Monday, November 26, 2012

Another Hollywood Square?

This won't go over well in Gomorrah-by-the-Sea.

Actor Angus T. Jones, the 'half' of Two and a Half Men, has urged fans to not watch the show, saying it is 'filth'.

I don't disagree.  While I've never actually sat and watched a complete episode, it's been A/V wallpaper in my den many evenings while I was doing something else, probably blogging.  And one can't help but notice that a good amount of the show is not appropriate for households with kids, especially in the time slot where it runs.  Over the weekend, I saw a [re-run] snippet on 33.1 UHF where Charlie Sheen is rolling doobies on his kitchen table.

Classy.

Am also not much the fan of How I Met Your Mother, but, IMO, the trashiest sit-com I've seen is Two Broke Girls.  Sexual innuendo and blatant smut abound, at approximately 15 to 20 second intervals.  To paraphrase the late Richard Pryor, those chicks probably got a VD that would scare the $#!@ out of penicillin!

Sure, I'm a prude, but not a humorless one.  Mildly ribald comedy certainly has its place, but it's not in prime viewing time.  And there's little mild about much of the current crop of shows.

There's no indication that Angus Jones is following in the footsteps of Growing Pains' Kirk Cameron, but, if he did, that wouldn't be such a bad thing.

3 comments:

an Donalbane said...

Don't make me turn on the word verification or whatnot...

RPM said...

I think the poor boy is going thru "Hollywood Kid Actor Syndrome". In this particular case it's religion. But it could just have easily been drugs, alcohol, porn or a dozen other things.

They grow up in an abnormal environment, suddenly have tons of cash and are very susceptible to outside influences. It's no wonder so many of them crash and burn.

an Donalbane said...

Mike - I agree that the rapidity of financial success, not to mention the amplitude, creates a massively abnormal environment that the rest of us can scarce imagine.

Now, whether young Mr. Jones' epiphany/catharsis is authentic/organic, or he was 'bagged' as a 'trophy convert' by folks more concerned with a win than for his salvation and well being - I'm not in a position to know. No expert on SDAC I, it nonetheless appears that it's not Jim Jones' church, nor Fred Phelps', so I would disagree with characterizing Christian conversion as a form of pathology. And who am I to argue with Tony the Tiger?

On the subject of the content of Mr. Jones' statement - that the show is "filth" - I'm in complete agreement with him. I say this as one who came from a largely irreligious background (in school I could recite Redd Foxx, Carlin, and Pryor routines by memory) and freely embraced Christianity of my own volition.

What I can't argue with is that the show does apparently have a market.