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On Television |
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9:30 p.m. Mondays on CBS beginning Sept. 22 |
 From left, Jon Cryer, Angus T. Jones, Marin Hinkle, Charlie Sheen |
Great timeslot may help,
but maybe not enough
By DONNA J. PLESH
of TheColumnists.com
These days, most new comedies rolled out by the commerical
networks fall into two categories: bad or mediocre. Sorry to
say, CBS' "Two and
A Half Men" falls
into the latter category.
Charlie Sheen and Jon Cryer are the stars of "Men,"
playing very opposite brothers. Sheen's Charlie character writes
ad jingles, makes lots of money, lives at the beach, and is a
swinging bachelor. Cryer's Alan is married, has a son (the Half
in the show's title), lives in the Valley and is a chiropractor.
The brothers' lives come together when Alan comes to stay with
Charlie after Alan and his wife (Marin Hinkle) split up. Alan
assures Charlie he's only staying temporarily--because the split
is only temporary. Of course we all know the latter isn't true--because
if it was, there wouldn¹t be a show premise, right?
There¹s another family member in the mix--the boys' overbearing
mother (Holland Taylor). And mom plays favorites. She sees Charlie
as a guy who won't grow up, and won't put up with her meddling
in his life. On the other hand, Alan and his son Jake (Angus
T. Jones) are the apples of her eye because she usually gets
them to do what she wants.
One of the plusses for "Men" is the timeslot--it's between the
CBS comedy hit "Everybody
Loves Raymond" and
last season's drama hit "CSI:
Miami." Too bad
the quality of the writing isn¹t as good as the timeslot.
©2003 by Donna J.
Plesh. The photo is courtesy CBS Entertainment.
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