Alan Harper says goodbye to his dead brother Charlie and hello to Walden Schmidt.
As we were all warned, the season premiere of Two and a Half Men opened with Charlie’s (Charlie Sheen) funeral. The details, however, were unexpected and hilarious. Seeing so many of Charlie’s exes (Jenny McCarthy, Tricia Helfer, Jodi Lyn O’Keefe. Etc.) was the kind of thing that makes TV great and finding out that Charlie may have actually been murdered by Rose (Melanie Lynskey) is the kind of humor that made me watch this show in the first place.
Unlike many of my friends, I was a big fan of Two and a Half Men. I watched for many seasons. Eventually, I decided that as the father of two young girls, I could no longer support Charlie Sheen in anything he does. It wasn’t a big deal but I felt better and it freed up twenty minutes in my TV watching schedule. When I realized that I could watch the show again, I wondered if I was going to enjoy it. Well, so far, I am back on board.
I adored the cameos by Dharma and Greg (Thomas Gibson and Jenna Elfman) as well as John Stamos (who I assume played himself) I only wish there had been more. Where was Rob Lowe? Wasn’t he rumored to replace Charlie? How about a newly single Ray Barone or Doug Heffernan? That would have been hilarious. I was a little confused as to why Joel Murray was delivering Charlie’s ashes considering he played Gibson’s buddy Pete on Dharma & Greg, but I’m sure only a few of us noticed that.
Enter Walden Schmidt (Ashton Kutcher). As we were all warned, he’s an internet billionaire with a broken heart. What we weren’t told was that he would have a huge penis and be really good with the ladies.
To say that Kutcher and Sheen’s characters are very different would be an understatement. Obviously it was a calculated move to make Walden less of a womanizer, but it was pretty brilliant to make him unaware of how easily he can get women into bed. Furthermore, making him the obsessed instead of the obsession is a great idea as well.
The jury is still out on Kutcher, considering how little he was in this episode but it’s safe to say this season will at least be an interesting one.