Two and a Half Men’s Top-Rated Episodes Perfectly Explain What Went Wrong with the 12-Season Sitcom

There isn’t a single Ashton Kutcher episode in Two and a half menis in the top 10 on IMDb, proving that the series would have been better if it ended after Charlie Sheen left. When Sheen’s substance abuse problems and tensions with series co-creator Chuck Lorre worsened during season eight, Sheen was fired and went to rehab. But since Two and a half men was one of the highest-rated shows on the air, Warner Bros. I wasn’t ready to let it go. So they brought in Kutcher to replace Sheen as the lead and dragged him through four more seasons.

The series had already suffered a decline in quality before Kutcher’s appearance. The underlying sweetness of the first few seasons has been completely eradicated and the sleaze has completely taken over. But it was still a fun show; this decline became much steeper after Kutcher arrived. The post-Sheen slump is clear from the 10 highest-rated episodes of Two and a half men on IMDb. There isn’t a single episode from the Kutcher years on this list, proving that it was a much stronger show under Sheen. When Sheen left, the series should have ended.

Two and a Half Men should have ended when Charlie left the story

There’s no show without Charlie

The entire premise of Two and a half men was built around Sheen’s public persona. Charlie Harper’s characterization as a rich, promiscuous, carefree bachelor was based on how the tabloids portrayed Sheen himself. When his brother and nephew came to live with him, it forced him to grow up and he eventually became a loving family man. Sheen was the reason there was a show to start. There was no point in trying to continue without him – and the overwhelmingly negative response to the post-Charlie episodes on IMDb proves that.

And it’s not just a question of Charlie; as the series was already in its eighth season when Sheen left, there wasn’t much story left on any of the other characters.. Jake was all grown up, Evelyn had started to warm up to her family, and every laugh possible was wrung out of Alan’s frugality and refusal to move. Even if Charlie had stuck around, Two and a half men There wasn’t much more to go. The only reason it was still happening was because Charlie was still a great character.

Two and a half men have accumulated too much trouble to continue

There was a lot of drama behind the scenes

When Charlie left Two and a half menthe show has accumulated too many problems to continue. Sheen’s fight with Lorre began to affect the series itself. The vindictive way the show killed Charlie made it seem the writers were putting their own personal grievances ahead of the story’s needs. They lost a lot of public goodwill when they killed off a character they invested eight years into. Charlie was a beloved character; giving him such a disrespectful farewell started the second chapter of the series on the wrong foot.

If the writers had found a more respectful way to exclude Charlie from the series, longtime fans might have been more willing to give the Kutcher era a chance. But by opening Season 9 at Charlie’s funeral, which reveals he was gruesomely killed by a train and quickly turned into a mean roast, they burn the bridge immediately. Two and a half men continued to have decent ratings over the next four seasons, but Totally destroyed the show’s legacy.

Two and a Half Men was a completely different show in the end

Eventually, Alan was the only main character left

When the time comes Two and a half men eventually ended with its 12th season, it was a totally different show. It began as the story of an immature bachelor who reconnects with his estranged brother and becomes a caring uncle to his estranged nephew. When Kutcher’s Walden Schmidt took over, the story became the story of a geeky, dorky tech billionaire with no flaws to overcome and no conflicts to fight. This made the Walden years much more boring than the Charlie years.

And it wasn’t just Charlie’s departure that made Two and a half men a totally different series in its last four seasons. Jake’s role was drastically reduced as he aged and he eventually left as well when Angus T. Jones objected to the show’s immoral humor. Possibly, Alan was the only main character left and he was completely Flanderized. Other characters were brought in to recapture the magic from earlier in the season – Charlie’s long-lost daughter Jenny brought back some of her edge and Walden’s adopted son Louis brought back the original premise of co-parenting dysfunctional – but it was never the same again.