For someone who's a big television star like Charlie Sheen is, you'd think the guy might have, oh I don't know, watched it a bit more. If he had, he might see how close his life is to imitating art or the second season storyline on
Friends where Joey was a big star on
Days of Our Lives.
You may recall that Joey made a critical mistake of putting down the writers, leading to the character's exit from the soap opera and the end of Joey's gravy train of success.
The more I hear and see of Charlie Sheen's public self destruction, the more I wonder if he might need to catch that particular episode in syndication and if it might serve as some kind of wake-up call.
Because the guy certainly needs one. He needs some real friends who really care about him and aren't "yes men" who will facilitate his current path of self destruction. At this point, Sheen is so far into the delusion that he's a "god" or "warlord" that I doubt anyone is going to be able to reach him and I wonder how long it will be before he ends up a vegetable from a drug overdose or in the coroner's office.
Sheen is far too in love with himself and his own self worth to be reached, I think. Someone needed to tell him that the reason the cast and crew of
Two and a Half Men weren't getting eight paychecks wasn't entirely the fault of CBS and producer Chuck Lorre. A lot of the blame rests firmly at his door. Yes, maybe he could show up and deliver his performances after the raging benders we've all heard about. But it was his commentary and actions that led CBS and Warner Brother execs to call off the rest of the season, something Sheen seems to be blissfully ignoring.
I can only imagine what it might be like on the set should the series move forward without him. At this point, it seems easiest for CBS and Warner Brothers to cut their losses and start collecting residuals for syndication. Apparently in the whole Sheen vs. Lorre battle that Sheen himself has created, Sheen thinks CBS will chose him over the creative mind behind the show these past seven or so seasons. If this were a show where the producer had only one product on the network, I could see that. But with CBS also having
The Big Bang Theory and
Mike and Molly also from Lorre, it seems as if Lorre is a more valuable commodity to have in the long run than Sheen.
And it's not like
Two and a Half Men is a new show that is going to keep on going for the next decade or so (at least I hope not.) The series has really outgrown its title and, quite frankly, is a shadow of its former self. When it premiered, it was a show that had a certain raunchy factor but it still had a heart at the center of it. Now the show has just gone for all raunch, all the time, while making virtually all the characters completely unlikeable. At the center of it you have Sheen, who is playing a thinly disguised fictional version of himself (as he did when he replaced Michael J. Fox on
Spin City).
I will admit I used to like the show. And catching bits and pieces of it in syndication, I'm reminded why I did. It used to make me laugh, heartily, at least once per episode. Not so much these days in the few times I've dropped in this season.
If the show went away, I'm not sure I'd be that upset about it. Certainly at this point, the sad soap opera that is Charlie Sheen is far more entertaining than the show has been of late.
My hope for Sheen is that someone will get through to him before its too late. And instead of his the character of Charlie Harper vanishing, it will be Charlie Sheen's early death we're talking about.
posted by Michael Hickerson at 3/01/2011 01:20:00 PM |
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