I watched only 7 episodes so far, but one does not have to be genius to notice that Sam is pretty damn stupid for a man with 6 doctoral degrees, and this bothers me a little. i don't know if it's just because of his memory loss or he will stay this stupid throughout all 5 seasons :l
shareInvariably the gaps in his memories affected him in various ways; though you could be a little more specific with what you deem "pretty damn stupid." There's different degree and shades of intelligence and behavior. Higher intelligence doesn't mean a person makes every correct decision the first time, nor are they going to be socially infallible. Seeing how he could read at age 2, do calculus in his head at age 5, beat a computer at chess at age 10, and built a time machine; yes, I would say he'd qualify as the next generation's "Einstein"...
"Can you... You can cook, right?"
"...Your father seems to think so..."
Idk, simple things. Al have to remind him of lots of things that are really not that hard to connect. For instance when he was that black guy and when he couln't belive there are no data on that black guy, like he never existed. Now, i know he was shocked because he was experiencing life of this man, and saw his struggle, but Al just said 'yeah, this was Alabama 30 years ago, that was a different time back then bla bla...' and Sam esponded with 'yeah, you are right' look. I mean, it's really trivial, al those things that comes to my mind but it's ridiculous, and *beep* me if that is a matter of memory loss. Maybe it is but...Other thing that comes to my mind is when he didn't understand Italian, even a little bit, but he has a doctorate in 'ancient languages' hahaha (cause he remembered some of hieroglyphs in that episode.. ofc you can always say 'you don't know how brain works' but whatever...) , you must admit that was funny. But as i said, i don't look at those things as a big flaws, it's just weird. In my opinion show is pretty good, i like it. With every episode it gets better.
shareSo because he knows some languages, therefore he should know all languages? And ancient written Egyptian is a lot like contemporary Italian....
I know people who speak a couple of different languages, some with a common roos, that an average person might assume are the same language, and they're not. They can have different rules for syntax and grammar; and even occasionally similar sounding words or phrases with different meanings, and these people have talked about how they sometimes apply wrong rule or phrase to a different language than they're talking.
There's also a huge difference between being stupid and being naive, especially when it comes to other cultures, and particularly if you've never experienced that sort of thing first hand. Sam experienced a different world as a black man, than he was accustomed to, growing up a white male in the Midwest. He's never had to think about whether or not someone born in America, in the 20th century would leave any kind of record of their existence. It's actually the beauty of the series, because it takes a person who historically would be faced with the least social adversities; and contasts that by exploring themes that would be taken for granted if the people around him saw him as he really was.
"Can you... You can cook, right?"
"...Your father seems to think so..."
His mind is like swiss cheese lots of holes he cleary states that on more than one occasion.
shareSam was an idealist and because of this he was a bit naive about the world.
shareI have to agree with Stargazer1682 when he said:
"There's also a huge difference between being stupid and being naive, especially when it comes to other cultures, and particularly if you've never experienced that sort of thing first hand. Sam experienced a different world as a black man, than he was accustomed to, growing up a white male in the Midwest. He's never had to think about whether or not someone born in America, in the 20th century would leave any kind of record of their existence. It's actually the beauty of the series, because it takes a person who historically would be faced with the least social adversities; and contasts that by exploring themes that would be taken for granted if the people around him saw him as he really was."
My relatives are from south... my grandmother, my great-aunts and great-uncles. So when they passed, it was extremely difficult finding records for them and in quite a few cases no records at all. This is something that the majority of us as a people have come to know, understand and accept. So it would be difficult for someone young and idealistic like Sam who grew up as a young white boy from the midwest to grasp. (Althrough, I got to admit... When had that big cheesy grin on his face when he said to Al, "Look at me... I'm black!!!", was priceless! I laughed so hard, my face hurt. And don't say nothing when he had to cook the chitterlings... Which I KNEW Al appreciated! I laughed until I had a headache.) 😂
what does lel mean?
sharehttp://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Lel
shareAha, slang word used by retards. Got it.
shareThe "Swiss cheese" thing is an issue. But you can't underestimate the context thing. Even with a solid understanding of, well, anything, Sam would be rattled and details would be hard to access.
Also, it's a tv show, and that kind of information helps the viewer. It can feel cumbersome, but it's important.
I think you're confusing genius with knowledge. Just because he's a genius and has five doctorates in various subjects doesn't mean he knows everything...he's not "google". He only knows what he knows and he particularly has a lot of memory loss which is highlighted in every show. Also knowing Italian because he knows ancient languages? I think you'll find Italian is not an ancient language. You'll also find that knowing French won't help you with understanding Chinese for example. Also there's a lot of things Al knows because clearly he's had an incredibly eventful like so has more life experience than sam. Al also has access to all the computer data.
Anyway the main point here is don't confuse genius with knowledge. It doesn't take a genius to know for example, your brother's name, but a genius could obviously easily not know that. It does however take a genius to make a time machine. I'm not saying the show doesn't have its faults but I can't see you have any good points here at all.