Culturebox: Play Nice

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culturebox Play Nice The rise--and fall?--of the mean sitcom. By Joanna Weiss Posted Monday, March 28, 2011, at 7:04 AM ET In the days after Charlie Sheen's spectacular implosion, CBS kept saying that his hit series, Two and a Half Men, would soldier on. But that's seeming less and less likely. For one thing, it's hard to imagine the show without Sheen. Few actors can match his smugness, his snarl, his blanket disdain for fellow human beings. If Two and a Half Men does die, let's hope a TV trend goes with it: the half-hour of meanness. That's Two and a Half Men in a nutshell: a family show in which the central family value is contempt. Charlie Harper (Sheen), a rich, oversexed jingle writer, bankrolls his broke younger brother Alan (Jon Cryer) while constantly putting him down. Alan swipes back lamely. Alan's son calls his father a loser and his uncle a lush. Occasionally, Charlie and Alan's mother drops by and hurls insults at all two and a half of them. To continue reading, click here. Joanna Weiss is an Op-Ed columnist for the Boston Globe. Join the Fray: our reader discussion forum What did you think of this article? POST A MESSAGE | READ MESSAGES Also In Slate Hitchens: We Never Could Have Confronted Qaddafi if We Hadn't Taken Out Saddam Hussein Why So Many Women Are Getting Into the Funeral Business How Come the Arab Unrest Hasn't Spread to Qatar?	Advertisement
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