Compare/Contrast of Two and a Half Men

The popular television show, Two and a Half Men, has been on the air for just under a solid ten years. Even after ten years, and a complete main character change, it is still one of the most watched and beloved shows on television today. Most would argue, including myself, that the original version starring Charlie Sheen was much better than the current version, starring Ashton Kutcher. Both are very funny and have attempted to keep to the same “womanizing” main character, though the original pulled it off with much more success. The show was originally about a “pleasure-seeking” jingle writer, Charlie Harper, his uptight brother, Alan, and Alan's growing son, Jake. Charlie's laid back life becomes complicated when his brother gets divorced and moves in, along with Jake, to Charlie's beach-front Malibu house. The Harper brothers Charlie and Alan are almost opposites but form a great team for comedy. They have little in common except their dislike for their dull, emotionless, and dominant mother, Evelyn. Alan, a compulsively neat chiropractor and control-freak, is thrown out by his manipulative wife Judith who nevertheless gets him to pay for everything and do most jobs in the house. Charlie is a freelance jingle composer and irresistible bachelor who lives in a luxurious beach-house and rarely gets up before noon. Charlie "temporarily" allows Alan and his son Jake, a food-obsessed, lazy school kid who constantly moves between his parents, to move in with them after Alan's separation/divorce. The sitcom revolves around their conflicting lifestyles, raising Jake (who has the competent, caring dad while having a ball with his fun-loving uncle who teaches him the fun way to live), and bantering with Evelyn and various other friends and family. Other fairly regular characters include Charlie's cleaning lady Berta, who is the sarcastic and sharp-tongued character who merely does nothing more than insult almost every other character unfortunate enough to cross her