Isn’t it impressive that it took a show called Two and a Half Men, boasting its male cast in its title, seven years to finally grow some balls in its sense of humor? In its seventh season, with the half a man somewhere closer two three-quarters, and the two brothers as womanizing and hopelessly spineless (respectively) as ever, the show latched on to a different part of comedy’s corpse and finally found a part that wasn’t entirely sucked dry. It still doesn’t manage to produce something in the top-half of sitcoms, and in fact you can’t help but wonder if the new openly dirtier sense of humor won’t be a turn-off for those who’ve held it up as one of the more family-friendly shows out there. The seventh season is a step in the right direction for making the show a general contender in the land of comedy, but the elements that drag the show under are still very much present and still overwhelm any of the positive change.
Charlie (Charlie Sheen) has finally found a woman who accepts him for being somewhat of a sleaze and indulges his raging alcoholism and egotism while simultaneously reining him in, Chelsea (Jennifer Taylor). The small growth the season endures (only for awhile of course) sees Chelsea move into the bachelor pad and how that affects the dynamic (mainly how Alan drops to the third most-powerful person in the house). Speaking of which, Alan (Jon Cryer) doesn’t really experience any change and the biggest story that could involve him, the birth of his ex-wife’s new baby which bears a startling resemblance to Alan, drops off the map after one episode. Other than that, Alan romances a few different women here and there, but otherwise he’s playing one of the two straight men to his idiot son, Jake (Angus T. Jones). The Jake character has never been funny, and oddly enough, the writers managed to completely screw up the one opportunity to make him funny. As a younger lad, Jake would always be ignorant of the innuendo flying over his head, and could only respond with a “Huh?” Now, as a teenager, he knows what all the innuendo is and so now he snatches the innuendo soaring above and shows that he knows what it means like any teenager would – only, now is exactly when his being ignorant of the comedy would be funny. Not then, now.
A good number of cameos pop up, with Ryan Stiles and Jane Lynch being underused as two of the running characters (Judith’s new husband and Charlie’s therapist, respectively). Even Tricia Helfer shows up twice as a friend of Chelsea’s.
For six seasons, Two and a Half Men sucked on the blood-drained arm of comedy and always came up dry. It was never “fresh”. Its sense of humor was always the guy who got to the party too late. It was the guy who heard the joke after everyone else, but then insisted on repeating it over and over with his own unfunny embellishments only making it more obvious how behind the curve he is. Two and a Half Men was always telling stale jokes, and would repeat them over and over throughout an episode hoping that through sheer volume one of the takes would make you laugh. The seventh season, with the writers latched on to a part of comedy’s corpse that isn’t entirely bled dry, the comedy’s sensibility has a few tidbits that actually land here or there. Often these bits are when the show crosses the line of common decency and lets Charlie go a bit too far with his double entendres or when Alan goes uncharacteristically too far in his attempts to not be such a spineless cod. It’s the beginning signs of the writers growing and coming to know what funny actually is, but 95% of the time the show just reeks of Chuck Lorre’s patented toothless comedy.
DVD Bonus Features
Only a gag reel and featurette on a scene involving most of the girlfriends from past seasons can be found in the extras. Like the show itself, the gag reel gives comedy a bad name, and the featurette is really for only one who cares so much about Two and a Half Men that they find themselves reminiscing when the different ladies actually show up – I hope such people don’t really exist.
"Two and a Half Men: The Complete Seventh Season" is on sale September 21, 2010 and is not rated. Comedy. Directed by James Widdoes, Lee Aronsohn. Written by Lee Aronsohn, Chuck Lorre, Mark Roberts, Don Foster, Eddie Gorodetsky. Starring Angus T Jones, Charlie Sheen, Conchata Ferrell, Jon Cryer, Tricia Helfer, Marin Hinkle, Jennifer Taylor.
