I have been really under the weather for the last three days and watching TV, reading, and getting on the computer. My problem is balance, malaise and dizzy spells and I am okay if I am not moving around a lot. If I am not improved by tomorrow, will see a doctor. Could be an inner ear problem or a virus.

Anyway, So here is the product of my idleness, a review of the new version of Two and a Half Men that formerly starred Charlie Sheen.

I liked this series despite its cliches. I know some women didn't because Charlie Sheen was a male chauvinist that puts all others to shame. He was so out there, he made me laugh. His brother, “Alan,” (Jon Cryer), supposedly morally superior, was so smug and such a classic loser, that one loved to see him fail. And he was very jealous of his hedonistic brother who never seemed to lose despite chronic misdeeds.

So Charlie did himself in by always tilting at the network and, apparently, being drunk a lot of the time, or on something, and quit and maybe he really didn’t care if they came to a new arrangement. Anyway, he was so self-destructive that CBS truly gave up on him and replaced him with Aston Kutcher.

I watched the new show tonight. It began with Charlie’s funeral. Rose, his perennial stalker, with whom he had gotten together again, apparently pushed him off a Paris Metro platform when she found him cheating on her. Of course, everyone thinks that was an accident.

Although Charlie left the Malibu beach house to Alan, it must be sold because Alan has no money and can’t meet the mortgage payments nor pay the taxes and insurance. While Alan is still in residence, Aston (I forgot his character’s name) shows up needing to use the phone. He is dripping wet having just tried to drown himself because his wife has dumped him. He gave up on that because the water was too cold.

The wife's reason is that he is emotionally immature. His immaturity, unlike Charlie's, however, is not redeemed by a rapier wit. Despite his being a dot.com billionnaire he seems naive, slow on the uptake. And he's a hugger when he is overcome with emotion. Sort of the thing you do when you're drunk.

The laughs are apparently going to come out of him being so different, but he’ll still always win and Alan will still always lose so they are continuing the dynamics of the original.

The emotional immaturity the writers have saddled Aston with is unappealing. He has great abs but I think sexy begins in the brain.

Charlie Sheen made one of the presentations on the Emmys (that I did not watch) and used the occasion to wish his former cast mates (all in the audience) all the best in this new season. I didn't watch this but on a feature program later. a female commentator criticized him for this, saying the Emmys were "not about him." She just sounded catty.

Yeah we all know he is an egomaniac without any censors and will eventually self destruct unless he gets help. Doesn’t seem to be any chance of that so far. I like him anyway because I am a sucker for quick thinkers. And I'm not married to him.

A few comments about our new high definition TV set. It has incredibly good detail, more than I have ever seen in any film on television or in any movie. It is phenomenal. But the high definition screen stretches the actors’ images making them look wider and heavier than they are. Or you can go down one channel and see the same program in “regular” mode, with a black border, making the picture smaller, but everyone in it is the right size. High definition is most enjoyable when watching films with lots of grand vistas – mountains and seas and forests and city scapes.

xx, Teal