New Episode of "Two & One-Half Men" on Monday, Jan. 17th Entertains

"Two and Half Men", CBS, Monday, January 17, 9 ET '" Chuck Lorre and Lee Aronson collaborated on the storyline for January 17, 2011's episode that had 2 main storylines.

One storyline had young Jake (Angus T. Jones) and his buddy attempting to emulate the "Jackass" group of idiots led by Johnny Knoxville in performing stupid stunts. Calling themselves "DumbAss," Charlie Sheen's nephew and his best friend try out a human volcano stunt of drinking a warm carbonated beverage and then consuming a Mentos mint ("It's a product placement bonanza," says the young dumbass), and Jake vomits all over Alan. They also fly off the roof in a shopping cart, slightly injuring themselves, prompting Charlie to say to Alan, his brother (Jon Cryer), "Don't worry, Alan. There'll always be carnivals." Charlie even wears a tee shirt with the boys' second name choice ("Ass-Kateers") at one point in the program.

The second storyline involved Charlie's long-time stalker (and next-door neighbor) Rose (Melanie Lynskey). Rose has hit upon a strategy to make Charlie desire her. She will pretend she is getting married and no longer available to Charlie. She goes so far as to hire a preacher and stage a wedding in a chapel with a stand-up dummy, which Charlie and Alan observe through the doors of the church.

Later, when Rose claims she and "Manny" (the name she is using for her imaginary husband, a mannequin) are going to be living next door to Charlie at the beach, her ploy works. Charlie begins doing the same stalker routine, in reverse, that Rose has always used on him, going to Rose's house and telling her she is the only woman in the world for him.

Rose is wise enough to realize that Charlie only wants her because he can't have her. She says, "If you had me to yourself, you'd be tired of me within a year."

Charlie's response? "Then you could go back to Manny. Everybody wins."

Because Manny is a dummy that Rose is using to increase Charlie's interest in her, there are lines like, "Manny said, '˜In the whole world, I'm the only one who can move him.'" Another Manny quote, according to Rose: "Without me by his side, he might as well not exist."

There is a distinctly Beavis & Butthead feel to the dialogue in this episode, as the young boys of Dumbass giggle over Alan's vocabulary choice of the words "dicker" and "cockamamie." ("He said dicker.") There's a clever list of potential names for Charlie, now that he's stalking Rose, like "Look Who's Stalking?" and "Meet the Stalkers." The comment, mentioned by Alan to Charlie, that Rose once had Charlie's face tattooed on her left butt-cheek brings the line, "Yeah, I wish she hadn't done that. In warm water I look like Edward James Ohlmos." We also learn from Rose that, upon meeting "Manny," she had glasses tattooed on Charlie's face and told her husband it was a picture of Harry Potter.

The episode was light-hearted and played on Charlie Sheen's womanizing reputation, as it always does. A perfect marriage of star and material.