September 21, 2005

TV: My Name Is Earl

Here's another sitcom that feels a bit out of place on its network; NBC tends to be very blue-state, and you won't find a more red-state sitcom than My Name Is Earl. We're somewhere in rural America, and our main characters are -- at best -- working class, struggling to make ends meet.

Earl thinks he's solved his problems when he buys a $100,000 lottery ticket; unfortunately, he almost immediately loses the ticket. A late-night talk show introduces Earl to the notion of karma, and Earl decides that if he wants good things to happen to him, he has to start doing good things. To that end, he draws up a list of all the wrongs he's done, setting out to atone for each one. In the first episode, Earl decides to do the nicest thing he can think of for the kid he used to bully in school: He's going to get the guy laid. Things Go Awry and Zaniness Ensues. (Well, what'd you expect? This is a sitcom, after all.)

Earl is played to perfection by Jason Lee, who finds the warmth and likability in a character who could have been a creepy low-life. He's surrounded by a fine supporting cast, all of whom hit just the right tone; Ethan Suplee is especially good as Earl's even less ambitious brother, Randy. The writing is very funny, and the whole thing is vaguely reminiscent of Raising Arizona, which is about as high a compliment as I can pay to a comedy.

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