Two and a Half Men had eight great seasons, ending in 2011, with Charlie Sheen and his whining mooch of a brother, Alan (Jon Cryer) and his son, Jake, as the titular two and a half men. Then something terrible happened. After a loud, angry, and very public dispute in which Sheen had a manic drugged-out episode, he was fired from the show, and the story should end there. But four more seasons were made for a total of 12 seasons.
In these last seasons, Ashton Kutcher, playing billionaire Walden Schmidt, replaced Charlie Sheen, and the results were abysmal. The show should have ended when Sheen left. Ashton Kutcher was not enough to redeem the show.
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Two and a Half Men Revolved Around Charlie
CBS
For the first eight seasons, Charlie was the main character, and everyone else in its wide ensemble cast was defined by their relationship with him — a brother; a nephew; a mother (Evelyn); a stalker (Rose, played by Melanie Lynskey from Yellowjackets and Heavenly Creatures); the ex-wife (Judith) of his brother and her new boyfriend (Herb); a rude housekeeper (Berta); and Alan’s girlfriend Lyndsey played by Courtney Thorne-Smith, who is also the mother of Jake’s friend Eldridge.
There are some other repeat characters such as the pizza delivery guy; the local pharmacist Russell (Martin Mull) who consumes a lot of medication; Jane Lynch as a psychiatrist; and a few girlfriends like Jenny McCarthy, who lasted at most a season or two. Charlie’s relationships with them defined the show, as did Charlie’s terrible behavior, narcissism, misanthropy, bafflingly bad judgment, and addiction. He is both a sex addict and a drunken drug user, and he manages to have sex with just about every woman on the show. Watching Charlie Sheen as Charlie Harper being a very bad man was what made the show so great. Charlie is his own worst enemy, a slave to his desires for women, alcohol, and dangerous activity.
Two and a Half Men After Charlie Sheen
Meanwhile, Kutcher’s Walden does not have a place in this world. Walden is somewhat of a hero while Charlie has always been an antihero on the show, own to his misanthropic self-centered core. Most of his comments, especially to Alan, are insulting and cruel. He starts arguments and constantly reminds Alan that he is a leech and reserves his most critical comments for his mother. He is extremely honest about the flaws of other people and his own flaws, and the show is a lesson in dysfunction. That is, until Walden comes in and ruins the vibe.
When Charlie left the show, it imploded, while his next show, Anger Management, was a total failure, completely lacking in the humor and great characterizations that made Two and a Half Men so entertaining to watch. Even with the addition of his real-life father, Martin Sheen, the show still failed to attract viewers. One has to wonder if the great Martin Sheen thought it was a good role or whether he took it for the sake of his son, with the latter seeming more likely. But Charlie was just as lost without Two and a Half Men as it was lost without him, and Anger Management and Two and A Half Men’s Walden era were two of the worst shows of their time, lacking comedy, realistic relationships, and anything grounded, adrift like a boat floating out at sea with no direction in mind.
While we loved Charlie being a bad boy and getting away with it, Walden comes across as nerdy and boring. How he came to own Charlie’s house and inherit Charlie’s brother and nephew was convoluted and unrealistic. So right from his first episode, he started bringing the show down like a sinking ship. He was the iceberg that the Titanic struck before sinking to the ocean floor.
Walden Can’t Maintain Charlie’s Relationships
Audiences initially responded well to Charlie’s relationship with his mother, which was both hilarious and sad, as she is a complete narcissist (just like Charlie) and not a particularly good mother, an expert at using guilt to get what she wants. She is a real estate agent and, like a vulture, is always reading the obituaries looking for new houses to come onto the market. Charlie and Alan see her as the anti-Christ and want to protect Jake from her. Her dialogue with Charlie was always funny, though somewhat painful, and it was great to see the two of them arguing.
Walden’s relationship with her is different. She is not funny around him, and they aren’t close in the way she was close to her real sons. Walden is nothing but a surrogate for Charlie, in his relationship with the mother as well as the other characters, such as Jake and Alan.
One reason the show bombed after Sheen is that the plot revolved around Charlie having to change his ways because he has become a father figure to Jake, his nephew, who lives with him. Charlie continues to womanize and drink, but he becomes less narcissistic with the presence of Jake, and it is sweet to see Charlie, usually engaged in deviant behavior, interacting with and giving advice to his nephew.
The Family Dynamic Changed in Two and a Half Men
Alan is always there, encouraging Charlie to do the right thing, and on the occasions when Charlie sacrifices something (usually a random sex encounter) for the benefit of Jake, it’s hard not to like Charlie. Jake brings out another side to him, the father figure side, which makes for great comedy and drama. That is why, despite being raunchy with characters who do nasty things, the show can also be sweet (and bittersweet) at times, and the show’s best moments are with Charlie and Jake.
For example, Charlie frequently gives advice about women to Jake, and the advice usually backfires, which is a constant source of humor and a way for us to better identify with and like the characters. Charlie tries to do the right thing by giving dating advice, but of course, Alan is appalled by what Charlie tells Jake.
That entire family dynamic is gone with Walden, who sees Jake as a joke and lacks the tender feelings that Charlie had towards him. Walden’s premise also destroys the story of two very different brothers trying to live together despite their differences, the source of a lot of the show’s humor. For example, there is a great episode in which Charlie finally confesses to setting up Alan as a shoplifter when they were kids. This makes Alan fearful that a “bad Alan” exists until he hears the truth, prompting him to attack Charlie. Again, the dynamic of the two very different brothers is gone, replaced by the superficial and unfunny relationship between Walden and Alan.
Charlie’s death also ruined his mother Evelyn’s role. She was at her best when arguing with Charlie and criticizing his lifestyle, and the moments between these two characters are golden, containing both humor and pathos. Evelyn and Walden are two random people and their chemistry is terrible. They are not bound to each other because they are not family and have no history. Again, the family dynamic is disrupted by Walden.
Two and a Half Men Was Charlie Sheen’s Show
The show is called Two and a Half Men, but it is really Charlie’s show. He is basically playing himself, a trainwreck of a personality addicted to vices like sex with anyone and everyone, whether they are married or not, drinking excessively, taking drugs, gambling, and engaging in self-destructive behavior. It’s great and funny to see the actor play himself, often moody and whining about Alan and his son.
Then Charlie was fired, and CBS was left without a show. You can’t just find another popular actor and replace the main character with him. Perhaps the show would have been better if they had found someone else to take the lead role, maybe someone like Gary Busey, another walking trainwreck, but Ashton Kutcher just doesn’t find his own groove in the show, and he stands out like a sore thumb after eight amazing seasons with Charlie Sheen. Walden even seems to like kids — Charlie, like his misanthropic hard drinking influence, W.C. Fields, hates them! Walden’s the anti-Sheen.
The show collapsed and should have gone off the air when Charlie’s character is killed off. Instead, CBS decided to try and hold onto a popular franchise, and they failed in what they did. When Ashton Kutcher arrives at Charlie’s house, the show dies an ugly public death. As an example of how to handle a show when the main character leaves, one needs to watch the final seasons of The Office — even after Steve Carrell left, the show continued to generally be both great and hilarious.
Only Jon Cryer’s performance gave any redeeming value to the Walden years, but he should have known to quit when Charlie left, as he alone cannot carry the show, as funny and neurotic as he is. Ashton Kutcher has acting skills, but he was miscast. And the truth is that there is no one who could fill Sheen’s shoes, and the show should have ended after season eight. Like Black Sabbath without Ozzy Osbourne, and like Van Halen without David Lee Roth, Two and a Half Men without Charlie Sheen is an embarrassing mess.
We know who Charlie Harper is. We don’t know who Walden Schmidt is, and no one cares.
