Two And A Half Men, Season 9 Premiere Review

Last night was the premiere of Two And A Half Men sans Charlie Sheen. After being fired earlier this year from an eight season run on the show, there's been speculation on what would happen to the lovable Alan Harper and his eternally hungry son, Jake. Rumors swirled around immediately that the show was cancelled, but it was put on hiatus as the creators looked for someone to replace Sheen. They settled on Ashton Kutcher. Having watched him for years in That 70's Show I thought it was a fair replacement. His name isn't associated with the word "winning" and as far as we know he's not doing drugs, but I think there's still hope for him in this new season.

A few months ago it was released to the public that Sheen's character was going to die. We got a few details on what that would entail, but who would have guessed that Rose was involved. That's not a for sure fact, mind you, but it's what was implied at Charlie's funeral when she got up and spoke about his final days. A lot of his old flames were there, most happy that he was gone, one even wanted to see the body - possibly to make sure that he really was deceased. We learned a lot about Charlie's character, for instance, he had a lot of STDs during his lifetime. I never found him that attractive, but just the mention of all the things he passed onto his lovers was enough to make me cringe. I guess that should have been expected. There were quite a few women who passed through the doors of Charlie Harper's bedroom.

It was good to see Evelyn grieving, but still in character. Despite the fact that her son had died she was still trying to sell his house at the funeral. There were even pamphlets for those who were interested in the beach front property.

I thought the funeral was nicely done, all things considered. I doubt that many exes would have showed up in reality, but they were some of the ones we knew the best. I was happy to see the pharmacist and Berta there. The former had a fairly small part, but I always enjoyed seeing him pop up throughout the series. And who can't help but love Berta? Her presence is always worth a laugh or two. I'll be interested to see if Walden Schmidt wants to keep her around.

I particularly enjoyed the way they brought Ashton Kutcher into the show. His character, Walden Schmidt, is a billionaire who we all know will be taking Charlie's place on the show. With that being said, I don't think his suicide attempt was terribly believeable, but that can be overlooked. He seems somewhat desperate in his "if you don't take me back, I'm going to kill myself" conversation he had with his wife (ex-wife? woman he's divorcing?). But on the plus side he definitely doesn't mind being naked, because on two separate occasions he's wearing nothing in front of Alan - once is his meeting Berta, where she becomes enamoured with certain parts of him.

I think the only thing that really threw me for a loop in the season premiere was when Kutcher's character decided to buy Charlie's house. I knew it was going to happen, but it doesn't seem remotely plausible in a real world scenario. Maybe Walden Schmidt is going to be a very trusting character, I don't know yet, but he's buying Charlie's house and letting Alan still live with him why? He doesn't even know Alan, just that the guy dried his clothes and took him drinking. I've taken longer showers than the time they've known one another. Unless this gets cleared up and explained later on, I don't agree with the way he was introduced to living in the house. But hey, whatever floats the boat of the producers.

Two And A Half Men will always be strange without Charlie Sheen, but I don't think people should write it off so quickly. A lot of people are saying the premiere wasn't that funny and I agree. I think the funniest part was when Alan went to dump Charlie's ashes on the beach and Walden was peering through the door, causing the ashes to be scattered across the living room. However, I have higher hopes for the rest of the season. This was all about bringing Ashton Kutcher's character into the show and I can understand why it wasn't as hilarious as other episodes we've seen. But this season has potential, there's no doubt about that.

I think Kutcher will add a new element to Two And A Half Men. I hope that the writer's haven't made Walden Schmidt the same womanizing character that Charlie Harper was because there are so many directions they can go with him. I'm interested to seeing his interactions with Jake and Berta and I'm crossing my fingers that this season won't be a flop. It won't be the same show, I don't expect it to be, but hopefully it'll be worth watching.