American comedy at it's finest... (My Name Is Earl)

Member Name: Daniel K

Product:	My Name Is Earl
Date:	18/07/06 (263 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Funny, Good storylines, an original idea for a sitcom

Disadvantages: None

When it comes to new shows on TV, there hasn't been much that has grabbed my attention recently, but one exception to this is a new comedy series from America called 'My Name Is Earl'. The first season was shown here (in the UK) on Channel 4 from January on Friday nights and finished a few weeks ago; it is still being repeated on digital channel E4, I think.

The show revolves around a former petty thief and criminal called Earl Hickey (hence the show's title!), who one day wins $10,000 on a lottery scratchcard, but loses the ticket straight away after being run over. During his recovery in hospital, he begins to believe in karma, and contemplates all the bad things he did in his life, which could have caused him to have so much bad luck in his life; so he makes a list of them all, and then one by one he tries to put them right, and be able to cross them all off that list.

Each episode usually sees Earl trying to resolve one wrongdoing at a time, and he is joined by four other main characters in the show.

Cast List:-

Jason Lee as Earl: main character of the show - see above.

Ethan Suplee as Randy: Earl's younger brother, who is fat, naive and slow-witted, but also a nice, kind-hearted person. He's the main character who helps out Earl to put things right, mostly in every episode, and can often be quite philosophical about certain things.

Jaime Pressly as Joy: Earl's money-grabbing, selfish ex-wife, who thinks all Earl's ideas about karma are a load of rubbish. She also has two young sons by different men.

Eddie Steeples as Darnell: also known as 'Crabman'; the owner of a local bar called the Crabshack, and also the new partner of Joy. He's usually happy to help out Earl in many of his attempts to put things right.

Nadine Velazquez as Catalina: a Mexican immigrant who works as a cleaner at the motel where Earl and Randy live; she also helps them out with their tasks to put things right.


Although I thought all the characters in 'My Name Is Earl' are good, I haven't seen any of the actors in any other shows or films besides this. Overall, my favourite character in the show would have to be Randy, because he can be so funny and sweet, although Earl comes a close second as he is the main focus! Besides these five, there are obviously lots of supporting characters in the show, many of whom crop up more than once; these include relatives, friends or neighbours of the main characters, like Earl and Randy's parents.

As I mentioned above, each episode of 'My Name Is Earl' sees Earl trying to cross off another one of his wrongdoings from his list, but usually he encounters some kind of problem which means he often has trouble getting them done. But with the help of the other characters, he often gets them completed. These things can vary in each episode, from returning things he stole off of people in the past, to reuniting friends and acquiantances with their family members, or simply doing something helpful for the local community. However, he often has to add more things to his list, as he can upset or annoy other people whilst carrying out one of the things on the list!

As this is a comedy show, there's plenty of humour and funny things going on in each episode, and even in the first episode I saw I found really funny. It was a show that I found easy to get into and watch, and the show quickly became a firm favourite of mine. Quite a lot of the humour in the show is more kind of slapstick humour, but there's also plenty of decent one-liners from all of the characters as well.

The first season of 'My Name Is Earl' has now finished on Channel 4, but still gets repeated on spin-off channel E4; there's also a DVD of the first season to be released soon, and a second season is planned for sometime in the near future, I believe, and it can't come quickly enough for me as I hope it will be as good as the first one.

Overall I would recommend this show to anyone who likes good comedy, even if you don't usually like American comedy shows. For me, this is American comedy at it's best, and one of the funniest, enjoyable shows I've seen in a long time, so it definitely gets the thumbs up.

Check out www.mynameisearl.net for more info on the show.

Thanks for Reading! :-)

Summary: An excellent comedy show, definitely worth a watch.