There isn’t a single Ashton Kutcher episode in Two and a Half Men’s top 10 on IMDb, proving that the series would’ve been better off if it just ended after Charlie Sheen left. When Sheen’s substance abuse issues and tensions with series co-creator Chuck Lorre worsened during the eighth season, Sheen was fired and went to rehab. But since Two and a Half Men was one of the highest-rated shows on the air, Warner Bros. wasn’t ready to let it go. So, they brought in Kutcher to replace Sheen as the lead and dragged it out for another four seasons.
The series had already seen a decline in quality before Kutcher came along. The underlying sweetness of the early seasons had been completely eradicated and the raunchiness had fully taken over. But it was still a funny show; that decline became a lot steeper after Kutcher came in. The post-Sheen downfall is made clear by the 10 top-rated episodes of Two and a Half Men on IMDb. There isn’t a single episode from the Kutcher years on that list, proving it was a much stronger show under Sheen. When Sheen left, the series should’ve just ended.
Two And A Half Men Should’ve Ended Once Charlie Left The Story
There’s No Show Without Charlie
The entire premise of Two and a Half Men had been built around Sheen’s public persona. Charlie Harper’s characterization as a rich, promiscuous, carefree bachelor was based on how the tabloids had portrayed Sheen himself. When his brother and nephew came to live with him, it forced him to grow, and he eventually became a loving family man. Sheen was the whole reason there was a show to begin with. There was no point trying to continue it without him — and the overwhelmingly negative response to the post-Charlie episodes on IMDb proves it.
Episode | IMDb Rating |
|---|---|
Squab, Squab, Squab, Squab, Squab | 8.7 |
The Two Finger Rule | 8.7 |
Camel Filters and Pheromones | 8.6 |
Fish in a Drawer | 8.6 |
Walnuts and Demerol | 8.6 |
Gorp. Fnark. Schmegle. | 8.5 |
The Mooch at the Boo | 8.5 |
Hi, Mr. Horned One | 8.4 |
An Old Flame with a New Wick | 8.4 |
Just Like Buffalo | 8.4 |
And it’s not just a Charlie issue; since the show was already in its eighth season when Sheen left, there wasn’t much story mileage left in any of the other characters, either. Jake was all grown up, Evelyn had come around to warming up to her family, and every single possible laugh had been wrung out of Alan’s frugality and refusal to move out. Even if Charlie had stuck around, Two and a Half Men didn’t have much further left to go. The only reason it was still going at all was because Charlie was still a great character.
Two And A Half Men Accumulated Way Too Many Problems To Continue
There Was Way Too Much Behind-The-Scenes Drama
By the time Charlie left Two and a Half Men, the show had accumulated way too many problems to continue. Sheen’s rift with Lorre began to affect the series itself. The vindictive way the show killed off Charlie made it seem like the writers were putting their own personal grievances ahead of the needs of the story. They lost a lot of the audience’s goodwill when they killed off a character they had eight years of investment in. Charlie was a beloved character; giving him such a disrespectful send-off started the second chapter of the series on the wrong foot.
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If the writers had come up with a more respectful way to write Charlie out of the show, long-time fans might’ve been more willing to give the Kutcher era a chance. But by opening season 9 at Charlie’s funeral, which reveals he was gruesomely killed by a train and quickly devolves into a mean-spirited roast, they burned that bridge immediately. Two and a Half Men continued to have decent ratings for the next four seasons, but it absolutely destroyed the show’s legacy.
Two And A Half Men Was A Completely Different Show By The End
Eventually, Alan Was The Only Main Character Left
By the time Two and a Half Men eventually ended in its 12th season, it was a totally different show. It started off as the story of an immature bachelor who reconnects with his estranged brother and becomes a caring uncle to his estranged nephew. When Kutcher’s Walden Schmidt took over, it became the story of a goofy, geeky tech billionaire with no flaws to overcome and no conflicts to fight. This made the Walden years much more boring than the Charlie years.
Two and a Half Men
ended its run with a two-part series finale, season 12, episodes 15 and 16, “Of Course He’s Dead,” on February 19, 2015.
And it wasn’t just Charlie’s departure that made Two and a Half Men a totally different series in its last four seasons. Jake’s role was drastically reduced as he got older and he eventually left, too, when Angus T. Jones objected to the show’s immoral humor. Eventually, Alan was the only main character left and he’d been completely Flanderized. Other characters were brought in to recapture the early-season magic — Charlie’s long-lost daughter Jenny brought back some of his edge and Walden’s adopted son Louis brought back the original premise of dysfunctional co-parenting — but it was never the same.
Two and a Half Men follows the Harper family: Charlie (Charlie Sheen), a womanizing, hedonistic jingle writer who enjoys his lazy lifestyle from the comfort of his large beach house; Alan (Jon Cryer), Charlie’s neurotic, far less successful brother; and Jake (Angus T. Jones), Alan’s impressionable son. When Alan’s marriage falls apart, he moves in with Charlie, much to the older brother’s dismay. After bonding with his nephew, Charlie reluctantly embraces Alan’s presence, paving the way for one of television’s most dysfunctional family environments.
- Seasons
- 12
- Creator(s)
- Chuck Lorre , Lee Aronsohn