‘He needs to work on being funny’: Ashton Kutcher draws mixed reviews for Two and a Half Men début as 28 million viewers tune in

His Two and a Half Men début had been the subject of a slew of Hollywood hype after it was announced he would be replacing the fired Charlie Sheen.

Now the verdicts are in on Ashton Kutcher’s performance after he made his first appearance on the hit comedy show last night.

And it seems the critics are a little mixed in their perception of 33-year-old Kutcher’s character – lovelorn internet billionaire, Walden Schmidt.

According to the New York Daily News, the actor, who spent much of the time on last night’s show naked, ‘just needs to work on being funny.’

They added: ‘By the last third of the show, the writers had clearly decided that walking around naked was Walden’s best shot at a laugh.’

Charlie Sheen’s Roast, which aired an hour after Men, was a huge cable hit

Comedy Central’s Charlie Sheen Roast drew a record 6.4 million viewers, plus an additional 3.6 million when it re-aired overnight

It’s the most-watched edition ever of the cable network’s roast franchise

Comedy Central said there were 249,000 tweets about the Sheen Roast yesterday

Previous roast subjects include Donald Trump, William Shatner, Joan Rivers and Flavor Flav

The Wall Street Journal went further: ‘Kutcher is intense and doesn’t do ԁеаԁ pan well at all.

‘But he’s way hotter naked, and he’s naked a lot,’ they said, adding that  ‘Kutcher seems sort of frozen in place, humourless.’

Other reviewers seemed to enjoy what Kutcher brought to the show, although some had reservations about his comic timing. 

‘The fact is that Kutcher, despite having spent so much time over the past few years branding and Tweeting himself, is a good comic actor,’ wrote People.  ‘Not great.’

‘Kutcher’s performance was good, nearly as poker-faced fine as Sheen’s was,’ said Entertainment Weekly. ‘It’s easy to see how Kutcher is going to fit into the ensemble’

EW added: ‘He’s part-contrast-to-Charlie (he ordered ginger ale, not liquor, while out at a bar with Alan), and part-Charlie-2.0 (he beds women with ease, but in a nice, horny-puppy-dog kind of way).’

However, other commentators were kinder about Kutcher, who made his entrance as dumped husband Walden Schmidt soaking wet on the deck of Alan Harper’s Malibu beach house after trying to commit suicide in the ocean. 

‘With Kutcher loosely playing himself as a savant ladies’ man, it’s likely that Charlie Harper – or Sheen – won’t be missed,’ said Fox News.

Sheen was famously fired from the smash hit TV comedy after falling out with its creator Chuck Lorre.

‘Filling the void left by a well established character isn’t easy, but Kutcher mostly succeeded,’  commented The Chicago Sun Times. 

At times his character seemed a bit like Lennie petting the rabbits in Of Mice and Men, but give him a few episodes, and he should settle in nicely.’

The Los Angeles Times, meanwhile, said the show, which opened with Sheen’s character Charlie Harper’s funeral, was a ‘promising beginning.’

‘Kutcher brings a softness as well as a sense of rude health – he was naked for much of the show – to a series that could often be brittle and sour, misanthropic and misogynistic, and temperamentally middle-aged.

‘His presence might allow Cryer to play some sweeter, less strident notes, though it is up to Lorre, of course, to make that, or let that, happen.’

After stripping naked, Walden and Alan bonded over being dumped by women, before deciding to go out for drinks where they manage to pick up a couple of ladies to bring back to the house.

However in true fashion, Alan gets left behind while Walden gets both ladies to himself.

Walden then decides that he is going to buy the house, with the episode ‘to be continued’ next week.

The show began with scenes featuring Charlie Harper’s (Sheen) funeral, with many critics pointing out the jokes were a little close to the bone when it came to parallels with Sheen’s reputation.

‘In the grand low tradition of Men, there were fart jokes and punchlines about genital warts,’ wrote Entertainment Weekly.

‘The idea behind all this was to make sure we felt the door hitting Charlie Sheen’s backside as Chuck Lorre slammed the coffin down, hard.’

TV Guide’s Mickey O Conner added: ‘The show’s “coarse” humour isn’t exactly my bag, but it was fun to see how Lorre’s real-world exasperation found its way into a script that was gleefully malevolent. (I mean, in a single half-hour he rendered Sheen ԁеаԁ, loaded him up with STDs and made him possibly gay.)

‘Still, I found myself developing something resembling affection for the clearly comically gifted cast. So did I miss Charlie Sheen’s presence? No. Did I enjoy what Ashton Kutcher brought to the table?  Sure. Will I watch again? Meh.’

However, the viewing public were clearly less fussy than the critics with a whopping 28 million tuning in – the largest ever audience for the show, which is in its ninth season.

Kutcher tweeted his gratitude to his fans today, posting: ‘I owe you guys big time for showing up for us last night. Hope you were entertained. We’ll be there every Monday for you.’

And even Sheen found the episode funny, writing on his Twitter account: ‘Surrounded by friends and watching the premier of Two and a Half Men,’ he tweeted. ‘Odd… But cool..! So far a lot of laughs!! Nice…’

Sheen would have seen the legions of on screen girlfriends who arrived at his funeral, where it emerged his character had died after falling in front of a train in Paris.

‘I forgave him because I loved him unconditionally, so you can imagine my horror when the very next day he slipped on the metro platform and fell in front of an oncoming train,’ Rose, who is played by Melanie Lynskey,told the congregation. 

‘I just want you to know that Charlie didn’t suffer,’ she added. ‘His body just exploded like a balloon full of meat.’