Lee Aronsohn knows how to keep an ensemble sitcom moving. We are less persuaded when adult immaturity supplies so many of the jokes, leaving sharp performers to make predictable material worth another evening.
Fi1m perspective
Adult immaturity keeps the jokes coming in Two and a Half Men (2003), but the next laugh is often too easy to predict. Lee Aronsohn and co-creator Chuck Lorre understand timing and give an ensemble room to earn its laughs. We rate Aronsohn as a capable sitcom writer who too often settles for familiar behaviour when the characters could use a little more thought.
His route to that partnership ran through a staff-writing job on The Love Boat in 1978 and sitcom work across the following two decades. Murphy Brown (1988), to which he contributed as a writer, is the programme we most readily recommend from his credits. Candice Bergen makes its difficult, capable central character worth spending time with. The secretary gags and musical routines are weaker, but they do not exhaust what the programme has to offer.
The move from contributing scripts to co-creating Two and a Half Men makes his responsibility for its habits clearer. Jon Cryer and the supporting cast keep scenes working even when there is little left to discover about the people in them. We laughed at Cryer's delivery, then grew weary of the sour treatment of women. That weariness matters more than the occasional good laugh: capable performers cannot make a whole evening of this appealing.
His writing and producing work on The Big Bang Theory (2007) places him in a more amiable ensemble comedy. Johnny Galecki and Jim Parsons make it easy company, though the repeated jokes about social awkwardness can wear thin. Here too, the cast supplies much of the reason to stay; the writing is less dependable. We should not pretend that a shared writing credit makes every strength or failing his.
The later move to directing the documentary 40 Years in the Making: The Magic Music Movie (2018) takes him outside the sitcom ensemble. For a first evening with his television work, choose Murphy Brown. Leave a long stretch of Two and a Half Men to those with more patience for its repetitions.
Biography
Lee Aronsohn is an American television writer, producer, composer and director. He began his career writing for The Love Boat in 1978 and went on to contribute to series including Who's the Boss? (1984), Charles in Charge (1984), Murphy Brown (1988), Grace Under Fire and Cybill.
In 2003 he co-created Two and a Half Men with Chuck Lorre, for which he also wrote the original music, served as executive producer and directed episodes. He later worked as a writer and executive producer on The Big Bang Theory (2007) and has received Emmy nominations for his television work.
