The Long Goodbye to Two and a Half Men

Note: As it is, maybe, with most people; whenever I'm with family or friends and aiming to find some light conversation material, talk often turns to dissatisfaction with TV these days. When it does, the conversation seems to inevitably go to the successful sitcom, Two and a Half Men (on CBS if there's anyone who doesn't already know that). The following thoughts on this one show are just an informal re-hash of the same complaints about Two and a Half Men that seem to keep cropping up in those conversations. What follows is just opinion; but from what I've seen, I'm not only one who holds these opinions. What follows is the opinion of a once faithful viewer who has discovered that saying "good-bye" to this show has been an almost involuntary process that begin awhile ago, and seems to have been completed over the last few months.

As someone who has an awfully hard time finding anything on TV that’s at all bearable for me, I’ve always tended to latch onto three or four shows a week that have seemed to work out to amount to two sitcoms, one drama, Meet the Press, and CBS Sunday Morning. The loss of Tim Russert (Meet the Press, if there’s anyone in the world who doesn’t know who Tim Russert was), I’ve drifted away from that Sunday-morning, Meet the Press, “appointment”, I’d had for years. With the demise of Boston Legal, I’ve found myself without “that one, special, appointment-drama” that I once had. While I would once also look to CNN or Fox News when there wasn’t much else to watch, I’ve gotten so I can’t stand either of them. PBS has its good programs, of course; but some of them are on at times that aren’t convenient for me. Some have different topics each week, which means my not necessarily wanting to watch each and every week.

As far as sitcoms go, after a lot of the good, long-running, sitcoms ended awhile back (Frasier, especially), I’ve never really found those two great sitcoms that were once fairly easy to find. Sure, there are some watchable sitcoms at times. I haven’t been able to find any great sitcoms, though – except for one, and that’s been Two and a Half Men.

For years I absolutely loved that show and thought it was about the funniest show out there. Other people I know felt the same way. Over the last couple of years (especially this one), the show just seems to have been on its last legs anyway. While there was a time when I’d make sure the TV was all set for Two and a Half Men three or four minutes before it would come on, and while I once sat in one place and watched the show from start to finish, over the last couple of seasons I’ve noticed that I don’t bother turning the TV until five or ten minutes after Two and a Half Men has started. Although I have every intention of watching it, I’ve also found myself doing little things around the house or else paying attention to what’s on my computer screen. Recently, there have Monday nights when I don’t even bother putting the sound on the TV. Since Monday night is the only night of the week on which I almost never go out, the fact that I’ve missed quite a few Two and a Half Men episodes doesn’t say much for the show I once really enjoyed.

What used to make it good was that it was one of those mixes of great characters. Personally, I would have preferred if they'd left out some of the "garbage-y", "low,low-brow" humor they always had; but even as someone who never finds that kind of humor particularly funny, I could overlook the relatively few incidents of it in any given episode. There wasn't all that much of it, and when it was there the line it crossed was often a matter of my "personal line of what makes the best humor" . Knowing that a lot of other people have a higher bar (for what "crosses the line") than I do, I just overlooked that the otherwise clever and funny show (at least to me) had a few things in it (and for the most part, only here or there) that I thought would have been better left out.

Over the last couple of years Evelyn,(the "awful mother and grandmother", and my absolute favorite) has all but disappeared. Rose and that whole "Rose side-plot thing" has been out of it. Judith and her husband barely ever show up any more. Berta and Jake are both still funny, but it seems to me neither of them get to have too many lines that were were once their trademark of having the funniest lines, and that once seemed like a matter of only getting too off-color occasionally. Over recent seasons it's seemed as if Jake and Berta are barely in the show, and as if they're only brought in (primarily) to deliver the smuttiest lines.

The situations (as in "situation comedy") were once focused on the relationships between the characters, and on things that might occur in anyone's life, or in the lives of people living under the arrangement the characters did. It was (WAS) a great show.

Somewhere along the way they pretty much phased out "the whole Evelyn element" of the show, and instead "phased in" "the Chelsea element". It may have been understandable and reasonable to have a guy Charlie's age be in a serious relationship, but Chelsea was an un-funny replacement for phased out characters who had helped make that show what it was. As a loyal viewer, I kept watching. I suppose I overlooked "the Chelsea factor" (and the fact that it was no longer, "Two and a Half Men", but "Two and a Half Men Plus an Attractive Young Woman"), because I accepted that as the two men could clearly no longer pass for being in their more youthful thirties, maybe it was time somebody be in a serious relationship. Maybe Chelsea was just someone's (some producer's) idea of eye candy, or else maybe she made a great excuse for adding yet more low, low-brow situations and punch-lines; but as a viewer, attached to the characters, I chose to believe it was just time one of the middle-aged guys had a long-term girlfriend.

The fact that Rose's role had been phased out was something else I accepted. I could understand that, maybe, "the Rose factor" had been exhausted. What I was never able to accept was the mother's severely diminished role in the show. To me, it was Evelyn, Berta, and Jake (maybe most of all) who "made" that show. Within the context of his relationships with those characters and with Alan, Charlie got to shine as a likable, "awful", and very funny character as well. Alan brought his "typical, working, suburban, conventional, Dad" personality and quirks to the mix. He added balance, but as with Charlie, what made Alan funniest was the context within which Alan functioned, as well as his relationships with all those other strong characters.

There was a time (when Jake was still little) that I wondered if his growing into a teen would disrupt the balance of the show. It didn't. As Jake got older and older, it seemed as if the clever writers knew exactly how to keep writing great lines for him, as well as writing in some story lines that were perfect for a kid his age.

No, Jake's growing up would not be the demise of the show. Something else went wrong, and it left viewers (at least the viewers I know) wondering if the writers had changed, or if the increasing elimination of staple characters had left the writers particularly challenged. In fairness to the writers, it even left viewers wondering if an overall increase (among today's viewing audience) in a preference for smuttiness had left producers and writers feeling pressured into destroying what once emphasis on the relationships among family members and close friends, and instead into turning the show into one, big, smut-fest; focused only on the two lead characters, who were never the funniest among the group, and who have since become increasingly un-funny.

It also made some viewers wonder if the two lead actors "too big for their britches" and demanding more focus, and more edgy lines, for themselves. In fairness to the actors, though, the everyday viewer doesn't always know which supporting actor has decided he just wants to move on for one reason or another, leaving the lead actors without the strong support they once had.

Over recent seasons, it's as if nobody has known what to do with Alan. While having him have a string of short-term girlfriends or “just-dates” once seemed right for someone in his situation; too many longer-term relationships for Alan hasn't cut it, in my opinion. Those relationships haven't just destroyed the dynamics of the show, they've changed the image of Alan from solid Dad and brother to a person far too "un-solid" to fit well in the role that had once helped the show have that perfect balance. They didn’t create the character of Alan as the same kind of wealthy, playboy, type that Charlie’s always been. Alan is supposed to be a practicing chiropractor whose income has been drained by his divorce (so it isn’t as if he’s “chiropractor to the stars”).

In any case, the point of all this is that the show has strayed away from the very dynamics that once made it what it was for so long. Maybe it’s time Alan find work on Desperate Housewives’ Wisteria Lane; for Judith, Stan, Jake, and his little half-sister to get their own show; and for Charlie to retreat to his Malibu beach house, so he can rest up and work out whatever issues he has before he gets any older.