27.7 million people (and tens of critics) can't be wrong. Following a summer of absurdist comedy, ego war and tense anticipation, Two and a Half Men finally made its Charlie Sheen-less debut Monday night. The premiere opened with Sheen's character's funeral and allowed the show's creator and writer, Chuck Lorre, a catharsis of schadenfreude at his former star's expense before the introduction of Sheen's replacement, Ashton Kutcher (who quite literally appeared in a cloud of Sheen's ashes).
Much has been made of the vulgar explanation of Sheen's character Charlie Harper's death, with his former-stalker-turned-fiancée Rose insinuating she pushed him under the Paris Metro after she caught him cheating; "His body exploded like a balloon full of meat," she explains.
However, despite
EW.com referring to it as, "
quite a crappy little show," many critics agree that Kutcher's performance as Walden, an absurdly well-endowed down-on-his-luck billionaire, was "good" and showed a lot of potential for the future.
"
The instant verdict: Kutcher was not at all bad. He was quite likable,"
People's Tom Gliatto wrote. He added,
"the fact is that Kutcher, despite having spent so much time over the past few years branding and Tweeting himself, is a good comic actor. Not great."
EW.com's Ken Tucker agreed, and then some.
"Kutcher's performance was good, nearly as poker-faced fine as Sheen's was," Tucker wrote in his review of the episode.
"Beware of the impending revisionism that Kutcher is superior to Sheen as a comic actor — Sheen really had a knack for this gig, and was a generous reactor to Cryer. Kutcher will probably prove just as skilled."
