two and half men

['Two and a Half Men' - 'The Immortal Mr. Billy Joel']

Goodbye Eldridge and Lindsay! As last week's 'Two and a Half Men' portended, Alan's back home in the guest room of Charlie's Malibu beach house ... but without his new extended family. Lindsay (Courtney Thorne-Smith) dropped Alan like a bad habit, which when you think about, is quite accurate.

Even compared to Lindsay's cheating ex-husband, Alan came up short. And judging by Alan's current status since the fire has left him without most of his possessions and clothes, he's so low that even Berta (Conchata Ferrell) is taking pity on Zippy. For more on that and Charlie's visit to Dr. Schenkman, read on.

['Two and a Half Men' - 'A Bottle of Wine and a Jackhammer']

Oh my goodness! Is it possible that in the eighth year of 'Two and a Half Men,' one and a half of the men might be moving out? Perhaps ... Charlie has even taken to enlisting the help of the Lord above to get Alan – and by extension, Jake – out of his house.

But wait, it can't be that easy, can it? No, not in Harper-world, and certainly not for Charlie. Besides, Charlie needs something in his life to keep his brain working. He hasn't been pining over Chelsea, but he's not doing anything else either. He never works and his days meld in sunshine, beachy days of watching the tube and leering at the lady on the 'Cash for Gold' commercial. He needs a purpose ... like getting Alan out of the spare room for good.

That was the premise for this second episode of the new season and what a refreshing turn of events this is.

Is there anything that Jane Lynch can't do? The comic actress -- who some people are already declaring is a shoo-in for the Primetime Emmy as Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama series for Glee -- has veered into a new venue.

In addition to her television characters, Jane's brilliant performance as Sue Sylvester, her semi-regular shrink role, Dr. Freeman, on Two and a Half Men, Constance on Party Down, she's now doing commercials.

Yes, the latest triumph for La Lynch is a set of XBox 360 commercials that are all about fun.

Like anything, watching television can be a habit. There are certain shows that you tune into on a regular basis because they make you feel safe, comfortable and give you that feeling of stability that may or may not surround the rest of your life. Because of that it can be difficult to latch on to a new show to watch. There's that uncertainty, that fear that you won't get used to the plot or the characters or the general feel for the show.

This is particularly true in my case since I watch a certain set of shows each week for review. However, this season I have decided to expand my television horizons a bit and search for some new programs to get involved with. By new programs I don't mean shows premiering this season, but programs that have been on the air for a while that I have never sen before of have glanced at from time to time. So, without further pontification, here are five shows that I'm now tuning into.

So last night was the first really big Monday night of the new year, with the return of Heroes and Studio 60. And how did those shows fare?

Typical numbers for Studio 60 at 10pm, with around 7.4 million viewers. It was crushed by CSI: Miami, which got 18.7 million viewers. But the big news of the night (well big-ish, I guess) is that Two and a Half Men beat Heroes fairly easily. The Charlie Sheen show got 16.1 viewers, with Heroes getting 14.8 (24 was close, with 14.4). And yes, for you 18 to 49 demographic fans, Heroes won in that race.

That number for CSI: Miami is what I keep thinking about though. My God, almost 19 million for that show? I'm not just saying this because I'm a fan of Studio 60, I'd still say it if it was on Tuesdays at 8 or Saturdays at 9. It just depresses me that this show (and all the CSIs, actually) do that well in the ratings. It must make the network execs scream "hey, we should do more of those shows!"