Malibu

(S07E17) Oh my my... have we seen the future of 'Two and a Half Men' and it's Alan and Charlie sitting on a couch vegetating, bickering and grateful to have each other to clean up their dribble? Maybe. And if you think Charlie's gotten over Chelsea, think again. Evelyn might want to hang on to the banquet hall at the Beverly Hills Hotel. More on that and the dancing Japanese Kabuki transsexuals after the jump.

(S07E15) Remember how Charlie and Chelsea's relationship was drifting into the danger zone last week? You know that 'to be continued' we were left with... well, we picked up with the story as Charlie and Alan had cleaned up at home after their sojourn in the woods -- Jake, too -- only to find that Chelsea was pulling a 'Charlie.' That's right, she was coming home in the wee small hours of the morning and hadn't bothered to call. More on that and Alan's topiary below the belt after the jump.

(S07E14) Uh oh -- has Charlie made a critical error in his relationship with Chelsea? It depends on how to look at it, but the Humpster misplayed the situation in this episode and that "to be continued" at the end suggests that something wicked may be coming.

On the plus side, it looks like Alan won't be losing his man-cherry in the slammer, and Jake has a future in horror movie sound effects.

Alan has shown more talent on his man-dates with Herb than the Internet dates he's had. He was in rare form with the latest eHarmony hook-up, talking socks and sex. If he still had his ventriloquist's dummy, he would have pulled it out. But Alan did show us something we'd never seen from him before. The monster. Okay, it was just one lucky punch, but still...

(S07E13) There was a strange break in this episode of Two and a Half Men, like it might have been written by a couple of people who weren't communicating with each other at the time. For the most part, one half of it was very funny. For the other part, however, the jokes were lame and the situation strained. It all added up to an odd night, which is probably kind of how Charlie felt when he got himself cornered into a tricky situation. More after the jump.

(S07E11) The holidays are a time for family and reflection and cheer. Unless you're the Harper family and gathering in Malibu becomes a test to see who can screw up each others' life more. This was an interesting Christmas get together, especially with the guest visit from Marty Pepper, sitcom king. Was it the ultimate inside joke that everything passing before Marty's eyes was fodder for a TV show? Yes, I think so. At the end of the show, the final credit was "A Marty Pepper Production."

For more on Marty and Charlie's trouble making antics, read on.

Chevy must have focus groups and research that tells them that Howie Long is a good spokesperson for their products. As a Fox NFL anaylst, he's fine alongside the likes of Jimmy Johnson and Terry Bradshaw. That said, I can't stand Howie Long in his commercials.

Long is smug and arrogant in all of 60 seconds. He's supposed to be selling the advantages of Chevy products -- while dissing those of Honda in direct jabs at the Japanese company -- but he rubs me the wrong way. Perhaps it's his smile. He just acts like he has no humility. He's all confidence and self-assuredness. Those two qualities should make him an excellent pitchman. That's what Chevy is trying to project.

(S07E05) If there's anything that will make you look bad, it's driving lessons. That's whether you're the driver or the instructor. In my experience, driving lessons are like a big magnifying glass revealing everything in too sharp a focus. And so it was that Jake had the misfortune of trying to get some time behind the wheel with the peanut gallery of Charlie and Alan offering advice in between hurling insults at each other.

But the real horror was still to come. Alan and Charlie have been brothers for their entire lives, but the past six and a half years of living together has turned them into something foul. Jake didn't know how foul until they went for ice cream. More after the jump.

Tricia Helfer is a really, really good actress. Before she was killed on Burn Notice, I wanted her dead for what she did to Michael. On Battlestar Galactica, as Six, she was a stone cold Cylon killer. She's very good at convincing me that she's dangerous. But can she do comedy? Hmm ... I guess we're going to find out. Tricia Helfer will guest on Two and a Half Men in an upcoming episode.

According to Michael Ausiello of EW.com, Tricia will be playing a good friend of Charlie's fiancee, Chelsea, who has recently ended a bad relationship. As an act of kindness, Chelsea asks her to come out to Malibu for a visit.

Hey, Brigitte here with TV Squad Daily. I'll be covering the TV stories I find interesting each day, Monday through Friday, in this video blog.

Today on TV Squad Daily:

• Soap star Nathaniel Martson attacked three people using a crate in New York this weekend,
  
• Jessica Simpson will fill in for Elisabeth Hasselbeck for a few days next month on The View.
  
• Fires near L.A. are still destroying celebrity homes and interrupting filming.
  

The video's embedded below, or you can subscribe to this podcast via our feed. Plus, you can also download the file directly.

Our corporate cousins at TMZ.com are reporting that the Malibu home of Suzanne Somers was destroyed by a fire today. The fire swept through a number of beachfront properties in the tony California town; the site also confirms that the home of Susan Anton was also destroyed.

Other people who live in the Malibu Colony area, where the fire is occurring, are Mel Gibson, Pierce Brosnan, Pamela Anderson, Barbra Streisand, Ted Danson, David Geffen and Courtney Cox-Arquette. What I find interesting is how often brush fires, mudslides, and other disasters destroy houses out there in Malibu. Is living on the beach worth the headaches that seem to happen year after year over there? I don't know who's more of a masochist; the people who don't move out of a flood plain or people who pay millions of dollars for houses built on a beach. I think it's a tie.

Is Diane Sawyer the worst interviewer or what?

Here's part one of her interview this morning with Mel Gibson on Good Morning, America. She seems to ask all the right questions, but in the end, not really. She just barrels through the questions, in that "this is a celebrity, let's be more touchy-feeling with him instead of investigative-reporter-ish with him" sort of way. You can see why Gibson chose her. She has that air of respectability, but in reality she's slow pitch softball ("Where does this anger come from?"). Maybe we should hold judgement until the second half of the interview airs tomorrow, but this clip just looks like a Daily Show parody than a real interview. The interruptions are annoying (why so many voiceovers?).

It's worth it though to hear Gibson talk about choking his toaster. And, no, that's not a euphemism for anything dirty. (Video after the jump.)

Shannen Doherty, former star of Charmed and 90210, got into a car wreck that sent one person to the hospital. California police say Shannen was taking a left turn onto the Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu when the Range Rover she was driving collided with another vehicle. It's not yet clear how that collision happened but the accident report says Shannen is mostly at fault. Shannen only suffered some bruising and a cut on her thigh, for which she refused medical attention. Can't you just picture her going off on the paramedic? Me too.