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'Two and a Half Men - The 12th and Final Season'
(Ashton Kutcher, Jon Cryer, Amber Tamblyn, Conchata Ferrell, et al / 2-DVD / NR / 2015 / Warner Bros.)

Overview: The complete Twelfth and Final season of the long-running CBS sitcom 'Two and a Half Men,' reverts back to the original premise of the show, with the comedic efforts of Walden (Ashton Kutcher) and Alan (Jon Cryer) attempting to raise a foster child (Edan Alexander).

DVD Verdict: When Alan's wife demands a divorce, the hen pecked man has nowhere to go. He moves in with his brother Charlie in his Malibu beach house ... and yup, that's how 13 years of this TV show all started! Of course, back then, Charlie Sheen had a reputation for being a wild child, John Cryer played the perfect neurotic boob, and the writers played perfectly into the juxtaposition of the two. Toss in a juvenile (Angus Jones, aka Jake) and the scenes become flat hilarious, as the adults attempt to deal with often raunchy mature topics, while keeping the kid in the dark.

Once Charlie had departed - or, perhaps been killed off ... perhaps not - and he was replaced by the safer bet of Ashton Kutcher (as Walden Schmidt), well, the tone changed slightly - but Alan, thankfully, remained the gormless same! However, in truth, Ashton was acceptable the first year, but then the plots and the writing went steadily downhill with tactless and vulgar humor.

Walden - a young, handsome, intelligent, kind, billionaire can't attract a woman for a date? While Alan is the one who has constant sex with Lyndsey, even when she's engaged to another man? And Walden has to have a gay wedding to Alan in order to adopt a child? Everything becomes more and more convoluted and upside down with each episode - and the dialogue and humor become increasingly crude. Mercifully the shows ends when a piano drops from the sky on a "resurrected Charlie," and another falls on Chuck Lorre, the creator of the show. This is a blessed conclusion for a series that should have ended 3 years earlier - sorry!

Also, some previously-major actors/characters seemed to take a back seat, like the vivacious Melanie Lynskey's brilliant turn as the female stalker - who was always looking through Charlie's deck door! It's still about as funny a regular gag as Carlton the doorman on the old Rhoda show and Candace Bergin's endless line of incompetent secretaries. She was adorable and way underused in this final season. Holland Taylor, as Alan's mother, was perfect as the insufferable mom both sons loved to resent. Her self-involvement was hilarious each week. The same can be said for Alan and Walden's long suffering, bullish housekeeper, Conchata Ferrell, a veteran of TV sitcoms.

In conclusion, ever since Ashton came on this show it had gotten very vulgar, the writers suddenly becoming 12 year-old boys, complete with unhealthy obsessions with farting, masturbation, sex, and lurid bathroom jokes. And, weirdly, the plot point which had Alan and Walden adopting a kid wasn't bad in of itself, but then the kid just seemed to completely vanish from the show! Ergo, it negates the entire point of the season as they devoted so much time and effort to the Alan and Walden becoming a couple/living as a gay couple just to have the kid in the first place. In the last few episodes, the cast also started to "talk to the camera," finally acknowledging the fact that even they knew their time was up! This is a Widescreen Presentation (1:85.1) enhanced for 16x9 TVs and comes with the Special Feature of a Hilarious Gag Reel!

www.WBTVonDVD.com





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