Sun, 03 Nov, 2024

Sitcom Review: Two and a Half Men

By Amun Kharel

Photo: Charlie Sheen with Jon Cryer and Angus T. Jones singing the series' theme tune Photo Courtesy: http://www.iknowtoday.com

Two and a half men, a series which aired on  TV for 12 years ended recently on 19th February 2015. Charlie Harper sums up the entire success of the series which was played by Charlie Sheen who got fired from the show after the series ran successfully for the first 8 seasons because he entered into drug rehabilitation and was constantly bad mouthing the series’ producer Chuck Lorre.

The sitcom was liked by almost every man because of the lifestyle which Charlie Harper lived. The life of Charlie is so relaxing and unreal. He is a hedonistic jingle writer who gets a big fat check because of the royalties from the jingle songs he writes. He lives off his frivolous life without working unlike rest of the people in the world. He lives in a beach house and is a real charmer with  women. The story would be a fairytale without his cheap brother Alan Harper and his dumb son Jake Harper who bring a lot of trouble, excitement and social aspect into the series. They get to stay with Charlie because Alan gets divorced and loses the house in the lawsuit. Also, he has to pay huge amount of money as alimony every month. Alan staring at the abyss in his personal love life is given a glimmer of hope by Charlie in his own way, most importantly lets him stay in the house for free.

Charlie Sheen was the top paid actor in the history of the TV shows for his dry and antichrist humor used against his brother and notorious mother, sarcastic charms and the most awesome poker face when he got angry. Charlie loves his nephew Jake and the series revolves on day to day social drama on the cheapness of Alan, sharp tongued housekeeper Berta, stalker of Charlie and many interesting characters. They made Fridays really relaxing and soothing. Charlie made a lot of memories and money from the show but his constant substance abuse and his inability to keep his mouth shut kept him out of the show.

It was thought the series would get abandoned because Charlie was simply irreplaceable but the producer of the show made it personal with Charlie Sheen. Charlie was killed in the series and was insulted in the series in every possible way which left Alan homeless and plot-less.  He carried the show with Walden Schmidt which is played by Ashton Kutcher who is a handsome billionaire who was helped by Alan Harper during his tough time. Walden Schmidt buys the beach house and lets Alan live with him, crazy right? It was never the same and simply no one in the planet could have replaced Charlie but Ashton did a fine job. He gave a new perspective to the series of how two heterosexual guys who are remotely related can stay inside the same roof. Not only that, Walden is generous enough to let his son Jake to stay in the house too.

Walden is richer and handsomer compared to Charlie but the show lost lot of its viewership after Charlie left the show. However the show carried strongly for 4  additional seasons. The series was totally different from the first 8 season which was nice after the nostalgia of Charlie haunted the remaining viewers. The series after that was not the best series of all time but beautiful women, beach house and pot, come on? The remaining of the series promoted the friendship of a middle aged cheap guy and a childish billionaire which makes an awesome combination. It also promoted gay rights in every possible way. So we have to say the series ended strongly. Strongly also in the sense that, Lorre insulted the faith of the viewers by ending the series insulting Sheen in the worst possible way.

Not a cool move from the producer but the series is now over and it left the viewers with twelve years of laughter and awesome memories of a dysfunctional imaginary family.