In a time when many claim the traditional, multi-camera, live audience sitcom is dying (and they may be right), one sitcom managed to not only get its biggest numbers during the premiere of its ninth season, but it also became an event: Appointment television whose success could not have been predicted even in the wildest of dreams.
Two and a Half Men, the CBS sitcom about two brothers living together and bringing up one of the siblings' child, returned yesterday, Monday the 19th, to resounding success: 27.7 million people watched the episode, a number that surpasses most episodes of American Idol, America's #1 show. Oh, it definitely wasn't a regular episode. Months prior, one of the show's stars, Charlie Sheen, was fired from the program a midst a blaze of controversy and scandal. The eighth season was cut short and rumors flared up as to who would replace Sheen's character and what would become of the show.
As TV's number one sitcom for the past 8 years, Two and a Half Men has never been out of the top 20 and has averaged up to 16 million viewers per episode. Therefore, it is sound to say that there was enough interest in the crude sitcom to begin with. If one factors the buzz around Sheen's life and the questions as to how the show would progress, a slight jump in ratings was expected. But a jump from 12 million viewers (last season's average) up to 27 million is, to say the least, shocking. Dozens of articles documenting the news surfaced, Twitter went ablaze and TV forums were alive with discussion of the show and its numbers. In other words, the show had a sort of water cooler moment.
As for the actual episode? It dealt with the death of Charlie Sheen's character and the arrival of a new roommate for his brother and nephew. The new roommate was none other than Ashton Kutcher, making his triumphant return to the world of sitcoms as Walden Schmidt, a broken-hearted billionaire with suicidal tendencies. Before long, Kutcher was naked and we were given every possible information we could have possibly needed to familiarize ourselves with this new character. Namely, his penis size and how much money he has. Surprisingly, Kutcher was a lot of fun and managed to capture the feeling of a rich, yet innocent, man whose life changed from one day to the next.
I've never been a huge fan of the show. Admittedly, it can be funny at times, but there is only so many times you can have random fart jokes before it becomes redundant and tiring. However, it was refreshing to see that the show did not delve into any sentimentality and remained, as always, inconsiderate, rude and over the top. All of Charlie's scorned women attended the funeral, during which they all proclaimed what a jerk he was and how they were not sad to see him go. When Charlie's widow, Rose, spoke, she admitted to pushing Charlie in front of an oncoming train, after which he "exploded like a bag of meat." It was morbidly funny and left you mesmerized at just how mean it all was. From there on, it was all downhill.
Jon Cryer, who portrays Alan and is often overlooked because of Charlie's shenanigans, was exquisite throughout, finding an amazing balance between mourning and assuming a new role in the house. Always a very funny, nuanced actor, Cryer managed to bring a real sense of loss to his character as he spoke to Charlie's ashes. When confronted with Walden's wish to die, Alan has to become a mentor to this man who's half his age and, shockingly, far less experienced than Alan is. Now, Alan has to be Charlie to Walden's Alan--and if that is not a recipe for wonderful, comical disaster, I don't know what is. Poor little Jake, however, is reduced to farting and eating. Literally, that's all he does throughout the whole episode. Perhaps this will be dealt with in upcoming episodes, but there was almost no time given to his grief in regards to his uncle's death.
And, thus, Two and a Half Men became one of the most-discussed events in television currently. There's something very fascinating about observing a pop culture moment such as this one. One can safely assume that all these extra viewers tuned in based on a curiosity to see how the show would handle such a momentous change in its premise--after all, such changes are almost never made and, if they are, they usually lead to disaster. It's too early to tell if the show will survive under its current incarnation. After all, all we know is that Walden (or Kutcher) does not suck and that the show remained its usual brand of funny. Will it be able to sustain success and continue as is? Who knows. But I'm sure the farts will live on.
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