Second Acts

Sometimes you need a break from everything you're supposed to be angry about. For Dave, one of those escapes has always been Two and a Half Men, or more precisely, the Charlie Sheen years. The first eight seasons worked because Charlie Harper was more than the drunken womanizer the jokes made him out to be. Beneath the booze, women and complete absence of responsibility was a man who repeatedly demonstrated that he actually loved the family he complained endlessly about. That contradiction was the heart of the character and, arguably, the heart of the show. Now Charlie Sheen is getting another shot. The new sitcom Happy Jack reunites Sheen with his father, Martin Sheen, in a story about an aging lifelong screwup confronting perhaps his last opportunity to become the father he should have been. It raises an intriguing question: what happens when the charming, irresponsible guy finally gets old? For Dave, there's something more interesting here than another television reboot or celebrity comeback. Sheen's very public collapse cost him Two and a Half Men and hurt plenty of people around him. He doesn't get a pass for that. But should the worst period of someone's life define that person forever? Maybe Happy Jack will work. Maybe it won't. But with Martin Sheen beside him, veterans of Two and a Half Men behind the scenes, and an old-fashioned multicamera sitcom filmed before a live audience, Dave is rooting for Charlie Sheen's second act. Plus, a look at the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower flight-deck accident, the dangers of carrier aviation, and what happens when the machinery aboard an aging warship fails. #PlausiblyLive #DaveBowmanShow #CharlieSheen #HappyJack #TwoAndAHalfMen #MartinSheen #SecondChances #USSEisenhower #USNavy