My Name Is Earl

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.

This show was really funny. Jason Lee kills me any time anything comes out of his mouth in this show. His character is like Brodie from Mallrats all grown up. Ethan Slupe looks like he's shed a few pounds, but he's also GREAT in his role. These small town rednecks that everyone in town probably crosses the street when they see these 2 brothers walking their way on the same sidewalk. Wise cracks in true Lee style, with his goofy smile-almost as funny as the punchline to most of the jokes on the show. It's almost as good as if Kevin Smith himself directed & produced the show himself I hope this show continues to be as funny as the pilot & stays on the air for years and years to come.

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.

And yes, My Name is Earl is literally about trailer trash, and hilariously so.

Even though Earl is reformed from his earlier days where nothing crooked or immoral was out of bounds, the same is not true for some of his friends. And of course since each show has Earl attempting to right a past wrong, we get to see just how depraved Earl was for most of his life.

The writers' creativity stretches far, for they have now produced a LOT of shows with fresh ideas and situations both funny and completely out of left field. How they come up with things like "fish wings" I'll never guess, and I'm not bad at coming up with funny stuff myself.

Is a lot of Earl "low-brow". Oh yes. Let you hair down and just laugh, for the laughs are there all show long, every show.

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.