Although
Two and a Half Men is mostly about the life of a freewheeling bachelor, his divorced brother and his naïve nephew, the show is strongly fueled by women who, more often than not, push and pull the central male stars through a multitude of storylines.
According to
Jon Cryer, who plays Alan Harper on
Two and a Half Men, it's quite apparent that the two men, consisting of himself and
Charlie Sheen who plays hedonistic Charles "Charlie" Harper, are afraid of women. Nevertheless, there's a positive tone to his perception since it makes room for various types of situations.
"It was clear from the pilot that these are two men afraid of women," Cryer said. "Their fear of women propels them into all sorts of things. I think that the show definitely treats men and woman as equally flawed adults. As messed up as the women characters on the show are…the mom [
Holland Taylor], the maid [
Conchata Ferrell], my ex-wife [
Marin Hinkle]…you end up liking them."
For show runner Chuck Lorre, the women stirring up the plot just comes with the whole scheme and premise of the show.
"It's the central drive in most people's lives to find that one relationship, and when you're looking for it there's a lot of fear in that process," Lorre said. "You want to find someone to love you, and if you've had the kind of mother these two have, it can get complicated. And so one of these men became a guy who wants a monogamous relationship but always smothers the person he's with, and the other one became someone who can't have a relationship much longer than one night."
While the women on the show appear in supporting roles, their characters have their own paths and distinct agendas. Ferrell, who plays housekeeper Berta on
Two and a Half Men, points put that they exits in the story to complicate things for the male characters. She also says that while Sheen's character is obviously a womanizer, he actually looks to a woman for real friendship.
"We are really there because of how we impact the boys," Ferrell said. "And I don't think we ever lose sight of that."
"Charlie's character and my character have a friendship that I don't think either character is aware of yet," she added. "Berta is really Charlie's best friend in a way. He talks to her when he has a problem, and she's really the one person who can tell him the truth about himself."
-Kris De Leon, BuddyTV Staff Columnist
Source: Variety
(Image courtesy of CBS)