‘Anger Management’ season 2 premiere review: Charlie Sheen’s daddy issues

If you love “Anger Management,” then you probably had plenty of reasons to smile come Thursday night. Not only is Charlie Sheen back, but he’s going to be around on FX for so long that “winning” is going to become a weekly tradition. Just to give you an even greater sense as to just busy the man is, this show is currently shooting two shows a week, and basically filming episodes within a span of a day.

Thursday night’s season 2 premiere marked the first episode for Martin Sheen as a series regular as Charlie Goodson’s dad named (go figure) Martin, and thus it only made sense that much of the story revolved around him. What was a bit more of a surprise was that there actually was not any explosion of anger onscreen by any of the main characters, it was save more for passive-aggressive dialogue as Charlie learned that his dad was basically pretending to be suffering from Alzheimer’s in an attempt to try and garner sympathy from his own son.

There is really not too much to speak about here from a recapping standpoint, mostly because we’ve always found listing out the predictable “Anger Management” plotlines to be tiresome. Are there some major flaws in the show that have not been addressed? Definitely, as the writers tried desperately to shove way too many characters into a brief 30-minute runtime. We’d rather just see Selma Blair take a day off than just show up for a scene with very little context to it.

On the flip side, we appreciate some of the attempts made here to try and develop the supporting cast this week, as they are still the show’s weakest link in that they are largely either stereotypes or cookie-cutter personalities. They still have a very long ways to go, but there were at least some funny jokes in here.

“Anger Management” at the end of the day is never going to be a show that wins in Emmys, but what this premiere reminded us of is that after “The Big Bang Theory” and “Two and a Half Men,” it’s the best destination on TV for easy-going comedy that you don’t have to think much about after it ends. Sometimes, it’s okay to just watch something and not really think about it.

What did you think about this episode, and are you happy to see Sheen back in action? Be sure to share some of your thoughts below, and you can head over here to see some very glamorous new photos featuring Sheen and the rest of the cast.

Photo: FX