Amy Farrah Fowler is Sheldon’s friend, that is a girl, that is now his girlfriend. She’s divided the fandom – some love her, some hate her. I have to admit, at the beginning, I was not a fan. I mean Sheldon is Sheldon and he’s hilarious. But do we really need two Sheldons? Can the world cope with two Sheldons?

Since her first introduction however, Amy has grown on me and I quite like her now. One issue – if you can call it that – that I have had with The Big Bang Theory is the way they portray women, which up until recently has been solely through Penny (ignoring Leslie Winkle as she is not a series regular). I like Penny, but I don’t like her as the only representation of my gender because, let’s face it, Leonard’s right: she is kind of stupid and… quite slutty. Bernadette is a sweetie, but who wants to be sweet when you can be funny? I think Amy is the first female character that has had me on the floor in fits with her disclosure about tampons: “in order to avoid surprises, I wear them all the time.” To me this seemed an obvious appeal to female viewers, because talking about tampons in front of men is hilarious. This show was missing so many estrogen fueled jokes.

Also, I have to admit the new dynamic that has emerged in the shape of Sheldon, Leonard, Howard and Raj in 4A and Penny, Bernadette and Amy in 4B has really worked. In some ways it feels like elementary school dance lessons, where they are both thoroughly confused by the other apartment and in other ways it’s like middle school sleepovers where they dissect the other gender. At times I feel a little reminiscent of the original ‘sit’ of the sitcom (Penny vs. the nerds with their science jokes) but at others I can’t stop laughing. The show seems to have opened up to a wider audience and I don’t know if this is a good thing or not as a lot of the really good science jokes have been lost, but I have to say I am a fan of more female characters as they are a new avenue that the show has not explored fully. However, I am unequivocally not Team Shamy. But that’s for another post…