The Shoemaker's Child: Would Young Sheldon Be Better Off Without Sheldon?

The former revolves around Sheldon Cooper, the most extravagant character of the latter, whom you can either love or despise.

In the spin-off, we see a young version of Sheldon, still very much himself. Unlike The Big Bang Theory, however, it is not a full-blown sitcom, with background laughter and sometimes dubious humor. The plot is better-lived and the characters developed.

We see actual humans and their stories, even if they are some minor ones. There's a good chunk of drama in the plot. Everything seems to be different from TBBT. Everything but Sheldon.

Certainly, it would be strange to have a show without the character it is named after, but Sheldon doesn't suit his environment.

We see his family: a hard-working father, a preachy mother, a fun-loving "meemaw," and average but very human siblings. We see his neighbors and other people: all submerged in their own lives. And then we see a typical robot of a boy Sheldon, so very familiar from The Big Bang Theory, who hasn't changed a bit. (Growing up, as we realize it now).

The point is that it may have suited the sitcom as TBBT is, but it doesn't a subtler picture, showing more drama, more complexities of human life, and human frailties, which Young Sheldon turned out to be.

Many fans find themselves averted to Sheldon, even though they may have liked his character in The Big Bang Theory. Reddit users have called him "by far the least likeable character." The overall opinion is that his family does the heavy lifting in the show, and they may as well continue without him.

Perhaps, it is due to him being a fish out of water. In his spin-off, Sheldon is surrounded by people very different from him, while in TBBT he was one of its many weirdos. This contrast may result in him being even more irritating than in the original show.

Anyway, there's a demand for more family history and development of the characters who seem very relatable and appealing in their own unique ways.