My Name Is Earl

I rarely watch sitcoms any more because they are normally both inane and indistinguishable from one another. This show may actually induce me to watch it on a regular basis. If you liked "Raising Arizona", you just might like "My Name Is Earl". After I watched the first episode I did an online search to find out who the creative forces were behind it. In doing so I stumbled into a review that described Earl as the illegitimate son of Nicholas Cage in "Raising Arizona". That just about nails the character. In In fact, while recounting the season opener to a friend who had missed it, I nearly called Earl, Hi. Catch it before it's gone. If you didn't think the first episode was brilliant, then this show is just not for you.

"My Name is Earl" has some unlikely ancestors. It belongs to a genre of television comedy/drama best described as "Good works shows". Popular in the eighties, when "Highway to Heaven" and "Quantum Leap" topped the charts, these shows concerned a normal, everyday guy or gal who, usually at the inspiration of some amorphous Higher Power, travelled from place to place attempting to make things Right. These shows drew their audiences in with their optimism, their conviction and their reminder that, however bad the world may seem, we have it in us all to make it better. Naturally, once the 90s dawned, they withered on the vine.

So now we're in the 2000s. How do you draw an audience jaded by the horrors around them back to the form? By taking the its conventions and completely subverting them. Instead of your average whitebread middle class straight edge, ala Scott Bacula or Patrick Duffy, you have Earl, a scuzzy, scummy lowlife with the kind of handlebar mustache that always makes one think of dead wives in the cellar. One day, realising that his life sucks, he decides to go on a quest to right all the wrongs he committed in his life. This is, as you might imagine, a fairly daunting prospect. Instead of God or some other vaguely Judeo-Christian concept, you have what Earl calls "karma", though it has little to do with karma as Hindus or Buddhists would understand it. It's more like the stalking Death in "Final Destination", only armed with a custard pie and a hand-buzzer instead of a chainsaw. If Earl does something good, he, and usually hordes of other people through a complex Rube-Goldberg unravelling of events, is rewarded. If he does bad, karma ensures Earl has a suitably slapstick comeuppance. Initially it seems to only idly look in his direction. But once Earl takes up his quest, the gloves come off. He is, as he puts it, "karma's bitch." At one point, having decided to neglect his duties in favour of romance, he finds himself at karma's mercy, crashing through a seemingly endless series of pratfalls before falling victim to a swarm of bees.

What makes this show work is that, while it never loses its moral compass, it isn't preachy or condescending. The characters inhabit the world we know, not some idealised, processed version of it. Not everyone, even white knight Earl, is necessarily likable. Earl doesn't get all virtuous about his job; he does it because he thinks it's the right thing to do, even if it means helping his repugnant "family"- his loathsome ex-wife Joy (brilliantly played by Jaime Pressely), her layabout boyfriend and their two kids. Even Randy, Earl's endearingly dim brother, who acts as the Laurel to Earl's Hardy, ("I'm gonna ask the judge to smash this walnut with his judge hammer. I bet it explodes like a death star") is given to moments of selfishness.

The scripts are wonderfully creative and have a knack for undermining expectations. In one instance, decides to apologise to the mustachioed girl he made fun of in junior high who he hasn't seen in years. When she opens her front door, cliché demands she be heart-stoppingly beautiful. Instead she has a full beard. "I tried waxing," she says. That's what works. The characters are human. This show doesn't give us people to look up to; it gives us people we could actually be.

I saw the first episode of "My Name Is Earl" last night, (9 p.m. on NBC) and I just had to plug it. I thought it was brilliant - wonderfully cast, written, and directed. I hope the show is a hit and keeps it up.

If the Coen brothers wrote and directed a TV sitcom, it could be very much like this show.

The premise is simple: Earl (the very likable Jason Lee, often seen in Kevin Smith films, and whose on screen demeanor sometimes reminds me of Chevy Chase in his youthful prime) is Earl, a small-time raggedy thief who snags a $100,000 winning lottery ticket. Seconds later he's mowed down by a car, and the ticket floats away in the breeze. While recovering in the hospital, doped up on morphine, he watches a TV show with MTV host Carson Daly talking about doing good deeds so that good things will happen to you...and he comes up with the the idea of repairing his mess of a life by making a list of all the people he's harmed in the past, tracking them down one by one, and making amends however he can.

When Earl briefly thinks of backing out on his plan, the ticket miraculously floats back seemingly out of nowhere..inspiring him to keep up the good work. Karma is a funny thing, as the tagline says.

The inimitable evil vixen Jaime Pressley (as his trashy ex-wife Joy) is part of a great supporting cast, and the superior writing and directing of the show gives it a comedic, quirky quality that reminded my husband and myself of Coen brothers' films such as "Raising Arizona". I hope the show can keep the quality up as the season progresses. The bar's been set pretty high with this first episode.

Anyway, "My Name Is Earl" is on NBC on Tuesdays at 9:00. Give it a whirl, and let's keep this one on the air, as long as the creators can maintain the quality of its premiere. As long as it keeps its sharp wit and avoids sinking into maudlin sentimentality, it should stay a winner.

My husband and I are great fans of Jason Lee's movie roles. We were really looking forward to this show and it totally delivered. You know a show is good if the funniest jokes aren't wasted in the trailer. Funny, well-written with great timing and direction. I instantly set my DVR to record all episodes to make sure I don't miss a single one. I thought the premise was very unique and while Earl appears to be a stereotype, there are unplumbed depths. The peripheral characters are a hoot, the choice of music also elicited quite a few laughs.

I am hoping the rest of the season holds up to the extremely well-done pilot. I think this really could be a classic, besides we have the promise of 258 possible episodes!

12/27 Footnote: The show has exceeded all my expectations and I am happy to see Earl adding to his list - so we could have inifinite episodes - yippeee.

I'm not much of a TV watcher anymore, as most stuff these days doesn't appeal to me, especially the whole "reality TV" trend. It's not often that a show comes along that is original in concept (or, at least in presentation!), and that makes me laugh all the way through.

Having said this, we caught this show on the TiVo, and it's just plain funny. It's more for mature audiences, and if you grew up in redneck USA (like I did) in the 80's, it'll leave you in stitches. Plus, there is a bit of a message presented as well. "Do good deeds to others, and good things will happen to you." In a sort of bizarre, twisted way, you could call this the "Kung Fu" of the 00's.

Lee does an excellent job of narration and acting, and the rest of the cast is pretty much perfect at their roles, even in the first episode. I had never really heard of him until his (quite good) performance in "The Incredibles", but his acting is really impressive.

It's funny. Best stuff I've seen in years. Watch it and see for yourself.