The twelfth and final season of the long-running sitcom Two and a Half Men hits DVD today, with 16 episodes (finale counted as two) spread out over 2 discs.
How’s the set? Read on:
The Episodes: I will admit, I probably saw a lot of these episodes as they first aired, and I know it’s uncool to admit that. The thing with Two and a Half Men is that you know going in what you’re getting into. It’s not going to be classy, it’ll probably be raunchy, and it’ll likely be offensive. There will surely be Alan masturbation jokes that stopped being funny ten years ago.
Before the season aired, it was announced that in the final season, Walden and Alan would get married so that Walden could adopt a child. Upon hearing this, I thought it was very offensive — mocking the notion of two people of the same sex getting married — but in execution, really, it did hammer home the message that two people love each other and can get married. And they’re not gay. Well, Walden isn’t. Alan may as well be, since he keeps going back to crazy Lindsay, which also stopped being funny a few years back. Both men have dalliances with “Mrs. McMartin,” their social worker, this season, as well.
Edan Alexander joined the cast as the new half-man, which gets the show a little more to their roots. Young Louis has some great one-liners and fit in on the show well.
The real reason anyone would want this DVD set, though, is to see the hour-long series finale, in which it is revealed that Charlie is still alive – and he’s pissed. Although it was disappointing that Charlie Sheen did not make a return appearance, I can count myself as one who really enjoyed the finale, which poked fun at how stupid and nonsensical the 12 seasons of this show really were.
The Extras: The only extras on this set were bloopers, which is disappointing, because here is a show that lasted for 12 years and made a lot of money for CBS and its studio, Warner Bros. Television. I’m really surprised there weren’t at the very least commentaries, so people get something extra that they wouldn’t see in the syndicated run. Maybe they were worried Charlie Sheen would watch and go bonkers? But still, for a show that lasted this long an “end of the series” retrospective would have been nice. Heck, earlier this year I attended “An Evening with Chuck Lorre” honoring the producer and all he’s done for WBTV. Couldn’t they have used some of that? In any event, the extras are disappointing.
The Packaging: The packaging is simple but it works.
Is It Worth It? It’d be more worth it if there were more extras, but it’s still nice to have handy.
