For 12 years, beloved CBS series “Two and a Half Men” has been delivering great quality comedy. From Charlie Sheen’s glory days during his 2003-2011 run to Aston Kutcher’s surprising comeback and everything in between, the show has given us everything from comedy to drama both on and off-screen. On February 19th 2015 though, the show came to an end, which the media is still buzzing about.
Let’s face it: twelve years is a long time to keep up the same level of comedic brilliance in a show of this sort, even for someone as talented and versatile as Chuck Lorre. Yes, there were some amazing seasons, and there were some not-so-inspired ones. Some say that the show had died once Sheen had left the production, although others may argue that it was headed on a downward spiral for even longer. Hey, it’s a clear sign that something is wrong when even the cast members speak up against the show, as did Charlie Sheen as well as Angus T. Jones during their now famous “meltdowns”. Either way, regardless weather you are team Charlie or team Walden, the show went on for four more seasons since Sheen’s departure, but came to an end that still revolved around his character.
The idea that Charlie might come back and make an appearance on the last episode was thrilling and kept viewers on their toes throughout the whole 40 minutes. The episode includes, though, appearances by John Stamos (as himself), Christian Slater (also, as himself) and Arnord Schwarzenegger.
Now that finally Alan (John Cryer) and Walden (Ashton Kutcher) have their lives all figured out: adoptive child, wives and all, a blast from the past comes back to haunt them. It seems that Charlie had not died four years earlier while honeymooning with Rose (Melanie Lynskey) in Paris, but was kidnapped by her and held hostage in her basement/dungeon all the while (classic Rose). He manages to escape and threatens the two now-stars of the show up until the last seconds, when a Charlie look-alike is shown walking to the front door of the Malibu beach house he used to own, but gets killed (for real, this time), by his own piano falling on top of him. The camera takes a step back and we see Chuck Lorre turning around in his chair, looking at the audience and simply stating Sheen’s catchphrase “Winning!”, right before he gets smashed by a piano as well. Boy, does he love to have the last word!
The whole episode is filled with jokes at the expense of the show and is abundant in ironic remarks. For instance, as Allan talks over the phone regarding the two and a half million (get it?) dollars that Charlie seems to have stacked up in unclaimed royalties, he tells the operator that his brother had died and that “yes, he is irreplaceable”, glancing at Walden, ironically addressing the remarks that Sheen’s replacement was said to be impossible at the time. Yet here is Ashton, four years later, still doing his thing! Later on, Kutcher looks into the camera stating “I can’t wait for this to be over”, clearly implying that even the cast is fed up with the show (again!). Then, while researching news of Charlie’s death online, Walden stumbles upon “this crazy rant about a former employer”. Way to turn drama into comedy, Lorre!
I’m not going to go on about the jokes that were made on the show’s account, or Charlie’s, for that matter, but will address the fact that there seems to be some sort of online outrage regarding the fact that people were actually expecting Sheen to make an appearance. This is, from what I can tell, the same sort of response to a not-so-obvious ending as it was when the final episode of How I Met Your Mother aired. It seems that people are still waiting for the fairytale boy-marries-girl-and-live-happily-ever-after/prodigal-son-returns-home (in this case), and producers have had it with this cliché.
From my perspective, kudos Chuck Lorre, for keeping it real, also congrats to the whole cast, especially John Cryer, who had the chance, in the last four seasons, to prove that, in fact, he was the real star of the show. And you know what, way to go Ashton Kutcher for doing a decent job on this! With its ups and downs, drama, meltdowns, feuds and all, I am sure that we will remember this show two and a half decades from now.