Two and a Half Men: Season 1

Chuck Lorre is a brilliant man; a complex but calm man who has realized that as the boss in a performing arts company he must remain calm and staid because almost no one else will, He got his start, as most of the Hollywood writing staff did, on Roseanne, where his writing skills were honed under the demands of a woman who planned out an entire series between season two and three.Roseanne was making a plug for women's rights and it centered on the fact that women were capable of doing just about anything. Sadly, in the late 80'ws and early 90's the methods she used were by making men seem like idiots. John Goodman is not only a brilliant actor and a man who clearly wanted out of his contract in season nine, managed to come across as a wonderful man; a feminist who refused to give up his maleness. Still, we watched Roseanne hit him in the head with a cast iron skillet one too many times. When Roseanna (who had a philosophy that any writer had one or two good season in him and then it was time to cut him loose- she was wrong) released Lorre, he went on to create Dharma and Greg, Becker, Two and a Half Men and The Big Bang Theory. Lorre manages to do well by surrounding himself with outstanding people and allowing them to do their jobs. There is plenty of laughter on the set and Charlie Sheen aside, there are no "stars" on his shows. The Big Bang Theory is an excellent example of ensemble work we haven't seen since Marta Kaufman and David Crane gave us "Friends." Two and a Half Men is about two unmarried brothers. Charlie (played by Charlie Sheen), two years older, who has managed a career as a musician writing jingles for advertising- bringing in vast amounts of money, a house on Malibu Beach and an endless supply of single malt scotch. Alan (Jon Cryer) is an anal retentive chiropractor- not quite a doctor- who was kicked out of his home a la Felix Unger by his wife of twelve years named Judith.(Marin Hatch) They share custody of a boy, Jake (expertly played by Angus T. Jones) whp is lazy, fraqnk and has the typical locker room humor of a young adolescent. The premise- at first- was to see how an adolescent boy would co-exist with a single uncle who is living with a Peter Pan comp-lex, bringing in woman after woman foir meaningless one night stands, developing a reputation where by almost anywhere he goes woman are saying "Hi, Charlie" or "Charlie, you filthy creep! You ruined my life." On the surface, Alan comes across as the better behaved of the two and we strongly suspect that Lorre intended this. However, Alan begins to make up for last time and despite the many jokes about Charlie thinking with his penis, we noticed that soon enough Alans penis was doing all of HIS thinking and at a substantially lower IQ than that of Charlie's. Aolan spends all of his time comp0laining about how easily things come to Charlie while he has had t5o dfight for every single failure in his life. What is left to us to see is that Charlie has just as many challenges and failures as Alan but has learned not to complain about them. His relaxed attitude serves him better than Alan's constant anxiety and explosive diarrhea. Still, it is often Charlie who gets a surprise trip to the Emergency room. Charlie is the one who's got a stalker and had his testicles super glued to his thighs. Charlie is the one who is a kind man and wants nothing more than kindness in return. Alan is unable to see this and thus feels great jealousy about the fact that he feels that he struggles and struggles, loses everything, while Charlie has gold falling from the sky. Alan wastes every opportunity he has. His second marriage comes about a year and a half after Judith has thrown him out and he ends up in a weekend long sex marathon with a girl whose body is spectacular and her very loe I.Q. somehow makes her even more sexy. She is enamored by Alan;s sweetness and doesn;lt mind that she is half his age. She struts around the house in a bikini, to the delight of young Jakes and, during a foolish moment in Las Vegas, Alan marries her. Fifteen minutes later a single coin in the slot wins him a half million dollars and then four months after that she has thrown him out and he has eleven dollars left.; And Charlie is the fool? The show doesn't make any attempts to teach us lessons and this is nice. After all we wept through Family Ties, M*A*S*H*, Designing Women and even Roseanna, but it is nice to have a TV series where there is never any growth- a pure half hour of comedy. As each season passes we see that both men are destroyed by childhood issues stemming from a terrible mother played expertly by the clkassic Holland Taylor). The boys father died when they were swtill in elementary school by food poisoning of fish. "( I was a new housewife and learning to cook, ": Said Evelyn- their mother, "How was I to know that fish couldn't be kept in a drawer? " Charlie contends that his father KNEW the fish was bad and he ate it anyway. Alan refuses to discuss it. After his death came a string of "Uncles" who helped to raise the boys. Alan became the type A child who did anything he could to please but never succeeded. Charlie simply began to drink and have indiscriminate sex. They endured boarding school, Charlie got out as fast as he could and Alan married a duplicate of his mother. Alan gets reamed for both Alimony and Child Support. He loses the house, all the money, the furniture and the car. Why? Because Charlie couldn't heolp himself and slept with, then dumped, Alan;s attorney. Similar episodes occurred with Jake's Karate teacher, den mother, fifth grade teacher and countless others.Charlie falls in love more often and Alan ends up in terrible situations because off his loud but stupid penis. (a true highlight is his venture into computer dating when Alison JAnney plays a date who leaves, saying good night to Charlie, explaining she has to get up for work and that Alan has turned into bed for the night. Charlie who is plagued by being in love with a ballet dancer who will be traveling, enters Alan's room to see him cuffed at fours in red stockings, arm gloves and leather corset and panties. Alison Janney is an excellent example of the remarkable guest stars that visit this show. Martin Sheen plays an emotionally unbalanced father of Charlie's stalker, Rose (perhaps the gem of the series), Robert Wagner plays the boys father and as a result of a fun conversation between Chuck Lorre and the creator of CSI, a switch of writing staffs occur creating a hysterical episode here and a wonderful CSI parody. CLoris Leachman moves in next door, Sean Penn and Elvis Costello play themselves in a support group with Charlie. Martin Mull is a remarkable pharmacist trying to compete with the larger chains and copes by delving into the sample drawers. He pays three sets of alimony but not a cent of child support. It goes on and on. The gem of the series is Conchetta Ferrall who plays Berta, Charlie's housekeeper who does much more than keeps house. She is part of the family and her wit and wisdom is curt and cute. Nothing disgusts her (one morning after finding a bra abd panties on the kitchen table with the bananas and the butter says, "Good God, I'm workin;' for Caligula." She's a good woman, the mother of a handful of failure girls for whom she'd face a meth chemist to extort $5,000 in pre-paid child support. She could have only five lines in a scene and still manage to steal it. The house can't run without Berta and she and Charlie have a strong relationship, well defined and honed over the course of many years. Okay. The writing is full of 8th grade fart jokes but they're cleverly written so that one must delve into intelligence to get the meaning. There's a great deal of gas, as a result of a 12 year old boy who will (and can) eat anything and has no shame. We have watched only up to season six and we suppose that there's not a soul in America who has not heard of the medical condition that crashed Charlie Sheen. We have not seen that final season as his illness took him down nor have we viewed any of the new seasons with the adorable and perpetually adolescent Ashton Kutcher. The series is approaching it';s 200tgh episode, something rarely seen in television so that there are 8 seasons before Mr Sheen's illness affects the show- if at all. We will revisit this subject when the time comes, but in the mean time, score this one as a way of understanding men- of making up for the men hating Roseanne and at looking at two emotionally damaged men and why. All the women in this series are depicted as equally damaged with the expception of Berta and Charlie's stalker. There is the regular appearance of a therapist- a [psychiatrist who still does therapy at $250 an hour and from time to time all two and a half men have sat with her. She played a phys ed teacher on Old Christine and now has a lead in the show Glee- the only actress in Hollywood taller than Alison Janney, she spends most of her scenes seated in her expensive chair making jokes at the expens fo Charlie or Alan and helping them to come to terms with what haunts them. Yes, it took us years to open our arms to Two and a half Men because at first, it appears to be arm-pit farts and network Pokys, but it is ever so much more. This is a good one for everyone and even more so for any man who has been under the control over the stronger sex.

Was sold as a “new” item. Disc 3 , 2 whole episodes will not play at all. (Of course those two are the best of the season). No problem with the CD player because all other CDS play just fine. Now I’m past the return window— very disappointed that this seller is selling items marked as “new” when it’s clearly a used / defective item!

This TV series is funny for one season, but I got tired of pretty much the same theme episode after episode. The one line comebacks are funny; the kid is funny. But after a while I just wanted to move on to something else. At this point I won't be watching more seasons. Maybe down the road a bit.

My wife loves two and a half men with Charlie Sheen in it. It's hard to see it in reruns so I've been gobbling up the seasons for her. The the DVDs are asked to be expected no issues. Would recommend

Laugh out loud funny ....slowly getting all the series...item came well packed and in a two pc packaging box.

Almost all of the first 8-9 years are super funny, great cast and good company of actors. It may be a show about broken up marriges, a bountiful of sex capades but in our home, we don't see it as crude. It's just very funny. The characters (Charlie, Jake and Alan) play off each other perfectly, along with the rest of the cast. Great writers. We dvr the episodes and look forward to watching them at night with dinner, a glass of wine and great laughter after a grueling 1/2 hour of the ever so horroric stories on news and politics. The new last 2 seasons are just not the same. So we skip those. If you want a good a laugh, gotta watch. Have fun...

I don't like scripted comedy shows especially on network television, I find the cheese factor is major, but my boyfriend is a big fan and after seeing it with him, I am one too! The hijinks 2 men and a kid or really, 3 big kids, get into are hilarious and it's written from a man's point of view. I find myself learning about the male psyche and laughing hysterically at the same time. The first episodes obviously explain alot of stuff, what Charlie does for a living, how Allen ended up at his house, where Rose came from! It's a little cheesy but irresistible not to like. Besides any show where you can see Ducky, is worth watching, Jon Cryer is a great actor and my favorite brat packer of all!

This is the perfect comedy series, so far. It is well written and truly funny on several levels. Sheen's comedy delivery is perfect, so the Charlie character is fun to watch. Cryer has a knack for making the audience enjoy and appreciate his character's failures and injuries. The kid character, Jake, marks the first time I can recall in which one feels no sympathy for a child that is not cute, that is plagued by hereditary stupidity, and who will always be a burden on society. Instead, he is funny.I hope the writers will be able to come up with new material and avoid the failure that eventually kills a lot of comedy shows-the eventual replacement of original humor with too much crudity.

This series is probably the best comedy show to come to these shores from the USA for a very long time...Charlie is a self confessed hedonistic batchelor living in his beach house in Malibu and he uses a time system for seeing how many women he can bed by the hour for some days...however, this lifestyle hits a brickwall when his younger brother, Alan, is kicked out of his home by Judith and so Charlie reluctantly takes him in thinking that this will be only for a few days or weeks, so wrong Charlie...At weekends arrives Jake, Alan's son and the nephew Charlie begins to know for the first time, Jake is ten years old and at least Charlie is spared the problems surrounding toddlers nappy period...except Jake is a convulsive eater and can easily clog-up Charlie's plumbing with one visit to the toilet...you get the drift!Charlie has an endearing housekeeper in Berta, who has Charlie wrapped around her little finger...there's also Rose who lives a few beach houses away, who become Charlie's stalker and after being dumped by Charlie...superglues certain parts of his privates to his thighs...and finally there is Evelyn, Charlie's and Alan's mother...Charlie contantly refers to her as 'SATAN' and the fact that she sucked their souls dry when they were youngsters...if this doesn't whet your appetite as to this award winning programme...perhaps your soul was also sucked dry at a young age...

Every episode is wonderful. I cry with laughter. If anyone does not rate this show they must be in a coma.....The best.

Seit "Eine schrecklich nette Familie" hat mich keine SitCom mehr wirklich interessiert. All die ganzen austauschbaren Family-SitComs wie "What's up Dad" oder "Meine wilden Töchter", die samt und sonders 1:1 - Kopien von der "Bill Cosby Show" sind (Alltagsthemen und ernste Familienprobleme werden mit flotten Sprüchen aufgepeppt, und am Ende liegen sich alle in den Armen und sagen sich immer wieder, wie lieb sie sich doch haben!!!). Mittlerweile kann man "Cosby" ja nicht mehr unbelastet ansehen (Vergewaltigungsvorwürfe anno 2015). Und auch die anderen 08/15 - Comedys wie "King of Queens", "Friends", "Seinfeld" oder der hochgejubelte "Frasier" bestechen durch ihr altbackenes Konzept mit lahmen (Neben-) Charakteren und übertriebener Gefühlsduselei (unerwähnt bleiben hier alle weiteren Serien, deren Namen ich schon kurz nach Ausstrahlung wieder vergessen habe!). Kein Wunder war das Format SitCom um die Jahrtausendwende so gut wie tot. Zum Glück kam dann "T.a.a.h.M." - ohne jegliche Ambitionen, ernsthafte Themen oder glaubwürdige Charaktere zu etablieren! Eine echte Wohltat!!!Ehrlich gesagt hat es bei mir lang gedauert, bis ich mich für "T.a.a.h.M." begeistern konnte, hauptsächlich wegen oben erwähnter SitCom-Verdrossenheit - und wegen des Titels, der bei mir so einen "oh Gott, nicht schon wieder eine Serie mit einem pseudo-liebenswerten, klugscheißenden Kind!" - Effekt ausgelöst hat. Doch dank der Endlosschleife bei Pro 7 bin ich dann doch irgendwann mal hängengeblieben. Und erstaunlicherweise: je öfter ich mir die Wiederholungen reinzog, desto besser gefiel mir die Serie! Mittlerweile laufen in der Endlosschleife nur noch die (grauenvollen und extrem überflüssigen) 3 Staffeln mit Ashton Kutcher - was mir deutlich machte, wie sehr mir Charlie Sheen gefehlt hat. Vor allem sein Charakter und auch der der unkonventionellen "Oma" Evelyn sind so dermaßen gegen den allgemeinen SitCom-Strich, daß es eine wahre Wohltat ist. Natürlich sind die Charaktere überdreht und weit weg von der Realität, so sollte das ja auch sein: schließlich liegt der Schwerpunkt einer Comedyserie auf dem Wort "Comedy". Wer Probleme gewälzt haben will, soll bei den "Gilmore Girls" bleiben.Und wer sich an den immer gleichen Gags stört: ein "Running Gag" lebt quasi von der Wiederholung. Allein die vielen Variationen der Thematik "Raus aus meinem Haus, du Schmarotzer", die es in der Gesamtheit der 8 Staffeln (den guten!) gegeben hat, grenzen für mich an Genialität.

I love this show so much I bought all the seasons. An added bonus is the special features! I never watch the commentaries they put as special features, I think those are lame. But this has lots of gag reels and even a backstage tour which I thought was so cool! You get to see what the set actually looks like... I really enjoyed the special features in this season!

Lange Zeit war "Two and a Half Men" eine meiner Lieblingssendungen. Nachdem Charlie Sheen jedoch aus der Serie rausgeschrieben wurde, hat sich auch mein Interesse an der Serie gelegt. Nun, mit einem gewissen Abstand, wollte ich die Serie noch einmal von vorne beginnen und war direkt wieder mittendrin und habe die Staffel in nur 36 Stunden geschaut.Charlies Leben und das seines Bruders können unterschiedlicher nicht sein. Alan sucht einen festen Halt in seinem Leben, kontrolliert und plant sein Leben und das seiner Mitmenschen und er muss alles perfekt haben, obwohl er selbst alles andere als perfekt ist. Charlie ist dagegen ganz anders. Er liebt Alkohol, Sportwetten und wechselt seine Frauen so schnell, wie andere ihre Unterhosen. Während Alan täglich in seiner Praxis schuftet, schreibt Charlie mal so nebenbei ein paar Songs für Werbespots und verdient damit ein Vermögen, während Alan mit seiner Arbeit gerade mal so um die Runden kommt und dabei noch seine künftige Exfrau und seinen Sohn Jake versorgen muss.Allerdings haben beide auch eine Gemeinsamkeit: Sie haben unter ihrer Mutter jahrelang gelitten, da sie oftmals sehr kalt und abweisend wirkt und ihre Ehemänner schneller gewechselt hat, als sich Charlie und Alan an sie gewöhnen konnten. Bereits mit zehn Jahren hatte Charlie drei Stiefväter, was nicht unbedingt zu seiner Entwicklung beigetragen hat. Doch statt zusammenzuhalten, lebten die Brüder eher distanziert voneinander und nähern sich nur langsam wieder an, als Alan zu Charlie zieht.Aber nicht nur Charlie und Alan spielen in der Serie eine große Rolle, sondern auch Angus T. Jones, der die Rolle des Jake Harpers verkörpert. Als Alans Sohn hat es der zehnjährige Junge oft nicht leicht, da Alan, wie oben bereits geschrieben, alles kontrolliert und seinen eher faulen Sohn fördern will, was ihm eher schlecht als recht gelingt. Jake lebt an den Wochenenden bei Alan und Charlie und kann sich relativ schnell mit Charlies Lebensstil anfreunden. So lernt er alles übers Pokern, Sportwetten und erhält immer wieder einen Hinweis zu Frauen.Alans Noch-Ehefrau Judith, Charlies Stalkerin Rose und die ziemlich direkte Haushälterin Berta komplettieren die Runde.Während Judith, genau wie Alan, noch nach ihrem Platz im Leben sucht, lauert Rose Charlie überall auf, wo sie nur kann. Sie bricht in sein Haus ein und klebt die Schränke zu, sie schläft oft heimlich in seinem Bett und freundet sich mit seinem Umfeld ein, um ihm näher zu sein, was ihr eher selten gelingt. Ein absolutes Highlight ist Berta, die bei Charlie den Haushalt schmeißt. Sie ist um keinen Spruch verlegen und sagt oftmals ihre Meinung ohne Rücksicht auf Verluste. Sie selbst hat nicht unbedingt das schönste Leben, was sie jedoch sehr oft durch Ironie verbirgt.Die schauspielerische Leistung hat mir sehr gefallen. Wenn man Charlie Sheens Leben in den Medien etwas intensiver verfolgt, merkt man schnell, dass die Rolle des Charlie Harper perfekt auf ihn zutrifft. Die Schauspieler harmonieren allesamt sehr gut miteinander, ganz besonders Charlie Sheen und Jon Cryer, die bereits zusammen in dem Kultfilm "Hot Shots - Die Mütter aller Filme!" gespielt haben und privat eng befreundet sind. Auch Angus T. Jones kann in seiner Rolle als stets essenden und neugierigen Jungen Jack Harper überzeugen. Es scheint, als würde er seine Rolle wirklich ernst zu nehmen und sorgt mit seiner Gestik und Mimik für so manchen Lacher in dieser Staffel.Die Dialoge sind zum Teil enorm witzig und haben bei mir weit mehr als nur einen müden Schmunzler erzeugen können, allerdings geht bei der deutschen Übersetzung auch einiges an Wortwitz verloren. Oftmals versucht man etwas einzudeutschen, dass eher selten wirklich gelingt. So wird z.B. bei Möbelhäusern direkt immer IKEA erwähnt und auch Aldi bekommt seine kurze Erwähnung. Das mag zwar besonders im deutschen Raum gut ankommen, hat aber in diesem Moment gar nicht zur jeweiligen Situation gepasst, was ich ein wenig als unpassend empfand. So mittelmäßig so manche Übersetzung auch ist, umso besser ist die Synchronisation, die mir sehr gut gefallen hat. Oftmals kommt es bei einer Serie vor, dass eine Stimme überhaupt nicht zu einem Charakter passt, hier passt es jedoch hervorragend, was nicht unbedingt üblich ist. Erst recht nicht, wenn eine Sendung bei Pro7 läuft - aber das ist eine ganz andere Sache.Wirklich hörenswert ist auch das Theme der Serie, das sehr passend ist und schlicht und elegant zugleich erscheint. Wenn man auch die neueren Staffeln, kann man ein schönes Zeitraffer erkennen, bei dem Angus T. Jones immer älter wird. Gefällt mir sehr.Insgesamt hat mir die erste Staffel von "Two and a Half Men" auch beim zweiten Mal sehr gut gefallen und die Darsteller und Drehbuchschreiber schaffen es immer wieder, mich mit Wortwitzen und schrägen Momenten zu unterhalten. Auch die anderen Staffeln werden aktuell erneut geschaut und werden in Kürze bewertet.