Jon Cryer and Ashton Kutcher are developing a clever yet unusual sort of chemistry on Two and a Half Men. While Kutcher’s Walden Schmidt has yet to grow in any way beyond Kutcher’s Kelso comfort zone, he has proven a good foil for Cryer’s Alan whose apoplexy at Walden’s life remains a strong source of laughs.
After Lyndsey (Courtney Thorne-Smith) turns down sex, Alan heads to the living room where Walden is attempting to drink whiskey. With little else to do they watch TV and stumble across some classic, 90’s softcore porn. Watching porn is creepy, no two ways about it, watching porn with someone you’re not sleeping with? Much creepier.
Nevertheless, Alan and Walden settle in to watch “Cinammon’s Buns” until Walden recognizes the star. It’s Lyndsey. Apparently, Lyndsey had a career in the film biz years ago; one Charlie Harper would have been proud of. Alan wants to confront Lyndsey about her movie career but it requires a delicacy that he greatly lacks. While Lyndsey is open and honest about her brief career, Alan’s honesty in return is enough to drive any sane woman screaming in the other direction.
Among the revealing highlights of Alan’s confessions…
- Alan kissed a man in order to decide if he was gay
- Embezzled money from his family
- Cheated on Lyndsey with his ex-girlfriend
- May be the father of Herb and Judith’s baby
- Didn’t tell Charlie that the woman he was chasing after was married to a mannequin because she gave him 50,000 dollars to keep his mouth shut.
- And, the diamond earrings that he gave Lyndsey for Christmas? He stole them from his ex-wife.
That Lyndsey dumps Alan is perfectly reasonable. That she comes back later in the episode to give him another chance is a signal that she may need psychiatric care. Nevertheless, Lyndsey arrives just as Walden has dragged Alan from his funk.
How did Walden get Alan back from his despair? Berta’s pot brownies and a few stoned girls in bikinis do the trick. Walden’s ingenious plan to keep Lyndsey from catching Alan with the girls and the pot, dump him over the side of the deck and then tell Lyndsey he’s not home.
In typical fashion for the Jobian Alan, the fall from the deck was completely unnecessary. And in even more typical fashion, Alan’s honesty catches up to him again when he confesses about the pot brownies and the bikini girls and he’s dumped again.
Jon Cryer is killing it through five episodes. I have no idea whether he was always this funny or if this is what Ashton Kutcher is bringing out of him but Cryer’s constant psychic tripping over himself and his ever constant awareness of his humiliation seems to have no end of good comedy.
As for Ashton Kutcher, Walden had no discernible storyline in the episode “A Giant Cat Holding a Churro.” While he helped Alan and continued to be a great foil for Alan’s insecurities, the Two and a Half Men writers gave him no story this week. Walden’s only character traits thus far are childishness and a longing for his ex-wife. Walden’s wallowing in his misery over his divorce led to the pot brownies and the bikini girls but this did not constitute an actual storyline.
Just as I stated last week, Two and a Half Men is providing enough laughs for now that Walden’s lack of development doesn’t yet matter, but it will. Two and a Half Men may have gotten by on shallowness with Charlie Sheen but without him and his baggage to fill in the gaps and provide the meta-laughs, they will need some story soon.
One last note, has anyone seen Jake? The Half man of the title has been missing most of the season and did not appear at all in “A Giant Cat Holding a Churro.”
Let us know in the comments what you thought of last night’s episode.
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