Two and a Half Men is a guy show that sets feminism back a good three decades. Women are portrayed as either bimbonic objects of lust (Transformers’ Megan Fox guest stars as Berta’s teenage granddaughter), vengeful and retaliative (Heather Locklear as Alan’s divorce lawyer), crazy hot (Jenna Elfman as an unstable single mother on the run), or emasculating (Holland Taylor as Charlie and Alan’s mother, or, as Charlie refers to her, “Mom, the Impaler”). The charming Melanie Lynskey’s is a particularly thankless role, that of Rose, Charlie’s “insightful and disturbing” stalker, who becomes Jake’s babysitter. While Charlie’s “bad-boy act” could quickly get old in lesser hands, Sheen, in the past not the most natural of comic actors, is in his element. Charlie’s genuine affection for Jake goes a long way toward redeeming his character (and lack of it). Two and a Half Men, a People’s Choice Award-winner its first season, really adds up with a crudely funny sense of humor that is all kinds of wrong, but also smart and, at times, even sweet.
