Warning! Spoilers ahead for Young Sheldon season 5.
CBS' Young Sheldon is fixing its big The Big Bang Theory plot hole about George Cooper's character but in the wrong way. The CBS prequel is often criticized for its lax approach to preserving its parent series' established continuity. Arguably, Young Sheldon's biggest inconsistency with The Big Bang Theory is the characterization of George (Lance Barber). Sheldon's (Iain Armitage) dad in the spinoff is nothing like how he and his mother described him in the original show.
This has been the major issue of audiences with Young Sheldon since it premiered in 2017, and it has only gotten worse over the years. For context, George was described as a no-good father who did nothing but drink in The Big Bang Theory. However, the prequel shows him as a good, if not great, family man. He has sacrificed a lot for his wife and kids and is often overlooked or underappreciated at home, and has tried to do right by his kids. In Young Sheldon season 4, he started showing signs of depression when he admitted to not feeling happy anywhere. But when he finally began to talk about it, his wife, Mary (Zoe Perry), invalidated his feelings, effectively dissuading him from openly discussing his problems again.
As with all the plot holes that Young Sheldon created over the years, it's imperative that it addresses this issue more than any other. The show is currently trying to do this, as seen in the last couple of seasons, but Young Sheldon is going about it the wrong way. Instead of reconciling its version of the character with The Big Bang Theory's version of events, since the latter sitcom came out first, it's doing it the other way around. Young Sheldon is making it seem like adult Sheldon (Jim Parsons) was an unreliable narrator in the original series as the spinoff double downs on George being a good father. In fact, even adult Sheldon's narration has started to acknowledge this. On two separate occasions in the offshoot, Sheldon admitted that George didn't get the credit he deserved when he was still alive and that he regretted not telling him that he loved him. It's an interesting spin on a character and story retcon, but doesn't necessarily fit with the format of the sitcom.
Instead, the storytelling of Young Sheldon continues to make George look like a good man rather than shaping his character to be more like adult Sheldon's recollections or finding a middle ground. For starters, he's been recently depicted as a practical thinker who gives realistic advice to his kids, as opposed to Mary, who usually provides platitudes and empty encouragement. Young Sheldon has been emphasizing the idea that George is underappreciated at home as seen when Missy (Raegan Revord) lost it on him for inadvertently rallying Billy Sparks (Wyatt McClure) to confess his crush to her. The few times that Billy and George have spent time in Young Sheldon season 5 add to the show's attempt to revitalize George's image, as well. Billy appreciates Sheldon's dad, looking to him almost as a surrogate father figure since his own parents, Brenda (Melissa Peterman) and Herschel (Billy Gardell) divorced in Young Sheldon.
It's unclear where Young Sheldon is leading with its attempt to rehabilitate George as a good father and further contradict Sheldon's recollections in The Big Bang Theory. For what it's worth, the spinoff is also laying the groundwork for George's cheating scandal, something that absolutely needs to be tackled since it was a significant formative experience for Sheldon. Even if Geroge does have an affair in the future, making him look like a devoted father who's unvalued at home could help viewers be more sympathetic to him when he finally commits his biggest mistake.
Young Sheldon airs every Thursday on CBS.