Two and Half Men Continues to Disappoint and Devolve

Not so long ago Two and a Half Men was one of my favorite shows and one of the highest rated shows on television. Today, while it's still a very popular show to the masses, I find myself less and less interested in this once great show. First, I'll freely admit that I loved Charlie Sheen playing the role of ....... well basically playing himself. He was funny, condescending, successful, shallow but ultimately unhappy and lonely guy. And what I liked most about him was that he seemed very real. There are no doubt countless Charlie Harper's out there in the real world. And to a lesser extent, Alan's character seemed somewhat believable too. He was miserable, pathetic and unable to help himself but we as an audience rooted for him to succeed (at least I always did). Sure he was dishonest and deceitful at times but none of that seemed out of character for a guy who was extremely down on his luck.

Thirteen episodes into season 9 though (geez, we're already 13 episodes into the post-Charlie Sheen era...where has the time gone?), and I'm almost ready to put this show on the back burner and find something else to fill my Monday nights. Walden's character has a lot of potential but I just haven't bought in to his whole story. He loves and misses his wife so much that he has a threesome on practically his first night in the house? He's so childish and immature that someone else cuts up his food yet he built a multi-million dollar company? Did he go to high school or not? And why oh why does the guy keep walking around naked?

I understand that it's incredibly hard to replace the lead character in any show, I just get an idea of where this is going. Sometimes, when episodes have plenty of Berta and Jake and the terrible ex-wife and Bert it feels like the show I've grown accustomed to and enjoyed for so long. Then other episodes it feels like a spin-off at best when episodes are almost entirely new characters or just Walden and Alan. I almost wish they'd just pick one or the other and stick with it so some kind of flow/chemistry can develop.

Maybe this is mostly just venting because last night's episode really rubbed the wrong way. Alan's character has devolved to the point where he'd sell out the one person who's keeping a roof over his head for new Porsche ( and to think just a couple episodes ago he decided not to sell Walden's ring out of respect, where did that guy go?). And what was with the joke implying he'd given himself a BJ with toothpaste? There are normally signature moments when I can remember myself "checking out" on a show and it wouldn't surprise me at all if this ends up being my moment. Alan's character is becoming shockingly despondent and dreadful. It appears that his depravity has no limitations as instant gratification, be it from money or from a female hand under a table, seem to be his primary motivations.

Maybe I expected to much from a show that was one of my weekly favorites, considering the massive change they've been forced to undertake, but I didn't think it would fall this far, so quickly. Am I being too hard on them?