Ghost of Charlie Sheen returns

Ghost of Charlie Sheen returns

Warner Bros. Television Entertainment/Darren Michaels

Kathy Bates dons vest made famous by Charlie Sheen's character, Charlie Harper, as she visits from great beyond after Alan (Jon Cryer) suffers minor heart attack in season finale of Two and a Half Men.

Unless Glee can talk Barack Obama and Mitt Romney into doing a full-dress duet from La Cage Aux Folles for its season finale, no gimmick on broadcast TV this season can come close to Monday nights twist on Two and a Half Men.

Kathy Bates plays a reincarnation of Charlie Harper, the character played by Charlie Sheen until Sheen got himself fired from the show and Charlie Harper had to be killed off in this years first episode.

Sheen has since landed another sitcom, Anger Management, which premieres June 28 on FX, and he very likely considers it nectar-sweet vindication that Two and a Half Men thinks even his ghost is a drawing card.

Credit the producers with casting Bates, a perfect choice who embodies everything that drove us nuts about Charlie Harper.

Shes arrogant, narcissistic and oblivious to others. She smokes a big cigar. In a hospital room.

She explains to Charlies brother Alan (Jon Cryer) that shes been sent back from hell, which raises the reassuring possibility that Satan, whatever his other shortcomings, has a sense of humor.

At one point Bates character matter-of-factly shows Alan her reincarnated body has both male and female genitalia. Her term for those items isnt quite that delicate or technical.

It also turns out that the dead Charlie Harper focuses just as obsessively on sex as the live one used to. And lest anyone miss the fact this whole gag is really more about Charlie Sheen than Charlie Harper, Bates makes one of her exits with a pair of long tall ladies who carry themselves much like Sheens goddesses.

Happily, the return of Charlie Harper isnt the episodes only gag. It also continues the ongoing saga of Walden (Ashton Kutcher) kicking Alan out of the house so his girlfriend and her daughter can move in.

Alan, meanwhile, moves in with his own girlfriend.

If that sounds like a live happily ever after deal, or even a win-win, you havent been following Two and a Half Men very closely.

Even the Half Man, Alans son Jake (Angus T. Jones), jumps in to make everyones life a little dicier.

Well, except his own. He seems pretty happy, because hes got a girl and some weed. Wonder where he acquired tastes like that.

Bates has a show of her own on NBC, Harrys Law, that has a healthy audience but will almost certainly get cancelled because that audience is considered too old.

But the reincarnated Charlie doesnt feel like a long-term replacement.

While the writers could keep feeding Bates new gags forever, the joke feels like its starting to get a little stale around the edges even by the end of this show.

As a quick hit, though, its inspired.