctional family, was more reminiscent of Malcolm in the Middle than The Big Bang Theory.

Young Sheldon Season 7 Episode 13 Has The Show’s Highest IMDb Rating

The Penultimate Episode Earned A Series-High 9.4 Rating

When Young Sheldon began, viewers might reasonably have wondered whether The Big Bang Theory’s follow-up needed to stray so far from the style, tone, and story of its predecessor. However, as the series continued, it became clear that this was the best decision Young Sheldon’s creators ever made, and a central element of the show’s success.

This was epitomized in the show’s penultimate outing, season 7, episode 13, “Funeral.” “Funeral” followed the Cooper family’s preparations for George Sr.’s funeral after his sudden death in the preceding episode, but the episode primarily focuses on Sheldon’s unique grief over losing his father unexpectedly.

In the process, this masterpiece of a sitcom episode did something quietly extraordinary that elevated its reception among critics and fans alike, earning the show’s highest-ever IMDb episode rating of 9.4. Young Sheldon’s finale brought back the show’s original premise, focusing on Sheldon over the rest of his family, who had come to dominate season 7’s events.

However, “Funeral” was uniquely singular in its focus on Sheldon. The episode took place partially inside Sheldon’s mind, as he obsessively repeated his final conversation with his father and attempted to imagine an alternative version of their last exchange that would have felt more fitting.

“Funeral” Brought Viewers Inside Sheldon’s Mind

Sheldon Spent George Sr.’s Funeral Obsessively Revisiting Their Final Conversation

Wishing for one more conversation with a late loved one is a pretty universal experience, but “Funeral” does an incredible job of communicating Sheldon’s unusual experience of grief in a way that feels both compassionate and original. While his sister gets angry, his mother is overwhelmed by sadness, and his brother attempts to rationalise the tragedy, Sheldon’s thoughts just loop.

The spinoff was always deliberately ambiguous about Sheldon’s condition, with neither Young Sheldon nor The Big Bang Theory ever confirming whether the character is neurodivergent. Regardless of this specific character detail, Sheldon’s attempts to relitigate his last words with George Sr. will be heartbreakingly familiar to viewers who suffer from racing thoughts.

To my surprise, “Funeral” was legitimately a very sad episode, and a significant step up from the show’s usual outings. While Young Sheldon’s Missy storyline was a letdown in season 7, this plot proved that the spinoff understood its main character on a fundamental level and humanized him further than The Big Bang Theory ever could.

As a broader, less grounded series, The Big Bang Theory had a zanier and more cynical sense of humor than Young Sheldon. The show was about adult friends rather than a family that included small children, so sentimental moments were rarer even though they still existed.

Sheldon occasionally showed his softer side, but the original series couldn’t get inside the character’s mind. Limited by a traditional sitcom format that kept its distance from the show’s heroes, The Big Bang Theory never offered viewers an insight like “Funeral.”

In most episodes of The Big Bang Theory, Sheldon’s antics seem comically obtuse, obnoxiously pedantic, or otherwise insufferable. This is precisely what makes the character funny and lovable, as only truly great episodes of The Big Bang Theory exposed the vulnerability beneath his emotionless exterior.

“Funeral” Let Young Sheldon Do Something The Big Bang Theory Never Could

The Show’s First-Person Single Camera Style Made Sheldon’s Story More Immersive

In contrast, “Funeral” is a masterclass in using the single-camera sitcom style to its full advantage, as Young Sheldon’s penultimate episode humanizes its title character more than any earlier story from either series. Viewers are trapped in the mind of a child understanding grief for the first time, something The Big Bang Theory’s multi-camera style could never have facilitated.

Seeing Sheldon seem callous in front of his family, or distant in front of his mother, is legitimately tragic in a way that casts a shadow over both earlier seasons of Young Sheldon and the entirety of The Big Bang Theory. His single-minded stubbornness no longer comes across as an annoying character trait, but rather as a necessary defense mechanism.

The Big Bang Theory revealed that Sheldon processed the world differently from other people early on. However, “Funeral” allowed its spinoff to place the audience in Sheldon’s shoes and see the world the way that he sees it. In the process, The Big Bang Theory’s spinoff provided Young Sheldon with the show’s one true masterpiece.