Watching a "silent" television show

Imagine watching an episode of a television show that you do not normally watch with the sound turned off.   Try and determine what the relationships of the characters are based on the ways in which they are communicating “in silence”.  Then, watch the same episode with the sound turned on.  Were your assumptions correct?

I tried this with “The Big Bang Theory” which I have never watched but heard about.  I was told before that it was a comedy sitcom.  The episode starts with a man sitting at a computer and looking at it attentively.  A woman enters the room and it seems as if she is coming for a class because she sits and the man goes to a whiteboard and begins to write and talk.  The man becomes agitated when the woman is unable to respond to what are apparently questions on his part.  Her face shows dismay and confusion, and his wavers between impatience and anger.  This continues for some time.   The relationship between the parties appears to be a tutor and student.

When I watch the scene again with the sound on, there are some variations.  At the start of the scene when the man is staring intently at the computer screen, he is thinking in his mind and we can hear it.  He makes reference to the fact that he will be trying to tutor the woman (who is a friend and not just a student) but he has doubts on her ability to understand.  When the woman arrives, the emotions that I noted above are correct as the man is impatient with the woman who is not very quick on learning the physics concepts.  Also, the woman is dismayed and feels dejected because of her inability to understand.   

If I was familiar with the show, I think that my assumptions would have been correct because I would be more familiar with the characters in their relational, situational and cultural contexts.

One “aha” moment that I had was that words do not always infer communication.  A person can communicate just as effectively sometimes with non-verbal cues which can include gestures, body movement, facial expressions, eye contact touch and physical appearance.