Two and a Half Men (seasons 9-12)

Two and a Half Men (seasons 9-12) This is not the Two and a Half Men we all know and love Genre: Sitcom Comedy Running Time: 21 minutes Country: United States Release Date: September 19, 2011 - May 14, 2012 (Season 9) September 27, 2012 - May 9, 2013 (Season 10) September 26, 2013 - May 8, 2014 (Season 11) October 30, 2014 - February 19, 2015 (Season 12) Network(s): CBS Created by: Chuck Lorre Lee Aronsohn Distributed by: Warner Bros. Television Distribution Starring: Ashton Kutcher Jon Cryer Angus T. Jones (Seasons 9-10) Conchata Ferrell Amber Tamblyn (Season 11) Edan Alexander (Season 12) Episodes: 24 (Season 9) 23 (Season 10) 22 (Season 11) 16 (Season 12)

Two and a Half Men is an American television sitcom that originally aired on CBS for twelve seasons from September 22, 2003, to February 19, 2015. The series was about a hedonistic jingle writer, Charlie Harper, his uptight brother, Alan, and Alan's son, Jake. After Alan divorces, he and Jake move into Charlie's beachfront Malibu house and complicate Charlie's freewheeling life.

While the first eight seasons of Two and a Half Men were well-received, the same can't be said for the seasons made after the departure of star Charlie Sheen. This page will focus on the seasons with his replacement, Ashton Kutcher (seasons 9 to 12).

Why These Seasons Are Not Half Men

1. The main problem with these seasons is the fact that Charlie, the main protagonist of the show left. Due to the departure of star Charlie Sheen after his infamous public meltdown, he was replaced by Ashton Kutcher. While a good actor overall, his character, Walden Schmidt, isn't a good character, as he's literally the same as Alan, only rich and much more of a man-child, and not as funny.
2. To make things worse, Angus T. Jones also left the series after Season 10, due to comments he made in an interview in November 2012 to a Christian website, attacking the show as "filth" that contradicts his moral values and said he was sick of being a part of it. His character Jake Harper did not return until the series finale "Of Course He's Dead" in Season 12, as a guest appearance. He was replaced by Jenny, Charlie Harper's illegitimate and lesbian daughter in Season 11, who isn't as good of a character as Jake, was mostly involved in plotlines concerning Walden and was reduced to a recurring character in Season 12.
3. The other replacement for Jake, Louis, the child whom Walden and Alan foster and later is adopted by Walden in Season 12, wasn't a great replacement to Jake either, looking more like a bland imitation of Jake Harper.
4. Season 12's plot of Alan and Walden pretending to be gay to fool the system into adopting Louis is terrible since they still date women and they refuse to be intimate with each other. Because of this, they decided to divorce and stay with Lyndsey and Ms. McMartin instead.
   • On top of that, Alan and Walden as a gay couple is poorly mismatched, feels very forced and lacks chemistry.
5. None of the new side characters are very interesting.
6. Alan has been flanderized from a lovable loser who cared about the people around him to a complete sociopath who is even more of a manchild than ever. In addition, he is now a much bigger freeloader than he was back when Charlie owned the Malibu beach house.
7. The humor has gone from creative and funny from the previous seasons to awful and very unfunny.
8. The writing has also taken a severe dip in quality, with many character interactions feeling forced.
9. The infamous flashback sequence from the series finale "Of Course He's Dead" which uses incredibly ugly CGI animation.
10. Some of the plots are left unresolved or are completely disregarded, like Walden's friend went on to date Walden's ex-wife, Bridget.
11. Season 10 saw a retool of the show, with humor more in-line with the nerd-culture humor of The Big Bang Theory, which left it as an inferior clone of that show, which coincidentally both shows were created by the same person, Chuck Lorre.
12. The series finale, "Of Course He's Dead", was a terrible way to end the series, due to the anti-climax and the insulting ending where Charlie comes back as a cameo only to get crushed by a piano.

Redeeming Qualities

1. The theme song's still memorable and catchy (although Seasons 11 and 12 used the short version due to Angus T. Jones' departure after Season 10).
2. There are still some good episodes here and there.
3. The voice acting is still great, especially by Ashton Kutcher.
4. Despite the insulting cameo of Charlie in the series finale, it was still nice to see him back.
5. Seasons 10-12 are slight improvements over Season 9, as the toilet humor was at least toned down, and Walden became a better character after that season.
6. Porky Pig's cameo in the series finale "Of Course He's Dead" was funny, despite the awful-quality CGI animation used.
7. The Chuck Lorre notes at the end of each episode is still nice to read.

Reception

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Trivia

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