My Name Is Earl TV Show
By: Barry Garron, HollywoodReporter.com
The buzz is that "My Name Is Earl" is good, and the truth is that it's better than the buzz. TV's never had a character quite like Earl: naive, ignorant, without ambition and, as played by Jason Lee, impossible to dislike.
As the focal point, Lee radiates a sneaky charm and pickup trucks full of warmth and heart without ever losing the edge that makes Earl so perfectly imperfect. Just maybe, if "Earl" had been around a couple of seasons ago, NBC would have been better able to protect its once-impenetrable Thursday night ratings fortress. For now, let the record show that Fox passed on it, NBC grabbed it, and HBO should be envious.
Ironically, "Earl" is about the last show you'd expect to find on NBC, a network that has produced an endless flow of erudite comedy and well-tailored characters, with the likes of "Friends," "Frasier," "Will & Grace" and going at least as far back as "Cosby." Even the barstool occupants of "Cheers" were at least several rungs higher on the intellectual ladder than Earl and his pals. At their core, though, all of those shows -- and "Earl" -- had a unique comic vision, a trademark style of humor and engaging characters.
In "Earl," grand themes are reduced to folly and little moments take on great importance. In the opening scene we meet Earl, an unemployed slacker who pilfers items from a car parked outside a convenience store. The Crab Shack restaurant is the center of his social universe. Six years earlier, during a night of beer-fueled reverie, he married seductive Joy (Jaime Pressly), not noticing until the next morning that she was six months' pregnant. Later, she gave birth to Earl Jr., who clearly wasn't spawned by Earl. Still, Earl just rolled with the punches, content with the company of his good-for-nothing brother, Randy (Ethan Suplee), who took up residency on Earl's couch.
Earl's life changes, though not in a way you'd imagine, after he scratches off a $100,000 match on a lottery ticket. Delirious with delight, Earl dances into the path of an oncoming car and, from there, to a hospital room, seemingly separated forever from his lucky ticket. Distraught by the turn of events but mentally liberated by morphine, Earl watches Carson Daly explain on a TV show that he owes his good fortune to karma. Daly says he is good to others and, in return, good things happen to him. Immediately, Earl sees the light.
With karma as his new religion and Daly as his prophet, Earl prepares a list of all his past transgressions and determines to work his way through it. With Randy and hotel maid beauty Catalina (Nadine Velazquez) at his side, the first stop is at the home of Kenny James (guest star Gregg Binkley), a former schoolmate whom Earl repeatedly tormented. What happens next proves that God isn't the only one who works in mysterious ways. The ending comes a little too close to being shmaltzy but stops just short, providing a nice launching pad for subsequent episodes.
Coupled with "The Office," this may well be the best hour of nonanimated comedy on TV this season.
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