Monday Night Madness

Yes, yes, I watched the much-hyped premiere of Two and a Half Men. Sure, they did a good job with the stunt casting (*spoiler alert*) but mostly, I thought this Sheen-less Two and a Half Men was, well, kind of dull.

First, bringing back every noteworthy floozy Charlie had ever dated was a little fun...but I couldn't help but think this 'greatest hits' of casting stunt was just stolen from Seinfeld's finale.

Next, bringing in John Stamos was probably the highlight of the 1/2 hour (and really? 1/2 hour? With all the bloated 3-4 hour competition shows out there, Chuck Lorre decided to bang this out in 22 minutes after commercials while the tired How I Met Your Mother premiere was a full hour? I digress...). Anyway, with Stamos at the door, I got excited! Who would show up next???

...And then, Dharma and Greg? Really? While I realize they may hearken back to an old Chuck Lorre era, the 10 year old sitcom was hardly iconic enough to warrant a cameo. Stick to the Uncle Jesse appearances, thank you very much.

Finally, Ashton Kutcher was sort of FINE as the man-child he always plays. He's the anti-Charlie, which was actually the easy way to go, and the path of least resistance. Why not make everyone nuts and pull a Bewitched - just re-cast Charlie and pretend it's all the same? Or bring back Charlie later in a Newhart "What a weird dream" scenario - I'd head in that direction for sweeps, if I ruled the tv world.

Oh well.

Moving on, I won't bore you with the How I Met Your Mother? recap if you haven't seen it. But...no, they didn't meet the Mother, and yes, they are still dragging it out.

The surprise of the night for me was "Two Broke Girls". The laugh-tracky old school feeling sitcom was surprisingly good. Though I couldn't help but wonder if they dreamed up the premise while watching old Facts of Life re-runs late one night (I swear these two girls are modern day Blair and Jo retreads), the writing was sharp in the hands of Sex and the City's Michael Patrick King.

Why is it, by the way, that the wise-cracking tough girl is always brunette, and the richie rich gal is always blonde? The aforementioned Blair and Jo, Cheers' Diane and Rebecca (or for that matter, Diane and Carla)... I'm sure there are more.

Either way, so far, this brunette/blonde combo is having the most fun.