Do we like them?

Do we like Sheldon Cooper?

A character from The Big Bang Theory (2007–2019)

Our score: 6 out of 10. Exhausting, arrogant and a nightmare to live with, but honest, loyal in his odd way, and he really does grow. We'd back him, as long as someone else holds the roommate agreement.

Sheldon Cooper is a brilliant theoretical physicist who graduated from college at sixteen. The Big Bang Theory follows him, his roommate Leonard, their friends Howard and Raj, and their neighbour Penny. Sheldon is the show's comic centre. He has a fixed seat on the couch, strict rules for everything, and a habit of knocking in threes. He has little sense of sarcasm or social cues, and he calls it out when he catches himself being sarcastic.

He is a nightmare to live with. He is smug about his intellect, he treats his friends' work as lesser than his own, and he drafts legal-style agreements to govern ordinary life. But he isn't mean-spirited. He is blunt, often doesn't see how his words land, and has his own sense of honour about fairness and loyalty. Under the pedantry there are real flashes of kindness, usually clumsy ones.

That mix is the score. He causes plenty of friction and gives the people around him a lot to put up with. But the show keeps showing that he cares in his own way, and his friends keep choosing him back. He's hard work, but we'd still back him.

Over the twelve seasons he slowly softens. His long relationship with neuroscientist Amy Farrah Fowler moves from a purely intellectual connection to a romantic partnership. He learns to cope with physical contact and emotional closeness. The show treats their wedding in the season eleven finale as the high point of that growth.