It's interesting and fun to watch Sheldon get into unique situations, and explore various problems with growing up. I especially enjoyed watching him learn how to make friends with older people and engage with them as colleagues. His social unawareness could lead to quite funny situations and it was interesting to get a glimpse into life during the late 80s and early 90s.
However in later seasons - as he's growing up - things that were 'cute' about his character now come off as immature and often downright rude, which starts to make it hard to sympathize with him. He often treats people with open arrogance and disregard in a way that adult Sheldon doesn't (outside of friendly teasing or obvious social unawareness). Although I understand that he's autistic-coded, he treats Paige with a total disregard and nobody at any point indicates to him that he should improve his behavior to redeem him, in fact they continually indulge and reward it. Other characters become similarly unlikable as the show goes on, being continually two-faced, bullying, and outright lying to Sheldon.
Furthermore the attitude the show has to religion changes later on from an earnest expression of the moral dilemmas people grapple with and the dialectic between theism and atheism, to a fedora-tipping caricature of hypocritical religious people and atheistic power fantasy that feels like one of the writers watched too many Richard Dawkins compilations. It becomes quite cringe-worthy when you spot it.
However in later seasons - as he's growing up - things that were 'cute' about his character now come off as immature and often downright rude, which starts to make it hard to sympathize with him. He often treats people with open arrogance and disregard in a way that adult Sheldon doesn't (outside of friendly teasing or obvious social unawareness). Although I understand that he's autistic-coded, he treats Paige with a total disregard and nobody at any point indicates to him that he should improve his behavior to redeem him, in fact they continually indulge and reward it. Other characters become similarly unlikable as the show goes on, being continually two-faced, bullying, and outright lying to Sheldon.
Furthermore the attitude the show has to religion changes later on from an earnest expression of the moral dilemmas people grapple with and the dialectic between theism and atheism, to a fedora-tipping caricature of hypocritical religious people and atheistic power fantasy that feels like one of the writers watched too many Richard Dawkins compilations. It becomes quite cringe-worthy when you spot it.