No longer funny

Face it, Charlie Sheen is toast ... and so should be his career.

I’m as guilty as the next guy, enabling Sheen’s self-destructive lifestyle (which seems to have not been all that constructive for most of the women in his life, his father or, presumably, anyone who cares for him) by enjoying his work and overlooking his personal shortcomings.

Yes, we’ve collectively looked the other way while Sheen’s gone through numerous periods abusing women and drugs, thinking he would turn the corner, grow out of it ... he’s in his 40s now, for goodness sake.

His recent tirades (See TV Guide, The Hollywood Reporter, TMZ) against everything and everyone ranging from Alcoholics Anonymous to Thomas Jefferson, but mainly Chuck Lorre, have cast a revealing light on our mistakes in indulging Sheen. It’s not just us, however, because he has skated on numerous criminal issues with judges apparently as enamored with the actor’s charm as we are.

CBS and Warner Bros. TV reached their limits Thursday, canceling this season’s final four episodes of “Two and a Half Men.” The announcement stopped short of canceling the show altogether, but I can’t imagine it picking up as if nothing happened. Not this time.

What to do

The network has, I believe, an excellent opportunity to turn the entire sordid experience into a teaching moment.

I would like to see one more episode of “Two and a Half Men” – maybe a one-hour special – in which Sheen’s hedonistic womanizing character Charlie Harper is dead and buried.

Just in case you don’t know, Sheen’s character in the show is a lot like the actor in real life, except there are no abusive relationships and his drug use seems pretty much limited to alcohol. Many times, in the show, there have been references to the likelihood Charlie Harper’s lifestyle would lead him to an early grave.

It may not be funny, but having Charlie Harper pay the price for transgressions committed over the show’s eight seasons might help both the network and us viewers atone for laughing at his self-destructive antics.

Charlie Sheen, meanwhile, will have to deal with his real-life errors. I’m afraid he will soon learn he is not quite as powerful as he thinks, that others will not be able to overlook his misdeeds this time. Unlike Charlie Harper, Sheen can continue to exist but not without some genuine change and re-invention. And that I won’t be able to believe for a long time.
(c) 2011 by Steve Martaindale