"Two and One-Half Men": The Tables Are Turned in New Season with Jon Cryer No Longer the Straight Man

CBS, 9 PM (ET), Tuesday, September 26, 2011 The new "Two and One-Half Men" may not be dubbed "new, improved," but it is definitely new and different. With Charlie Sheen's melt-down as the ultra-cool hipster brother Charlie to Jon Cryer's uptight Alan, Jon Cryer was reduced to playing straight man. Now that Ashton Kutcher has joined the cast in place of Charlie's character, Cryer's character of Alan gets most of the funny one-liners.

Example: in the September 26 second-in-the-series installment, Cryer counsels the heartbroken billionaire Walden Schmidt (Ashton Kutcher) that begging your true love to come back is not a good ploy. "Trust me. I've spent more time on my knees than any other straight man in America."

Another good example occurs when Kutcher invites Alan (Cryer) to join him out on the town. Ashton asks Alan why he agreed to go. Cryer responds, "I live with my mom and she's having rough sex with a stranger and I had to get out of the house." Earlier, when Alan's mother, played by Holland Taylor as Evelyn, had informed Alan that he was to ignore cries of sexual pleasure coming from her bedroom, unless he heard her cry "Umbrella," (her code word for stopping), Alan muttered, "Most mothers would have quit with, 'I have a date tonight.'"

The end of the second episode solves the problem of how to get Alan back in the Malibu beach house he occupied with Charlie all these years. Walden (Kutcher) asks Alan how he can repay him for covering for him when his wife Bridget shows up and think he is with another woman (one of Charlie's former flames who shows up unannounced and unexpectedly). Alan says, "Since you mentioned it…" and is back in the house, saying, "I'm back" and "I'm not one to overstay my welcome."

At the 63^rd Emmys just held, former co-star Charlie Sheen who has now officially buried the hatchet with the Chuck Lorre forces (purportedly for a $25 million settlement) addressed his former castmates: "I wish you nothing but the best for this upcoming season. We spent 8 wonderful years together, and I know you will continue to make great television."

Well, it's a start, and if Jon Cryer can deliver the zingers with the finesse that Sheen demonstrated, Charlie Sheen's Emmy commentary may be right.