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walden
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X
oh by the way
i'm walden
walden schmidt well it's nice to meet
you walden schmidt
these videos are not for children
if you're a children then piss off
coming into the harper residence that's
pretty awesome that that will go down as
one of the most memorable experiences of
my life hey there it's me your least
favorite youtuber vian fuzo and i've
talked a lot about two and a half men in
the past and i'll probably continue to
do so in the future so why not follow up
that trend by doing it here in the
present we all know the drama that
ensued when the show lost one of its
leads and had to scramble to find a
replacement they fired charlie sheen and
then they brought us the dude from punk
and went well
well there you go
deal with it and a lot of us didn't but
from the ashes of charlie harper rose
walden schmidt
quite literally actually a lot of fans
of the show feel like the walden schmidt
character killed two and a half men but
i'd actually argue that two and a half
men killed the walden schmidt character
hold up wait a minute
something right now hear me out there is
more to that thought as the run time of
this video would probably tell you when
charlie sheen was fired from two and a
half men those in charge ran to anyone
and everyone they felt could strike
interest if you were considered a draw
they were penciling yen anyone with a
name and some availability
got a phone call around this time hugh
grant almost signed up to replace
charlie except he wouldn't have been
walden schmidt he would have been some
other character with a completely
different name backstory and accent they
talked to me about it but the problem
was they didn't have
a script or a new character they just
said trust us we'll create one it's all
to do with a very tight time schedule
what they created fashion kuchna was
clearly something completely different
from what they would have created for me
but going forward you know during the
year we still had to invent a
relationship and a character and we had
to do it in a hurry it's clear that
there wasn't a clear plan here honestly
i mean i guess we could say it now i
mean we're truly guessing the show was
desperate for someone of note and in
that desperation they found
sir michael kelso mike he's like are you
going out two and a half men i was like
i can't talk about that and then you
were the only person that actually knew
before anyone you were and
my concern was the same as everybody
else like what if
what if they don't like it what if we
fail the character of walden schmidt
wasn't clear for anyone including show
creator chuck laurie chuck laurie met up
with ashton kutcher to discuss the
possibility of working together and what
exactly this role would require he
pitched the idea of playing a famous
actor with wealth beyond anyone's
wildest dreams
and i imagine that that's the same
tactic he used to lure in charlie and
then he sweetened the pot by saying
oh and the character's name is charlie
ashton was interested in the part not
just for the paycheck but for the role
only for him to be told at last minute
yeah no no scratch that we're we're not
doing that you're just going to play
yourself well we started out talking
about the idea of a
of an actor a famous actor and after he
said yes i'll do it i called him one day
and said i changed my mind i want to go
that route and while ashton kutcher
never could and never did replicate
charlie's casual stoic straight face
sarcasm he did at least bring his own
unique energy to set he's cute
he really is
their creative plans began and ended
with get a big name we knew in broad
strokes that we wanted ashton to be
playing a younger character a more
energetic character we were finding this
stuff out as we went we didn't know when
we started we knew that we wanted his
attitude about women to be completely
different
than charlie's had been charlie's
premature departure really led to the
show spinning the relevance wheel and
lucking out by landing on the dude wears
my car guy and yes whether you like the
seasons or not they were very lucky to
get him and he never felt like he was
just there for a paycheck even if he was
he didn't show it he put effort in
throughout his entire time on the show
it's clear the guy's really trying to
make this work
replacement characters are often
immediately hated by viewing audiences
audiences that have become accustomed to
another actor's performance or another
character that they've come to know and
love but i don't think that that was the
case with walden
at least not entirely there's just
something
nice about ashton kutcher as this
character he's genuinely charismatic and
accidentally charming he's a very
likable lead and what i love the most is
that ashton wasn't trying to do his
usual michael kelso step there were
definitely elements there but it wasn't
that character to a t he wasn't the big
dumb guy who says a bunch of stupid [ __ ]
and yells a lot which let's be honest is
kind of what ashton kutcher made a
career off of that and of course
underwear modeling walden schmidt is
actually shown to be extremely
intelligent he's a tech genius who
became a billionaire after selling his
apps to microsoft walden was a
good-looking smart guy with a seemingly
endless bank account and a broken heart
he was pathetic tony stark despite his
book smart says street smarts well they
left a little something to be desired
the guy is constantly swindled into
continuing to let ellen live in what is
now his beach house rent-free he's
gullible and far too trusting of people
his selflessness is only matched by his
obliviousness he's far too
optimistically naive it's like our idiot
brother if your idiot brother also just
so happened to be bruce wayne while
walden has a beyond genius level
intellect he's still very emotionally
immature he's like a child in a young
man's body with a bank account of a much
older man this was an interesting
character with some complex
self-conflicting intricacies oh how can
you be so smart about some things and so
stupid about others
okay wait just to be clear what am i
smart about and what am i stupid about
kind of tried to build walden in a way
that would have
certain capacities to sort of
ring everybody's bell the walden schmidt
character for everything he had going
against him
actually surprisingly showed some
promise not to mention that i think that
ashton kutcher surprisingly had really
great chemistry with john cryer even in
the show's worst episodes i think that
walden and allen's back and forth banter
almost makes it worth it they're on
their a-game properly matching each
other's energy
each and every episode despite their
dynamic somewhat growing stale as time
went on i still believe crier and
kutcher were putting on hell of
performance i get the feeling that these
two really liked working with each other
which is probably also why john cryer
made an appearance on ashton kutcher's
show the ranch
you know actually we've met before
it's also kind of fun watching him grow
out with jenny
or watching him bond with jake or
getting hit on by berta
kutcher's debut on the show meant a
complete changing of form essentially
the whole show changed the tone of the
series became much less reality grounded
and much more cartoonish in nature there
was a real sense of anything could
happen at any point in time you know
because it's a tv show no longer was it
trying to provide an interesting story
or develop characters
the show is now telling jokes for the
sake of telling jokes
in the original two and a half men the
show saw plenty of heartfelt moments and
plenty of arcs changed characters
narratives and built them up and
developed them as people the last
heartfelt moment this series has to
offer is when alan is talking to his
brothers urn
and then one moment later
ashton kutcher shows up in the literal
second that he shows up on screen
the show is forever changed this scene
is a changing of the guard a forced
passing of the torch
this series was no longer taking itself
seriously so why should any of its
audience the show became the very
definition of low comedy
not that there's anything wrong with
that per se but it's definitely not what
this series was up until this point
personally i like both
but changing the tonal structure of a
successful series may create some
dissonance
as soon as ashton signed on the show
seemed very very aware of what it was
and very very well aware that the sand
in the hourglass was starting to run out
drinking jokes became smoking jokes
there were less subtle jabs and much
more over the top humor this was a
completely different show
you know we decided that we didn't want
to try and duplicate what we'd already
done because quite frankly we've done
eight years of it they have created not
only a new character but they really
turned the show on its side
and made it into something else it's
really two different shows it is totally
different it is substantially different
it has a completely different feel the
show now appeals to
instead of this amount of people it
appeals to this people like it's just
it's just a different level of funny but
it's not like it just stopped being what
it was it became some other thing
kutcher's involvement changed everything
but
as far as i'm concerned that was bound
to happen regardless of who replaced
charlie sheen if hugh grant had stepped
into the role i think that we would see
something much different from from the
ashton kutcher years of two and a half
men but also something completely
different from the charlie sheen years
of two and a half men the introduction
of walden schmidt also led to a couple
of new character dynamics although
unfortunately it was mostly the same
dynamic over and over and over again
character meets walden
character bangs walden or spends the
running time talking about wanting to
bang walden and that's it outside of
that we get to meet walden's mother his
ex-wife his old best friend and business
partner and all of these characters
stuck around for a bit and advanced some
plots they weren't one and done they
became part of the world of two and a
half men we also got to meet the many
many many women of his love life
walden schmidt was hopelessly in love
with the idea of being in love defining
every potential love interest as the one
within four years on the show he
proposes to three people and while i
don't think that that is necessarily the
worst character trait you can give a
character
don't overdo it otherwise you end up in
ted mosby territory and nobody wants
that the big issue here is that for one
reason or another ashton kutcher doesn't
have any chemistry with any of walden's
love interests never once does the show
at any point come close into putting him
into a relationship that feels genuine i
think the closest they got was him and
bridget they really did come off like
exes from time to time but then again
that could just be because bridget was
being played by judy greer
who is everybody's ex-wife for some
reason but that's really where it ends
and that sucks because walden's love
life ate up a lot of screen time i'm not
saying that these actresses were bad
because i liked the vast majority of
their performances but when they were
paired with ashton i i don't know none
of them seemed to click while ellen's
relationships were unrealistically
dysfunctional
waldens were undeniably boring almost
every relationship he was put into ended
abruptly maybe because the producers
realized it wasn't working but more
likely because the writers couldn't
figure out how to end things case in
point this show
in a lot of ways this great white dope
was the show's great white hope he was
pretty good until he wasn't anymore
there were always issues with this
character even from his first appearance
they started ashton off strong but
maybe a little bit too strong i think
the show really [ __ ] up by
overcompensating for the loss of charlie
by trying to make walden's god's gift to
humanity or at least god's gift to chuck
lori they gave walden the world the
second that they handed ashton the key
to charlie sheen's chocolate factory and
no that is not a euphemism they gave
this character every positive trait a
person could have he's overly kind
generous good-hearted irresistible to
women despite their sexual orientations
apparently
i'm not gay
he had more money than anyone who has
ever been on the show and not to mention
he added a normally huge please stand by
the guy was given the world it's like
allen had 99 problems and walden
didn't even have one though i'm pretty
sure that's not actually how that song
goes it didn't help matters that in
order to further the narrative that
walden was here to stay and was a proper
replacement everyone who came in contact
with charlie and walden would favor the
newer man as opposed to the former
hi is charlie here charlie passed away
i'm sorry he was just such a terrific
guy i can't believe he's gone
hello i'm penelope
walden what are you crying about i have
no idea the fact that he had far more
pros than cons meant that no one could
realistically relate to this character
and because the character was almost
always portrayed in a more positive
light having episodes showcase him as
being the voice of reason or the helping
hand it meant that you didn't
necessarily want to see bad things
happen to him unless you actually wanted
to see bad things happen to ashton
kutcher because you were upset that he
wasn't charlie sheen i'll put you like
this
when bad things happen to alan it's
funny because a party was thinking yeah
take that yet parasitic leech and when
bad things happened to charlie they were
funny because a party was thinking yeah
take that you walking std joke is less
funny in hindsight but i am talking
about the character not the man when bad
things happen to walden they seem less
warranted and therefore not as funny or
justified as you can imagine all of
that's a little bit troubling
considering this is a sitcom so
you know you're going to want to make
with the funny remember way back when
when i said that walden schmidt showed
promise well he did
at first but he stopped showing it real
fast by time all was said and done it
was clear that walden schmidt was a
diamond in the rough that never truly
shined shortly into his run on two and a
half men they completely rerode his
creative blueprint suddenly he stopped
being the oblivious genius with the
heart of gold and head of straw and he
started being prone to outbursts and
lashing out but instead of getting anger
management he just stuck around for a
few more years
unlike some people it seems like
whatever likeability there was to the
character rapidly dissipated over time
ashton stayed around for four seasons
but walden was really only likable for
about
i don't know
put together maybe one and a half walden
schmidt stops being the charming alien
he is about halfway through season 10.
this doesn't feel like a steady
evolution of the character he matures
not through development
but through the insistence of the
writers and i think he aged for the
worst which
which you know right there with you but
it's weird because the character
somewhat felt like he was right at home
but the longer he stayed on screen the
more he felt like the odd man out they
didn't know what to do without charlie
but to make matters worse it seemed like
at times
they just didn't know what to do with
ashton what's really interesting is that
eight years and eight seasons in the
creative department still were managing
to find interesting or
otherwise bizarre stories for charlie
harper
but the walden schmidt creative well ran
real dry real quick by the end of the
show walden schmidt is a completely
different character from the one who was
first introduced and what's worse is i
don't necessarily think it was for the
better throughout the course of the show
12 years from start to finish alan
harper is still alan harper i mean
granted he definitely worsens with time
but
ultimately he's pretty much the same guy
just less better off but walden schmidt
is hardly even recognizable from start
to finish over the span of four years
and i mean that both in terms of the
performance and also physically just
does not look like the same person
toward the end of the show's run walden
had no discernible or definable
personality he kind of became the series
macguffin not only was his money
constantly referenced but it was also
usually a major plot point in many of
these episodes he was just everyone's
get out of jail free card
his wealth contributed to anything and
everything in the show's last four
seasons it got the characters into story
arcs and out of trouble time and time
again i think in the end walden was
really just around to finance allen and
prolong the inevitable
which to his credit he did so did ashton
kutcher kill two and a half men
i would have to say no the show was
bound to end sometime soon after charlie
left but i think it only lasted as long
as it did without charlie
because of ashton kutcher walden was far
from my favorite sitcom schmidt but i
don't think he's quite as terrible as a
lot of people want to remember him
i don't think people dislike the walden
schmidt character because they really
hate ashton kutcher
i think they mostly dislike the
character because they really missed
charlie sheen
which is completely valid regardless of
anything the show was going to suffer
without him and they did but i stand by
my statement that ashton kutcher wasn't
at fault
for the show's suffering
if anything
he was a a much needed relief
charlie sheen leaving is what killed the
show ashton kutcher actually prolonged
its life
and look
the ashton kutcher seasons were
definitely far inferior that is not what
is being argued here the worst episodes
of charlie's two and a half men may just
be on par with the best episodes of
ashton's two and a half men were they as
fun no
were they as heartfelt nah but the fact
that they are anything
is a complete triumph and credit to
ashton i think almost anyone could
recognize that for the last four seasons
of two and a half men
the show was very obviously on a decline
they were doing poorer in the ratings
than they ever had before if you were to
search the worst episodes of two and a
half men
almost every list would consist almost
exclusively of episodes from the show's
last four seasons the show was on a
downward spiral the minute they got rid
of charlie sheen i've heard people claim
that the show only lasted four more
seasons because of ashton kutcher but
i'd actually say that the show lasted
four more seasons
only because of ashton kutcher when they
removed charlie sheen the show was
hemorrhaging and ashton was kind of like
a bandage on a fatal wound he did his
part but really
there was nothing anyone can do those in
charge very obviously didn't have a plan
for the show following sheen's departure
after charlie was out two and a half men
kind of went to survival mode they were
no longer trying to thrive they were
just trying to live and i personally
think that ash can help their survival
anyway with all that being said i was
your least favorite youtuber vian fuzzo
and i thank you all for watching hope to
see in the next one oh and if you like
this video and you're interested in
seeing more two and a half men content
most notably the charlie years
let me know in the comment section below
by saying
enough with this schmidt goodbye
i am vengeance i am the knight and that
was v infuso
just remember
if you're not tuning in
then you're missing out so if you like
the words that came out of his mouth
hole
and you too would like to become a v
generate don't forget to like and
subscribe thanks for watching nerds and
if you're not joining the fun
you're in for one
bad
day
and you know what they say about having
one bad day
[Laughter]
catch him next time
same bad time
same bad channel
bye
oh
by
the
way
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