DVD Review: Two and a Half Men Series 8

Originally posted on www.thefancarpet.com

After months of being unable to escape the media’s constant coverage of  the escapades of Charlie Sheen and his chequered personal life, you would be forgiven for forgetting that he actually had a day job acting on one of the biggest sitcoms on American television.

Now we all know he no longer has his day job on Two and a Half Men for reasons I’m sure we all know. But Charlie’s final 16 episodes in the hit comedy show have been released on DVD for your viewing pleasure, if you can call it pleasure.

The show has proved a hit with viewers and is quite funny with some laugh out loud moments, certain ones that spring to mind from watching this season have to be Charlie’s description of the orgy rules (I’m sure he already knew these prior to filming the show), an incident with a can of whip cream and a cockatoo with a rather weird fetish, which I wont discuss further with fear of spoiling it.

Along with these particular stand out moments the shenanigans of Alan at the beginning of this series are all quite amusing within themselves, especially after an incident with a pipe at his girlfriends house, but the show lacks that certain something that others have.

Where as the programme is funny, to me the episodes would be much better enjoyed if watched alone and then left for several weeks before watching the next one because after a while the jokes and scenarios become predictable and a little stale, ultimately lacking that element of surprise that hit shows such as Friends had.

Couple this with the realisation that the lead character in the show is basically a caricature of the actor playing him, it begins to leave the realm of funny and enters the realm of done before television.

The fact that the lead characters off screen personal life is more appealing, shocking, unpredictable and all round entertaining tells me that this programme has well and truly run its course, and with Charlie Sheen now off the show I don’t think even the attractiveness of new lead Ashton Kutcher could save this programme and once again make it funny.