Georgie & Mandy needs to redeem Young Sheldon’s worst character

Unless you’ve never seen Young Sheldon before, we all knew who Georgie & Mandy’s villain was going to be. The question really is: how are they going to make her worthwhile?

Did any of us really think the Sheldonverse was going to become a thing? No…yet it’s happening. Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage is the spinoff nobody needed but everybody now wants, filling the black hole left behind by the devastating ending of Young Sheldon Season 7.

But let’s get one thing straight – absolutely nothing can make up for what we’ve lost. After George’s death it feels as though nothing will be the same ever again, and it won’t be. The Coopers are forever changed and fans will always notice who’s missing. 

At the same time, there’s someone who isn’t missing that most of us wish was a goner. Audrey, Mandy’s fairly absent yet mouthy mom, has been confirmed as the de facto villain of Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage. According to actor Montana Jordan, she “won’t be the easiest to deal with.”

In other news, water is wet. Long-time Young Sheldon fans already knew Audrey would be the thorn in Georgie and Mandy’s side thanks to her consistent snideness in Season 7. Just about bothering to reconcile with her daughter in Season 6, the final episodes saw her taking everything out on Georgie for just being himself.

If I’m honest, the idea of seeing more of mean girl Audrey is the most boring concept Young Sheldon creators could have possibly thought of. Of course there’s going to be some follow through from the Big Bang Theory prequel, and there should be. But the spinoff marks a moment for change…so how is Audrey going to get any better?

Make Audrey more worthwhile, please

CBS

Audrey needs to change. We’ve suffered at her unnecessarily pernickety hands enough, and the new TV show spinoff won’t last long if she’s doing more of the same. She’s become more hated than Mary, and that’s saying something.

We still don’t know much about what Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage will look like, but we’re expecting to see how the young couple will deal with their next stage of family life. The emphasis here is on “next” – their story needs to have evolved from what we’ve seen before. 

If we arrive back in Medford to more scenes of Audrey taking Georgie down a peg, what are we even doing here? This isn’t Young Sheldon Season 8, and Audrey needs to become her own woman.

So far, she’s had absolutely no identity outside of being Catholic, abrasive, and hateful to her new son-in-law. When all of that is stripped away, who is she? Why does she add value to what we’re watching? It’s here she’s most similar to Mary – while Sheldon’s mom may not be a fan favorite, at least she’s a fully-rounded person.

Mary should be the spinoff inspiration

CBS

To stop the Georgie & Mandy spinoff from being exhausting (frankly it already has its work cut out for itself with the multicam format), we need to get these questions answered. Audrey cannot rest on her laurels, especially when they don’t have an ounce of charm in them. We need to see a serious 180 in her character development, and fast.

Frankly, the best outcome is if she’s able to fill the hole that Mary’s role will leave behind. Granted, Mary herself will be appearing in a few episodes, but we can’t have a matriarch who is so resistant to this new family unit coming together. Viewers need to be able to root for her, and we need vulnerability to be able to do that.

The other route would be if she becomes so cantankerous that it’s comedic. If you cast your mind back to The Big Bang Theory, you’ll remember the astonishing standoffishness of Dr. Beverly Hofstadter, also known as Leonard’s mom. It was a wonder she ever became a parent without a nurturing bone in her body, but the friction made for deliciously awkward viewing. 

In reality, we’ve gone too far for option B to be viable, so it’s up to Audrey to take a chill pill and soften up. She has her granddaughter growing up to focus on now – and if anything should make her happy it’s surely a cute kid – meaning Georgie isn’t going anywhere. If Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage has drama, it needs to come from the couple…not their interfering mother.

Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage hits screens on October 17. Find out if Sheldon will appear in the spinoff, why the sequel has picked the wrong characters for a spinoff, and more TV shows streaming.