Two And A Half Men: Nice To Meet You, Waldon Schmidt Review (4/5)

You know the deal- Charlie Sheen made a dramatic departure from Two And A Half Men earlier this year, fired for insulting the show's writers, and so his character has been killed off and Ashton Kutcher has stepped in as internet billionare Waldon Schmidt. Was the first episode of Series 9 a good sign of things to come? I'd say yes, even if thirty minutes is hardly enough time to make a full judgement. We opened with Charlie's funeral, filled with his family and the countless vengeful old flames in a great scene-setter filled with laughs, especially as Rose made the hilarious revelation that she tripped Charlie in front of a train when he cheated on her in Paris. Soon enough, though, we were back in familiar territory (the Malibu beach house to be precise), discussing what was going to become of the Harpers now and eventually revealing Kutcher's character. To be honest, Kutcher came off as a pretty strange and exaggerated character- more so than the comedy stereotypes we usually get- until the final scene where he wandered down casually after a night in bed with two babes, claiming he wanted to buy the beach house, his portrayal then showing far more potential to build on in future episodes. The trouble with comedy shows is episodes are unlikely to rank at much more than a 3 or 4/5 unless they really make great use of their running times, and Nice to Meet You, Waldon Schmidt didn't really do that. I won't be ranking every episode of this season, but I can say this was a really solid foundation for Series 9 to develop, and I didn't feel losing Charlie Sheen had done the programme any harm!