TWO AND A HALF MEN (TV SERIES) - DVD review

In my "normal" job, I live by a pretty simple philosophy: the package is the product. You see, in college recruiting, we do our best to sell our institutions to prospective students and their families. If we can create good packaging (recruitment programs, events, flyers, mailings, handouts, presentations, you get the idea), then obviously our product (the actual education a student receives when he or she attends our institution) must be good too, right? In some cases, the product doesn't really matter if the packaging is strong enough.

So imagine what message the sleeve and keep case for "Two and a Half Men: The Complete Sixth Season" send when you first check them out. On the sleeve is a fourteen year old resting his supposedly intoxicated head over a toilet bowl, a near forty year old lying in bed next to a ventriloquist dummy, a fairly attractive woman going bottom's up with her champagne glass, the same forty year old nearly covered in multicolored body paint, and Charlie Sheen toasting a beer over a woman going into labor. The keep case features just one image, but it's a keeper: Sheen lying in his bed as a man-sized Felix the Cat stands nearby with paws open and ready to strike.

Still want to invest in the product after viewing the package? I'll leave the decision to you, but just know that looks are sometimes deceiving, and sometimes accurate. In this case, it's a blend featuring both, plus laughter and giggles on top.

Charlie Harper (Sheen) is that guy who's made it big financially without exerting that much effort. He writes jingles for company and product advertisements, is paid a lot more for them than he probably deserves, owns a big house in Malibu, CA and has multiple random sexual encounters with multiple super attractive women. It isn't a bad life, until his younger brother Alan (Jon Cryer) gets a divorce from his not so likeable wife Judith (Marin Hinkle) and has nowhere to go. With his son Jake (Angus T. Jones) in tow, Alan moves in with Charlie, survives day-to-day thanks to his potty mouthed and potty cleaning housekeeper Berta (Conchata Ferrell). Of course, Charlie and Alan don't have total free range to run amok. Their often overbearing and always over the top mother Evelyn (Holland Taylor) pokes her head in regularly, just to see how life is treating her sons.

If you're a regular "Two and a Half Men" watcher, you're probably familiar with some antics in the series up to now. I won't call it wholesome fun (it isn't), and I can't say it's all crude and wicked (it's not). It's a unique and delicate balance that pushes the envelope but does so in a manner that doesn't leave you grossly offended at any episode's end. In fact, I often wanted to come back for more. I didn't start watching the show until about two years ago, but I quickly caught up. It was a nice way to unwind after a long day in 400 level college classes, and even though my glorious student days are gone for now, it remains a nice way to unwind and laugh a half hour away. CBS airs the show, and apparently agrees with me: they renewed "Two and a Half Men" for three more seasons in March 2009.

Dating back to season two, "Two and a Half Men" has been nominated for multiple Primetime Emmy awards. While it hasn't collected massive hardware, it has to be connecting with viewers and critics on more than one level. Ratings consistently remain high among other airings, and among comedies, they are near or at the top. The series puts Alan, Charlie and Jake into multiple situations the average Tom, Dick or Harry may never encounter, and that's what makes it fun. Wouldn't you love to drink yourself silly and be secretly recorded on a taxicab camera, only to have the episode play while everyone you know and love is watching? Sign me up! Or perhaps you'd prefer a sensual encounter at your local BMW dealership that leads to your mother's bedroom, only to have your love interest steal the car that belongs to your big brother and leave you in a candy red evening gown marching home through wealthy Los Angeles suburbs. I may pass there, but heck, these guys sure wouldn't. The adventures are far enough outside the box that they may never happen to you, but the show's premise and foundation are so simple that the adventures and episodes aren't impossible to envision actually happening.

Charlie, Alan and Jake are all rich with pluses and minuses. Charlie has all the good lines, and even though he abuses women and alcohol daily, there is something you like about him from the get go. Maybe it's because he's a big softie deep down. Alan is mature and loving, but nerdy and desperate in between whining sessions. He's the practical one, and that can be scary in some episodes. Jake is annoying, self-centered and has little respect for others or regard for how fortunate he is. Basically, he's American youth down to the smallest detail. More dislikeable than anything, he provides necessary checks and balances for Charlie and Alan.

Season six brings twenty-four episodes spread over four discs. Here's a breakdown:

DISC ONE:

Episode 1 – "Taterhead is our Love Child"
Charlie bumps into an old love interest in a coffee shop with Alan and Jake, and the woman has an eight-year-old son that looks a whole lot like Charlie, including the tacky bowling shirt. Yeah, that's only a bit awkward for Charlie to handle.

Episode 2 – "Pie Hole, Herb"
What could possibly force Alan and Judith back into bed together, and Charlie to a margarita pitcher with Judith's new fiancée Herb (Ryan Stiles)? A $38 unpaid loan over something silly and trivial, that's what!

Episode 3 – "Damn You, Eggs Benedict"
The roles reverse in this one, as Alan sneaks around with two women at the same time (only to get met with a taser by one in the season's single funniest moment) and Charlie stays at home to polish up his culinary skills. Oh, and Jake takes Charlie's advice on where to get some beer.

Episode 4 – "The Flavin' and the Mavin'"
In his infinite wisdom, Charlie begins seeing Alan's attractive receptionist. Antics ensue, laughs are had and hearts are broken. Classic.

Episode 5 – "A Jock Strap in Hell"
While looking through the men's personal care aisle for Jake, Charlie spots an old love interest: Jake's former 5th grade teacher. Her life went to hell after their breakup, and feeling guilty waves, Charlie wants to make it right.

Episode 6 – "It's Always Nazi Week"
Judith comes crawling back to Alan after her relationship with Herb hits the fan. Cue the one night stand, and wait until episode 7 for the aftermath.

Episode 7 – "Best H.O. Money Can Buy"
Judith announces her newfound pregnancy after swaying back and forth between Alan and Herb. I don't even need to write what question comes next from Alan, do I?

DISC TWO:

Episode 8 – "Pinocchio's Mouth"
Charlie sacrifices everything he loves about a good night's rest to stay with his new favorite lady Chelsea (Jennifer Taylor), including quilted toilet paper. When he gets back, all is well, especially when he discovers Alan covered in bubbles in his bathtub.

Episode 9 – "The Mooch at the Boo"
After Alan takes Charlie's car for detailing, he and Jake go next door to meet the new neighbors, a former NFL player nicknamed Mad Dog (Michael Clarke Duncan) and his attractive daughter Celeste (Tinashe Kachingwe). After Jake and Celeste wander off, Charlie fears for his own well-being.

Episode 10 – "He Smelled the Ham, He got Excited"
A slightly more serious tone (that's a relative phrase, for sure) ensues after Evelyn states she'll pay for both Jake's college tuition and a new car.

Episode 11 – "The Devil's Lube"
After Charlie's best friend Andy (played by Sheen's real life brother Emilio Estevez) dies young, he shares the wealth and looks up and old flame to patch up the past.

Episode 12 – "Thank God for Scoliosis"
Berta and Alan connect on a unique level that brings them no closer together but pushes them no further apart, which is progress for both.

Episode 13 – "I Think You Offended Don"
Alan really wants to be involved with Judith's new pregnancy (and feels he might be obligated to after episode 6), and connects with Herb to paint and prep the baby's nursery.

Episode 14 – "David Copperfield Slipped Me A Roofie"
It's Alan's 40th birthday, and after a disastrous birthday dinner attempt from his loved ones, he moves out to live with his receptionist who Charlie previously dumped.

DISC THREE:

Episode 15 – "I'd Like to Start with the Cat"
Chelsea bites back after Charlie's inadequate attention level gets tiring and old. She dumps him, and he begins to eat…and eat…and eat…

Episode 16 – "She'll Still be Dead at Halftime"
Chelsea comes back early from her trip and wants to see Charlie, who probably has seen better days that don't include tanked women passed out in his bedroom. Whoops.

Episode 17 – "The ‘Ocu' or the ‘Pado'"
History in the making as Charlie admits his love to Chelsea. You didn't think this exchange would be romantic, did you? What does that word mean in this show's context again?

Episode 18 – "My Son's Enormous Head"
Working to keep her close to him, Charlie drops all he is doing (which, unsurprisingly isn't much) to attend to Chelsea after she gets the flu. What a guy, eh? See what you think after you watch him stumble and fumble.

Episode 19 – "The Two Finger Rule"
What better way to deal with your depression than a depressant overdose? Charlie leads the way in a drinking festival, and after the alcohol set in, he stands determined to woo Chelsea back into his life…after the alcohol wears off, of course.

Episode 20 – "Hello, I am Alan Cousteau"
So close but yet so far! Charlie discovers that to win Chelsea back, he'll have to win back her new number one fan and friend: Evelyn. It's just as tragic as it sounds, I promise. Maybe Charlie could learn from one Norman Bates who famously stated, "A boy's best friend is his mother."

Episode 21 – "Above Exalted Cyclops"
Charlie and Alan decide to let Chelsea call the shots and arrange a double date: Chelsea with Charlie, and Alan with Rose (Melanie Lynskey), Charlie's former neighbor, stalker and obsessively disturbed friend. Ah, the things a man will do for love.

DISC FOUR:

Episode 22 – "Sir Lancelot's Litter Box"
Is the beachfront bachelor pad soon to be no more? Will Charlie's Shangri-La soon disappear? If Chelsea gets her way and moves in (complete with pets), you betcha. If Charlie gets his way and ends the relationship, maybe not.

Episode 23 – "Good Morning Mrs. Butterworth"
Chelsea will be darned if she'll let Charlie's minor interest in anything she enjoys stop her from having fun. Only thing is, she's stuck resorting to Alan as a backup. Remember how these two served the receptionist back and forth like a tennis ball earlier in season six? You'd think they'd get it by now.

Episode 24 – "Baseball was Better with Steroids"
As Judith goes into labor with Alan's/Herb's daughter, Alan thinks back to simpler times, and Charlie gets through it in the only state he knows best: intoxication.

This is a series where anything that can go wrong typically does, but somehow, the main characters live on and survive. It's a good thing too, because we viewers benefit from their mishaps with laughter, a cringe and a wince here and there. The show has improved over the years, but I fear it may have reached its peak. I hope I'm wrong.

Video:
Warner Bros. presents the entire sixth season in a 1.78:1 enhanced widescreen format. If you have a fancy television, your picture will be in obvious widescreen; if not, it will look like you're watching the episode on TV and not DVD. This is a minor detail for this show, and the picture quality makes up for any imperfection you might detect in presentation format. Images are sharp, colors appropriately bright and vivid from start to finish. Keep in mind that the show is set in Malibu, so there's more sun and clear skies to go around than anything else. For the most part, lighting looks natural and enhances a scene's look without overdoing it on any particular character. The cinematography is superb for TV, too. Clean camerawork and consistent angles are used throughout.

Audio:
The disc comes with two Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtracks: one in English, the other in Portuguese. Primarily we get spoken word and a laugh track, each coming through loud and clear. There isn't much background noise anywhere, be it in Charlie's beachfront home or the densely populated area in southern California where the show takes place. I heard everything I was supposed to hear and nothing I wasn't better on the DVD than I ever have watching this show during a regular airing. Subtitles in English, French, Spanish, Portuguese and Chinese accompany the set.

Extras:
Nothing overly fancy included, but enough to indulge a passionate series fan. There's an entertaining profile highlighting Jones and his evolution as an actor and in Jake's character titled "Two and a Half Men: Growing up Harper." Also provided is "The Women of Two and a Half Men," a quick and dirty look at the many women Charlie has spent the sixth season and entire series courting. We also get a gag reel, even though gags are plentiful throughout most episodes. It's a decent offering, but nothing spectacular. I was looking for a little actor or director commentary, but no dice. My guess is you'll spend more time watching the episodes than anything else, so no worries.

A Final Word:
Although I laughed pretty regularly throughout "Two and a Half Men: The Complete Sixth Season," I don't know how much more life the series has left. In fact, I'm surprised it's made it this far. It isn't a bad television comedy, and compared to some stuff you can find airing these days, it's probably better. But my guess is its obnoxious approach to a few particular agenda items will eventually wear out its welcome. Then again, there is more than enough obnoxious mumbo jumbo that's made it big on American television, so why should a show with pretty decent characters and quality writing not go places? I'm sure you'll cackle here and there, but don't anticipate any real lasting value beyond these chuckles.