My "Two And a Half Men" rant

[-E5150 StarWanderer-]

I'm watching the season 9 premier "Nice To Meet Youm Walden Schmidt" as I'm typing. As most of you know, due to the bad blood between Charlie Sheen and the producer Chuck Lorre, Sheen was fired from the show. Just the though of the show without Sheen was bad enough, but actually seeing an episode is just not right. Here's me short review about the episode.


*******THE FOLLOWING PART INCLUDES SPOILERS*******

The episode starts off with Alan Harper's speech in his brother Charlie's funeral. The funeral is attended by Charlies family and friends and numerous of Charlie's ex, who spout insults at him and are there to "spit on his casket". Next Charlie's long time stalker and friend, Rose holds a speech. She reveals that Charlie was with him on his last days in Paris, and had even proposed to her. Homever, a few days later Rose caught Charlie in shower with another woman. The next day Charlie "accidentally" fell in front of a moving train.

After the scherade that was Charlie's funeral, Alan and co. go to Charlie's house to talk about what they will do with it. Alan points out that Charlie wanted it to be left to Alan, but her mother reminds him of his incapability to keep the house due to his financial situation. So, they decide to sell the house. The house is visited by numerous potential buyers, including guest appearances by John Stamos as himself, and Jenna Elfman and Thomas Gibbson reprising their roles as Dharma & Greg from the eponymous series. Later Alan receives Charlie's urn, and inteds to spread his brother remains to the beach in fron of the house. But suddenly he is startled by a young man that appears on their deck (Ashton Kutcher) and spills Charlie's ashes all over the room. The stranger asks to use the phone and it is revealed he was just left by his wife and is wet because he tried to drown himself. After being rejected by his wife in the phone as well, he introduces himself to Alan. He tells his name is Walden Schmidt, and explains he is a billionaire who made his money by selling out to Microsoft.

Allan offers to take Walden to a bar, where they pick up two woman who felt sorry for the divorced Walden. They return to Charlie's old house, where the women go upstairs to have sex with Walden, leaving Alan all alone in downstairs (an all too familiar event to Alan from his time with Charlie). Next morning Judith (Alan's ex) comes by to drop off their son Jake for the weekend, just in time to witness naked Walden hugging Alan out of gratitude for his friendship, revealing that he will buy the house.

----------------

So, I bet we won't be seeing Sheen making a return to the show anytime soon Not that I had high hopes he would, but I think the way they got rid of Sheen's charactor leaves no room for a surprise return Considering the cirumstances, the funeral scene could be seen as some sort of a stab at Sheen. Seems like the producers/writers wanted to highlight Sheen's own personality, which in reality is very similar to the one of his character. The scene is homever a mess, I couldn't decide if it was supposed to be sad, funny or what.

The guest appearances by well know actors indicates that the producers wanted to make the season premier as memorable as possible. Homever, this also shows that they have fears about maintaining the show's popularity without it's immensely popular leading actor. And their fears are well founded, the reception from the fans and critics following Sheen's departure was more than negative.

Ashton Kutcher has already gotten mangled by the public for stepping into Sheen's shoes, albeit with a completely different character. The character seems to have a lot in common with Sheen's one though: it seems that Walden's main purpose as a character is to be the womanizer Harper was, just less sleezy. Kutcher's performance was very mediocre, and because of his acting the character bares a striking resemblance to Michael Kelso, a character Kutcher portrayed in "That 70´s Show". The speaking and body language were very similar.

Considering Sheen's acting and his character were the biggest single reason for the show's greatness, it's hard to see Ashton and the rest of the Two And a Half Men crew winning the fans over. And the episode, while raking huge number of viewers, was poorely received by the fans and critics alike. I understand that Lorre and Sheen simply couldn't worked together after their feud, but Lorre really should have put the show away for good. You can't replace show's main character when it at the same time robs the show from all the elements that made it so good. Sheen's characters playboy attitude and the conflicts between him and his family was the soul of Two And a Half Men. Now that it's gone, the show is just another sitcom...I think it's only a matter of time before the ratings go down.

[IommiRules]

@ Wanderer. If you move to America, I will personally finance and run your campaign for President.

100% agree with EVERY word you wrote. This is like carrying on with Seinfeld if Jerry had been fired. I Love Lucy without Lucy. Two & a Half Men is one of the funniest shows ever, or at least was. Jon Cryer is incapable of his past performance without Sheen. Charlie made him funny, their interplay was fantastic. Kelso, uh Kutcher doesn't act. He is who he is and they insert his personality and hope for the best. His Kelso character worked as long as he had Hyde, Foreman & Fez to play off. He can't carry scenes as a lead. Angus had one funny moment, but it was a 17 year old farting to set up a punch line. Not enough to contribute to anything. Conchata Ferrell is now the only talent left on the show, maybe they will give her a spinoff.

This show is DOA. It was like watching old people fuck- sloppy, bewildered and there was no pay off. Hoping that The Big Bang Theory hasn't jumped the shark, otherwise Modern Family would be the only reason I would ever watch regular TV. Basically I hang out at Discovery, Nat Geo, TLC, Travel Channel plus Mike & Mike In The Morning and Smoking Gun presents World's Dumbest ________.

[sn0wb1ind0zzy]

The episode was alright but Kutcher was pretty much playing Kelso.

[-E5150 StarWanderer-]

@ Wanderer. If you move to America, I will personally finance and run your campaign for President.

Haha, thank you! But I think I'll pass with the current economical situtation...

100% agree with EVERY word you wrote. This is like carrying on with Seinfeld if Jerry had been fired. I Love Lucy without Lucy. Two & a Half Men is one of the funniest shows ever, or at least was. Jon Cryer is incapable of his past performance without Sheen. Charlie made him funny, their interplay was fantastic. Kelso, uh Kutcher doesn't act. He is who he is and they insert his personality and hope for the best. His Kelso character worked as long as he had Hyde, Foreman & Fez to play off. He can't carry scenes as a lead. Angus had one funny moment, but it was a 17 year old farting to set up a punch line. Not enough to contribute to anything. Conchata Ferrell is now the only talent left on the show, maybe they will give her a spinoff.

Exactly! Cryer has been very important to the show, but with Sheen gone I see his character getting less and less of those golden moments. Like you mentioned, the interplay between Sheen and Cryer was fantastic. It was in many ways a backbone of the show, much like the chemistry between Kelsey Grammer and David Hyde Pierce was in Frasier. And I personally love That 70´s Show (actually just watched an episode), and Kutcher has constantly funny moments. He dida a fine job playing Kelso, but he is a bit one dimensional actor. And nothing more than a supporting actor as far as I'm concerned. Sheen just oozes charisma and has a fine sense of comic timing, and has proved his acting skills outside of comedy sircles.

This show is DOA. It was like watching old people fuck- sloppy, bewildered and there was no pay off. Hoping that The Big Bang Theory hasn't jumped the shark, otherwise Modern Family would be the only reason I would ever watch regular TV. Basically I hang out at Discovery, Nat Geo, TLC, Travel Channel plus Mike & Mike In The Morning and Smoking Gun presents World's Dumbest ________.[/QUOTE]

Grotesque metaphor, but it delivered your point As a big fan of sit com, I can relate to you. Nowadays there seems to be too much second rate sit com coming out. Two And a Half Men was one of the few really good ones, but I too think it's story has come to it's end. But atleast we have the old episodes and The Big Band Theory. Fantastic show, Sheldon must be one of the best characters in the history of television! And then there's all the other great old sit coms like Frasier, Love & Marriage, 70's Show and etc. And from the drama side, atleast House and Sons Of Anarchy are still going strong

The episode was alright but Kutcher was pretty much playing Kelso.

Glad to see that someone else noticed it too, it seems Kutcher is a one-trick pony. Yes, the episode had it's moments, but it wasn't anything above average...

[DISCMAN1969]

I will go a different way with this. I have never been a die hard fan of the show. What I mean by that is I never made sure I was home to watch it or DVR it. If I was home and flipped through the channels I would watch it. For me Monday night at 9 is either football or wrestling. Now with that said the show is/was damn funny. Maybe with the exception of The Big Bang Theory it is the best sitcom on right now. ( Oh how I long for the day of sitcoms and the like. )

Ok so I did make a point to DVR it and watch it this week. I thought it had its moments. Wasn't great but wasn't bad. My wife wanted to watch the show after it 2 broke girls. Not a great show, but what do you expect from a brand new show! It had to set things up. So that kind of brings me to my point. 2 and half men is basically a new show. It has to set things up and explain stuff. Hopefully the first show just has to work out the kinks. I am not going to bury it after 1 show. Look at it this way how many times do some of us get mad at how people stop listening to Black Sabbath after Ozzy left? Ok I get it Charlie may have been more of the star of the show, where Ozzy was equal in Sabbath. Ronnie brought in something different and for many brought the end to Sabbath because they changed. IMO Sabbath was a different band with Ronnie and again IMO they were better. Well maybe this show will change a little but it may just be as funny. Just a thought.

Also I have no problem with them firing Charlie. Chuck wanted him to get cleaned up and Charlie didn't want to. I give them both credit for standing up to each other, but I mean either Chuck is stupid or has a set the size of grapefruits to fire the star of the show!

[Charger]

Two And A Half Men made it to #2 on my Top Ten best sitcoms ever list so I suppose that pretty much says how much I like the show.

When I heard Chuck Lorre was firing Charlie I was shocked to say the least...Granted Charlie was actually more like his character than his character was, if you know what I mean, but still. He was the show. Jon Cryer was great, but as a side kick, actually to me Angus T Jones was always the number two lead.

I'll wait untill the show starts here (should actually start this year) and watch it then and make a final judgement, but Ashton Kutcher has nothing on Charlie. NOTHING! He just isn't funny, atleast not on the 70's show...and the movies his done...well they've all been somewhere between awful and appaling. But Chuck Lorre has a hell of a writing team so they might save the day...might...

To me the show should have been ended with Charlie's death and that should have been it...I would have been happy with that. Because after all we got 8 awesome seasons of top of the notch sitcom. And that is a rare thing nowadays.

But as said, I'll wait untill I actually see the show myself and then decide if I'll watch it anymore.

[Buffalo Bill Scruggs]

I am a fan of Ashton Kutcher, but him accepting this new role was pretty tasteless. Sheen was what made the show.

[RLP4ever]

Although I've always enjoyed Two And a Half Men a lot, unfortunately, I've never been able to watch it very regularly as I'm sure most of you fellow fans of the show have.

I was obviously disappointed at Charlie's firing from the show; he was clearly the major draw and pulled the audiences in and the ratings soar. But I'd be honest in saying that I didn't find his firing exactly unexpected, or even unjustified. Charlie, in his public persona, in the several recent interviews that I've seen and heard of his, has been lately coming across as a particularly obnoxious prick. His dad was, of course, a great character actor and a true legend in the TV/film world, but Charlie seems to have overly milked some of his dad's stardom and made it his own. He talks and acts like an arrogant jerk much too often, behaving as if he's actually 'entitled' to more than his fair share of privileges and adulation, and just basically pretends to be somehow 'superior' to his peers, and bosses. Charlie, with his addictions and wayward ways, has simply burned too many bridges with many of his former friends and colleagues. His axing from TAHM is only one small symptom of the backlash against the man's increasingly insufferable attitudes and actions. It's obviously just too bad that Charlie's departure is a body blow to such a swell show.

StarWanderer, sorry to stray off-topic a bit, but I wonder if you've seen and enjoyed 'The Rules of Engagement'. I used to really love that serial, AND managed to watch it daily.

[-E5150 StarWanderer-]

Although I've always enjoyed Two And a Half Men a lot, unfortunately, I've never been able to watch it very regularly as I'm sure most of you fellow fans of the show have.

I was obviously disappointed at Charlie's firing from the show; he was clearly the major draw and pulled the audiences in and the ratings soar. But I'd be honest in saying that I didn't find his firing exactly unexpected, or even unjustified. Charlie, in his public persona, in the several recent interviews that I've seen and heard of his, has been lately coming across as a particularly obnoxious prick. His dad was, of course, a great character actor and a true legend in the TV/film world, but Charlie seems to have overly milked some of his dad's stardom and made it his own. He talks and acts like an arrogant jerk much too often, behaving as if he's actually 'entitled' to more than his fair share of privileges and adulation, and just basically pretends to be somehow 'superior' to his peers, and bosses. Charlie, with his addictions and wayward ways, has simply burned too many bridges with many of his former friends and colleagues. His axing from TAHM is only one small symptom of the backlash against the man's increasingly insufferable attitudes and actions. It's obviously just too bad that Charlie's departure is a body blow to such a swell show.

StarWanderer, sorry to stray off-topic a bit, but I wonder if you've seen and enjoyed 'The Rules of Engagement'. I used to really love that serial, AND managed to watch it daily.

Yes, Sheen's firing was more or less inevitable, but I still think that keeping the show going without it's key part is unacceptable.

And yes, I've seen couple of episodes of "The Rules Of Engagement". But it's a far too small sample to decide is the show good, especially when my recollections of the episodes are minimal But I'm sure to watch some episodes at some point!

[zxzxzx]

It is impossible.