The series finale of carefree bachelor Charlie Harper, played by Charlie Sheen, whose life is turned upside down when his dorky brother Alan (Jon Cryer) is kicked out by his wife and moves into his guest room. As he grows closer to Alan and his 10-year-old son Jake (Angus T. Jones), Charlie gradually becomes a caring family man.
By the time it finally ended its run after 12 seasons and 262 episodes, Two and a Half Men was a very different show. Jake had grown up and moved out, and Charlie had been gruesomely killed off following a disagreement between Sheen and series creator Chuck Lorre. Ashton Kutcher had taken over as the series lead, playing a tech billionaire named Walden Schmidt who bought the house after Charlie’s death and, inexplicably, still let Alan live there. After Kutcher had led the cast for four years, the show concluded with one of the all-time worst series finales – a resolution I still struggle with even now.
Two And A Half Men Had One Of The Worst Endings Of A Sitcom
Charlie Was Brought Back From The Dead For A Baffling Revenge Storyline
On February 19, 2015, Two and a Half Men ended its run with a two-part series finale: season 12, episodes 15 and 16, “Of Course He’s Dead.” The episode begins with Alan learning that Charlie has $2.5 million of unclaimed music royalties that Alan can claim if he provides Charlie’s death certificate. However, as he and Walden do some digging, they’re surprised to find that there is no death certificate. As it turns out, Charlie’s stalker Rose faked his death and she’s been keeping him in a well in her basement, a la Buffalo Bill, for the past four years.
The Two and a Half Men finale featured cameo appearances by many former cast , including Melanie Lynskey, April Bowlby, and Jennifer Taylor.
Charlie escapes from the well and starts sending threatening messages to Alan and their mother Evelyn, vowing revenge against them. It’s unclear what he wants revenge for; despite his constant bickering, it was always clear that, deep down, Charlie loved his brother and his mom. If he deserved revenge against anyone, it was Rose, but she wasn’t targeted by any of his vengeful threats. Two and a Half Men fans had spent years watching Charlie soften his edges and become a loving family guy, and in one fell swoop, this finale turned him into a vindictive monster.
25 Best Episodes Of Two And A Half Men, Ranked
While the sitcom may not have been a critical darling, the best Two and a Half Men episodes show why the series lasted as long as it did.
The Two and a Half Men finale is much darker and more mean-spirited than the average sitcom finale. The Friends, Schitt’s Creek, and Parks and Recreation finales are dedicated to closing that chapter of the characters’ lives and leaving them all in a good place. The final episode of The Office is a celebration of the show’s past and how far all the characters have come. Lorre’s next hit sitcom, The Big Bang Theory, ends with Sheldon receiving the Nobel Prize and using his speech to thank all his friends.
Most sitcom finales are a love letter to their fans, but the Two and a Half Men finale felt more like an insult.
Most sitcom finales are a love letter to their fans, but the Two and a Half Men finale felt more like an insult. Seinfeld has a cynical ending, but not at the expense of the established characterization of the lead characters. That ending suits the tone and attitude of the rest of the series. Two and a Half Men started out with a heavy dose of sentimentality – I found Charlie’s early scenes with Jake particularly affecting – but in the finale, there isn’t a shred of that sentimentality left.
Why Two And A Half Men's Series Finale Was So Weird
There's A Lot Of Behind-The-Scenes Drama Wrapped Up In The Two And A Half Men Finale
The weirdness of the Two and a Half Men finale can be attributed to some behind-the-scenes drama. Around the eighth season of the show, there was a bitter falling-out between Sheen and Lorre. The season’s order was cut short and Sheen was fired and replaced by Kutcher. As Two and a Half Men continued with a new lead, the feud between Sheen and Lorre continued. Sheen’s next sitcom, Anger Management, opened with a fourth-wall-breaking sequence of Sheen directly addressing his disagreement with Lorre. When it came time to wrap up Two and a Half Men, Lorre reopened those old wounds.
The finale is full of meta references to Sheen’s firing, and it seems to have only brought the fictional Charlie back to life to settle a score with the actor. The finale ends with a Charlie lookalike walking up to the front door of the house, ringing the doorbell, and having a piano dropped on his head. The camera pulls back to show Lorre in a director’s chair. He turns to the camera and mockingly quotes Sheen’s catchphrase – “Winning!” – before another piano is dropped on his head.
At that point, the Two and a Half Men finale isn’t interested in concluding a 12-year story or giving long-time fans closure on their favorite characters – it’s all about Lorre getting back at Sheen. As one of those long-time fans who loved the Harpers and wanted closure, I was pretty outraged. I loved Charlie Harper as a character in the show’s early years, so it felt like an affront to see him killed off in such an obviously vindictive way (and for the second time at that).
Charlie Sheen And Chuck Lorre Have Worked Things Out Since Then
Sheen & Lorre Have Buried The Hatchet And Worked Together Again
Following their very public falling-out behind the scenes of Two and a Half Men, Sheen and Lorre have since patched things up and worked together again. Sheen has appeared in Lorre’s new comedy series on Max, Bookie. Bookie stars Sebastian Maniscalco as a sports betting bookie in L.A., and Sheen plays a fictionalized version of himself as a celebrity gambler.
Lorre reached out to Sheen about appearing in the show and the two managed to make amends (via Variety), so their feud seems to be water under the bridge. However, this arguably only makes the Two and a Half Men finale even more disappointing for fans like myself. The fact that such reconciliation was always possible highlights the vindictiveness, making it seem like, had the hatchet been buried earlier, we might have got a different end to the story.
Two And A Half Men's Bizarre Finale Makes A Rewatch Difficult
A Two And A Half Men Rewatch Comes With A Lot Of Baggage
The confounding series finale makes Two and a Half Men a tough show to rewatch. Whereas shows like Seinfeld and The Office hold up to countless repeat viewings, Two and a Half Men is much more disted. As far as I’m concerned, those early seasons will never get old. But once Charlie is written out of the series, things change dramatically.
Walden's arrival turns Two and a Half Men into a completely different show, Jake’s role is massively reduced, and the overarching narrative builds to that trainwreck of a finale. This means that, emotionally, Two and a Half Men is a much more testing endeavor than most beloved sitcoms, since the pay-off is so underwhelming. Whatever the strengths of early seasons, the final episodes remain as crushing as Chuck Lorre's piano.
Source: Variety
Two and a Half Men
- Release Date
- 2003 - 2015-00-00
- Network
- CBS
- Showrunner
- Chuck Lorre
WHERE TO WATCH
Two and a Half Men follows the Harper family: Charlie (Charlie Sheen), a womanizing, hedonistic jingle writer who enjoys his lazy lifestyle from the comfort of his large beach house; Alan (Jon Cryer), Charlie's neurotic, far less successful brother; and Jake (Angus T. Jones), Alan's impressionable son. When Alan's marriage falls apart, he moves in with Charlie, much to the older brother's dismay. After bonding with his nephew, Charlie reluctantly embraces Alan's presence, paving the way for one of television's most dysfunctional family environments.
- Streaming Service(s)
- Peacock
- Creator(s)
- Chuck Lorre, Lee Aronsohn
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