Charlie Sheen: Wild and crazy guy Part Deux

I generally try and avoid retreading on old topics. Old news is old news and I would hate to alienate what few readers I have by repeating myself. But with the premiere of CBS' revamped Two and a Half Men and the Comedy Central Roast of Charlie Sheen occurring a few nights ago, I thought it was time to once again open up the Sheen file.

Gotta love sequels.

The backstage antics of television is always ripe with controversy. From the Quiz Show scandals to Suzanne Somers being kicked off Three's Company to the various battles over the Tonight Show, we forget that television is an industry and industry has always been about money. We forget that the cast of Friends are just five people being paid an exorbitant amount of money to act like they've known each other all their lives. The people on television are real people. Except, of course, for Sheen. If it's one thing he's tried to prove this past year, it's that he is more than human.

Yo.

Sheen did something that no other actor does when in the middle of a dispute or followed by cameras, he embraced them. He not only created a hype machine around himself, he sold tickets to it. Conan O'Brien also used the media to his advantage during his debacle, but he didn't go nearly as far as Sheen did. For O'Brien, his career was on the line. For Sheen, his career and personal reputation was in danger. And instead of trying to brush it all under the rug he turned himself into a martyr for his winning way of life. His Comedy Central Roast was just an extension of that martyrdom.

In case you missed it, it'll be rerun 20 times this week.

Now, I hate Comedy Central Roasts. I find them to be the ultimate in lazy television. They are relatively cheap to make and hyped enough to fill up a huge chunk of the scheduling for the next two months. Comedy Central Roasts are a stable for bad comics who find it easier to be mean than it is to be funny. As an audience we have suffered through eight years of Jeffrey Ross' struggle towards comedy and jokes about Lisa Lampanelli's taste in men. It all gets old after awhile. With Sheen, however, they finally had a subject that was literally begging to be roasted. Roasts normally reserved for stars that have gone past their prime. Easy targets with nothing to lose because they have nothing left for them. Sheen is different. For Sheen it wasn't so much an easy ratings grab but a statement.

As opposed to Larry the Cable Guy or Flavor Flav's roast.

Sheen's roast was brilliantly scheduled the same night as Two and a Half Men's season premiere. CBS has hyped the new season heavily. Billboards and popups all over show Ashton Kutcher's grin where Sheen once stood. It remains to be seen whether Kutcher's charm can save the show (he was pretty awesome on That '70s Show), considering the fact that there has only been one Sheen-less episode. Who knows, maybe he can be replaceable on a show built around his own personality. But thanks to the Comedy Central Roast, Sheen at least had the last say.

I'll say it: Kutcher is probably the best replacement they could have found.

By sacrificing himself, Sheen is just offering himself to rebirth. The only question is, what will he do now that he's a punchline. He really is no longer a person, he is just a walking caricature of himself. So where does that leave him now? What can he possibly do now that his tiger-blood act has reached critical mass? During his roast, he claimed that he is no longer winning. He claims that he has already won. But with the dust just now settling on a year-long publicity battle, I think it's too early to declare a victor.

Charlie Sheen: Wild and crazy guy

When a citizen has a nervous breakdown, it's tragic. It's tragic or people just ignore it until said citizen either writers a book or does something drastic. When actors have their nervous breakdowns, as they tend to do, it becomes spectacle. We as a society are so engrossed in being entertained by these stars that even their private lives are ripe for entertainment. Some people are making the case that Charlie Sheen's recent spectacle is not something to be watched and joked about. These people are being too sensitive however. It would be one thing if Sheen was walling himself up like Howard Hughes, it's a complete other thing when he is airing his craziness out on national television and twitter.

The Carlos Estevez story.

Sheen is in no way shape or form trying to block himself from the spotlight. If anything, he is diving face first into it. In his interviews he is rattling fried-gold quotes off like it's nothing. He is rebuilding himself. He is no longer Martin Sheen's successful son. He is now a warlock with tigerblood. He is creating his own cult of craziness. Whether he is intentionally putting on the crazy act or not, I can only pray for his publicist. He must have his work cut out for him. Before all of this, Charlie Sheen was a fringe member of 80s movies. He was in Red Dawn, Lucas and Ferris Bueller's Day off, but he was never as well known as his brother, Mr. Mighty-Duck himself, Emilio Estevez.

Emilio!

In the late 80s, Sheen went back-to-back, with two starring roles in two of Oliver Stone's best movies, Platoon and Wall Street. They are, arguably, Stone's best two movies. Born on the Fourth of July seemed like a Vietnam retreat, The Doors was saved only by Val Kilmer, JFK was weighted down by Kevin Costner, and Natural Born Killers was too much of a mess to really have any meaning. Yes it was entertaining but that was mainly thanks to the overacting of Robert Downey, Jr. and Tommy Lee Jones. Everything else in that movie fell flat. The only other Stone movie I respect, Talk Radio, was more of a product of Eric Bogosian than anyone else. So I don't count that. Everything else Stone has done is largely forgettable. So, now that I have illustrated my point, I repeat again that Sheen was in the only two Stone movies that were any good.

This film really is underrated though.

Platoon was amazing, rivalry Sheen's father's film Apocalypse Now as the best Vietnam story told on film. Sheen was lost in a sea of strong supporting characters though. He was more the audience surrogate than anything else. With his character's soul being battled for between Willem Dafoe and Tom Berenger, did Sheen ever have a chance? Wall Street was a movie of the decade, complete with some Talking Heads music in the background. Sheen was overshadowed again however, by the colossal character Gordon Gekko. The character was so large and played so well by Michael Douglas, that to this day, he is all everyone talks about when Wall Street is mentioned. The sequel even centered around the Gekko character, with Sheen having nothing more than a cameo.

Shia LaBeouf needs to stop being in bad sequels to classic movies.

Sheen starred in a lot of decent flicks in the 90s. With the Major League, Hot Shots! and All Dogs Go to Heaven 2 under his belt. He was always popular, and in the double-0's he took on television. First, by replacing the irreplaceable Michael J. Fox on Spin City and then his own show. The show, Two and a Half Men, would become on of the most popular shows on CBS and television. I don't really know that many people that actually watch the show, but then again CBS never really targets my demographic. Thanks to Sheen's recent troubles, Two and a Half Men is effectively over. But don't worry Men fans, you can still watch the reruns on FX.

Cable reruns: the purgatory of television.

So, in essence, Sheen destroyed Two and a Half Men before the kid's growing up could of. It shouldn't be a surprise how crazy Sheen is. Sheen had a large history of self-destruction. We heard before from his ex-wife, the chick from Starship Troopers and Wild Things, how crazy and abusive he can be. Even though Denise Richards once played a nuclear physicist, nobody took her that seriously. Maybe it's because of her crazy eyes.

Crazy eyes...

Sheen has a long history of substance abuse. He even has a family history of addiction with his father once battling alcoholism. Sheen won't quit though and even though he's hit rock bottom he is still digging himself deeper. Whether there is an end game to all of this remains to be seen but for right now he is just enjoying his own crazy act, probably more than anyone else is enjoying it. He was even nice enough to plug his television show to the paparazzi cameras once. Does he have class? No. But he is in a class all his own. Who else has the balls to quote Allen Iverson's "practice" rant on the Today Show? And he reached one million twitter followers faster than anyone else has. He is loving the attention. So nobody should feel sorry for him. If he is bi-polar than hopefully someone close to him will put an end to his public display of craziness. Until then he will find any outlet he can to unleash his mind.