Two and a Half Man is an American sitcom mainly about a Charlie Harper (Charlie Sheen) his brother Alan Harper (Jon Cryer) and his nephew Jake Harper (August T. Jones). Charlie a jingle writer with a playboy lifestyle and a care free attitude had never been one to be close to his family or the type of person to make one. The sitcom begins with Alan looking for a place to stay with his son, when his wife Judith (Marin Hinkle) decides to divorce him. With this he turns to his elder brother for a temporary place to crash. Charlie lets Alan and Jake stay at his Malibu beach house, after Alan pleads that it is going to be temporary. This simple story produces hilarious scenes with Charlie hoping to continue his lifestyle but being hindered by Alan who seems to have made his stay permeant and his 8 years old nephew always around.
The story even at its basic level feels like an amazing plot for a sitcom which is made even better by Chuck Lorre. Chuck makes sure to keep the show humorous throughout and succeeds in doing so even after the rudimentary plot line turns stale. Sheen & Cryer do a stellar job maintaining their characters, and even after a good number of seasons bring about a new type of dynamic to their characters when possible. August T. Jones proves as to why he was once the most paid child actor, with showing a sense of maturity in his acting from the get go. Lastly, Conchata Ferrell as Berta, Charlie’s house maid maintains her excellent performance till the very end portraying a very peculiar character.
Melanie Lynskey who plays the role of Rose who plays Charlies neighbor/lover/stalker/friend and a lot more things, while her acting is up to the mark the character itself has a lot of gaps. While it’s a basic and at many a times winning characteristic for sitcoms to have senseless characters, Rose’s character was not made to fit perfectly with the pandemonium that was going around the beach house. She was made to be utilized only when there was a need to fill in gaps in episodes, at least it seemed that way. After Sheen’s departure from the series when Ashton Kutcher was cast as his replacement playing the character of Walden Schmidt, while the transition was tried to be made as smooth as possible on screen with the writing, however good it was tried it would never have matched the excellence of Sheen & Cryer together on screen. The creators could have ended the series early, but they obviously decided against it.
People can often be confused weather the story playing on screen is that of the character written or are snippets from Sheen’s real life. That kind of confusion and candor is what makes the series brilliant. While the series takes a heavy toll after the change in the original cast, nonetheless it is surely worth a watch until that point or even after if you have grown to love the sitcom. It is surely one of the must-watch sitcoms and will give you more than a few chuckles.
Acting- 9
Casting- 8
Cinematography- 7.5
Dialogue- 8.5
Directing- 9
Editing & Effects- 7
Sound & Music- 7
Story- 8
Storytelling- 9
Rating- 9
Available on: Netflix + Amazon Prime
Also Read On: Medium—Vocal—Substack
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