‘Two and a Half Men’
D+
After 12 seasons, “Two and a Half Men” called it quits Feb. 19.
When the show began so long ago, it was praised as well as frowned upon for its trailblazing comedy that didn’t shy away from controversy or political incorrectness. After Charlie Sheen, playing the self-reflecting character of Charlie Harper, was fired from the show’s production in 2011, “Two and a Half Men” was in some serious trouble.
The show decided to cast Ashton Kutcher as Walden Schmidt, but Kutcher was never able fill the void Sheen left. Jon Cryer’s character, Alan Harper, lacked transformation by staying in debt and being the new leech to Walden.
It seemed apparent nothing would change except that Walden would fill Charlie’s spot. The show would remain a play of two grown men acting like children.
So many other storylines were possible to keep the laughs coming and the controversy flowing, but the one chosen became stale.
The show seemed to live and die with Sheen. He was the driving force to the show’s success, and he and Cryer played off one another well. The cast of characters, the dynamic between Charlie and his mom, between him and the creepy lover/neighbor Rose — all of these story lines wove together to create a comedy that defied the cookie-cutter sitcom formula.
I never stopped laughing when watching the show, until Kutcher came into the picture.
The only hope was the finale. Maybe, just maybe, the powers that be could create an agreement with Sheen and bring him back for a final episode.
Maybe four years of bad television could be washed away just as quickly as Sheen was.
No such luck.
The final episode was 40 minutes of wasted film. Though the jokes poking fun at the awful turnover after Sheen left the show were funny, it was only a sorrowful reminder of what used to be and could have been.
It seems the only way to end the show would be to bring back Charlie Harper. After all, he was the sole focus of the show, and every other character played off him.
So we were teased maybe Sheen would make a reappearance, only to be given some guy who’s stature and hair cut could pull off looking like Charlie from behind. Then he was killed by a piano.
I guess the show really did live and die with Sheen, in more ways than one.
While the ending was poetic in that it allowed Charlie Harper to finally die, the story line — every character running around as the brought-back-from-the-dead Charlie threatened to kill them all — was just dragged out.
Every time we turned around it was as if Sheen would be there, but he wasn’t.
The silver lining was the ghosts of Charlie’s girlfriends past that brought the most fundamental characters back into the show, even if it was just for a split second.
If you were a lover of the show, past or present, this is an episode that must be seen, just for a sense of closure if nothing else.
“Two and a Half Men,” once a show that defied all sitcom stereotypes, was finally put to rest. May all its controversial comedy rest in peace.
