Wakey wakey hands off snakey!
You know the kinda guy who said he didn't like
My Name is Earl after having watched about 6 episodes? The kinda guy who gave up on the show without giving it a chance?
Well, that's me. My name is Jesse.
A few months back I decided to finally watch a TV show that I'd heard everyone talking about. Down in the trailer park, we don't get MNet, and so I had to do the next best thing: rent it on DVD.
I went down to the place I usually get all my 'goods', a guy who sells stolen stuff out of a self-storage room named Jasper. After his Online Russian Bride flirted with me uncomfortably for a while, I took home the first disk and proceeded to watch it.
To tell you the truth, I wasn't impressed. I posted my thoughts
here, and it seems that everyone else was surprised too. But I just didn't get it. The characters were not funny. The story looked to be repetitive, and the jokes somewhat flat. I gave up.
Then a funny thing happened:
Karma. A good friend of mine got me good and drunk down at the Crab Shack and convinced me to take home the rest of her Earl DVDs. I relented, only to get her to shut up about how hot Jason Lee is. But, also because I know she knows what funny is. She's a C
orne and Twakkie fan, after all.
So, I decided to get it over with and just watch the rest. After all, there are worse things to do than watch an average TV show, like watching a Bad TV show, or getting your hair cut with a lawn mower.
So I watched. And watched. And watched. And haven't stopped since.
As it turns out,
My Name is Earl is really two shows. The first show is the first 6 or 7 episodes. In that show, Earl is not really very funny, because the funny characters are so different. Catalina is just a stereotypical "Mexican", Joy is just evil, Earl is cynical, and Randy is a mean asshole.
the second show, which is everything since then, is hilarious, and whacky, and an absolute classic. You see, the actors finally found their groove, and none more so than Ethan Suplee's Randy. Randy went from being a nasty hillbilly to being a Man-Child who has some of the most profoundly ridiculous monologues in the history of TV. The whole show lives and dies by his performance, not just because he's the 'funny guy' (a concept that can ruin a show whereby one character has all the good lines and the rest are just bad drama fodder) but because he embodies the innocence, renewal, and redemption ethos of the show.
Take these for example:
Do you think when I find my purpose I'll get some sort of sign? Like a glowing light? Not like an alien abduction or anything, but a Jesus light? "It's not fun being blind. Why is Stevie Wonder always smiling? Maybe he can't see that he's smiling. Am I smiling, Earl?""If dad was mayor, we'd get to wear top hats and sashes and judge beauty contests.""When you do into the witness protection program, they let you pick your own name? Cause if I ever witness anything, I'm going to name myself "Crash Fishfight".""Being dead is definitely worse than being alive. When you're dead, you can't do all the cool stuff you can do when you're alive. You and I, we can do all kinds of cool stuff 'cause we're livin'. We're not dead. We're alive. If we were dead, we wouldn't be able to do all the cool stuff we can do because we're alive. Dead people can't do cool stuff. Only people that are alive can do cool stuff, because they're livin'. And you have to be livin' to be able to do cool stuff. You have to be alive. Yeah, except, when you're alive, sometimes bad stuff happens, too. Like sometimes you can get in a car wreck, or you can have a headache, or twist your ankle, or even stub your big toe. So bein' alive is kinda hard, too. But I think it's definitely better than being dead.""It doesn't matter what you say as long as you act cool. See? [Turns collar up] 'Ediebottendoozy. Ediebottenwoh.'" Randy is pure genius. Who else could hire a guitarist in Latin America to follow him around playing "Time after time?"
Then there's Earl, who isn't quite as cynical as he was, and is now actually endearing, even Bad Earl. He's no longer a psychopath, but is really just misguided. And damn funny.
Joy is no longer evil and violent, and is somewhat more Trailer-Park; and Catalina is not a stereotype anymore. She's a lot more interesting than that now.
The writing picked up too. The show could have been a monotonous journey from one list item to the next, but the writers have mixed up the format nicely, and kept the audience on its toes.
I watched all of Season 1, and Season 2, and am fortunate enough to have a good number of Season 3 episodes, which is really holding up the excellent standard.
My Name is Earl is now easily in my top 5 favourite comedies, holding its own with Arrested Development, Scrubs, and The Simpsons.
That's Karma for you.