The Stale Situation

While the entire world as presented by the news media seems to be singularly obsessed with the incoherent ramblings of an actor, the consequences of his actions may lead to the dissolution of a genre of television that can be referred to as the all-too-literal situation comedy. There was once upon a time that I would have been disappointed to learn of the demise of the comedy, Two and a Half Men, but for more than a while it has served as nothing more than background noise in the absence of anything better on in the vetes household. But now The Cape airs opposite and something better is indeed on.

When it first aired it was funny, interesting and different. And many years later after changing nothing, it is the complete opposite; unamusing, boring and derivative. What went wrong was that the show outlived its usefulness after a few years, addicted to high ratings which seemed to have made the creators resistant to any meaningful change. It’s impossible to blame the creators for their adherence to a strict formula as the show continues to garner top scripted comedy ratings year after year.

Sitcom is a compound made up word short for situation comedy, which is typically referred to as a group of recurring characters in a common environment who find themselves in farcical situations. Hilarity ensues. Rinse, lather, syndication. The failure of Two and a Half Men is in that it is an all-too-literal sitcom meaning that the entire show is predicated on a very specific situation that for the purposes of the title can bear no variance whatsoever, therefore the characters can never change and nothing different can occur. This can work in a cartoon, like the Simpsons, but not for long in a live action show.

CBS, the network which airs Two and a Half Men is a master of this genre, their half-hour comedy offerings are littered with examples. How I met your Mother, a decent show is so stale and riddled with false starts related to the show’s premise that if Henry Winkler guest starred for some shark jumping off the Hudson River, no one would be surprised. It might have already occurred. Mike and Molly and Mad Love, two shows about the romance of a specific couple are basically interchangeable minus the settings and specific characters and can never veer from that romance. Rules of Engagement stars a perpetually engaged couple whom are always talking about a wedding that never comes. All rubbish.

The only comedy on CBS that is currently watchable is The Big Bang Theory which follows a group of Physicists, an Engineer and one Physicist’s actress object of affection as they mostly do nothing. It will grow stale as well, but after a longer time and for normal reasons, the characters will get old. Being a physicist is a career and not a situation. And it’s plausible that a socially awkward group of friends would likely be long-term roommates. And that hilarity will often ensue. Friends and Seinfeld proved in the 90’s that shows based on basically nothing have the longest shelf life and one can only hope that the demise of Two and a Half Men will lead to more shows based on generalities rather than the hyper specific.