Did you watch My Name is Earl tonight? Oh man, if you didn't, you may have missed the single greatest episode the show has ever put out. At least is was until it got a little too sappy towards the finale, but not to worry, we'll get there.

Let's start at the beginning though. The whole point of the show tonight was to explore the imagination of the characters (an interesting notion) and consequently we got to spend a little time with them as they each wrote a story.

Frankly, the first time we went into Earl's imagination tonight, at the beginning of the episode, I was scared. I know that we only saw a gymnast that had absconded from Earl's bunkmate's imagination, but still. The place was just how I pictured it, a big white open space with not a whole heck of a lot in there. Maybe though I'm confusing Earl's imagination with Earl's brain, because that's something I've definitely never understood. As his brain doesn't really come into play though tonight, I get to avoid the topic for another week.

Randy's imagination however was awesome. I'm not sure I in any way, shape, manner, or form understand anything that took place in Randy's imagination, but it was awesome. Why Randy has superpowers and has Earl claim that Earl is just borrowing Randy's mustache I don't know, but I'm convinced it doesn't matter. I would really have liked to have seen him taken on the sumo wrestler with the bazooka, but breaking Joy's neck was pretty good as an alternative.

Unquestionably the award for the best imagination tonight went to Joy. I like that she thought in animation and dreams about killing both Earl and Randy. It seemed both completely logical and totally farfetched. I imagine that the reciprocal death wishes that Randy and Joy have for each other will pop up again in future episodes. At the very least, I hope they will.

Darnell though, wow. Who knew the man could sing. Does anyone out there think it was actually Darnell singing? Also, who knew he was quite that attached to the crabs he cooked. I'd leave that whole song down below as a quote, but it would take up an awful lot of space.

The show even gave Catalina the chance to show her imagination. She wrote in a telenovela style, which does seem a little bit of an easy joke, but after ignoring her for most of the season thus far, just giving her more screen time was welcome. Her seeing Darnell as the Churro Man instead of Crab Man was the clear highlight of her dream about the stripper named Catalina.

Now, if the show had ended after Catalina dreamed her little telenovela dream I would've been thrilled. Hugely, hugely thrilled. Sadly though, it didn't. The show had to get all pointlessly sappy. In the end, Earl couldn't think of anything outlandish, or funny or insane, so he just wrote about what, it seems, he wanted most in the world – to be back at the Crab Shack eating wings with his friends, except for Darnell, who, even in Earl's imagination has to serve him (there is something else we should take up another time).

I just don't know why you take a show that was so off the wall and hilarious and end it with this mundane and overly sweet Earl story. Do the producers believe that each and every episode has to show some heart and issue a kind of moral? It was completely out of place tonight. They would have been far better off had Earl come up with some idiotic joke about Earl stealing everyone else's imagination and having him write a story that featured the monkey from Randy's imagination, only animated, singing about crabs to a stripper. Instead, we got him spewing a story about being in the Crab Shack, and what made it worse was that the inmates seemed to love it.

We get it, Earl is a good guy and people like him, we need not bit over the head with a crab mallet every week.

Other thoughts and maybe a quote or two:

• I don't know why I'm surprised that the Crab Shack actually serves crabs, but seeing Darnell dropping a crab into a boiling pot surprised me.
• Randy after Earl explains the idea of using your imagination to write something – "Writin' sounds cool. You could make a world where anything could happen, like a guy all alone in a boat hunting a big white whale." Earl's response: "Randy, nobody is gonna want to read that."
• Earl states that Randy only uses a 17 letter alphabet, does anyone have any idea what letters he doesn't use?
• The beginning to Joy's story – "…Once upon a long, long time ago pretty far away, there were two whiny little brats who I loved but I still wanted to wring their necks sometimes and a mom with the class of Princess Diana and the body of a porn star."
• Catalina to Darnell after Darnell laments the cracking of Joey (a crab) – "You should probably stop naming them, that's what we did with the children in my village after the military took over."

And now, if you'd like to see my imagination, you should know that all you have to do is visit The TV and Film Guy's Reviews.

Comments

I thought this was the second week in a row that we've been treated the the weak side of the writing of this show. To me when Earl doesn't get to show off his moral compass it always results in barely watchable episodes.

To me this ep was clearly an attempt to recreate the magic they had with the claymation ep from last year, except with a normal ep's budget. This was a colossal failure on their part.

Memo to Greg Garcia - get Earl out of jail. There is very little he can do there in regards to his list.

Also, no disrespect to the actor who was playing Catalina's love interest, but does anyone here think that Catalina can't do about a billion times better than him. Couldn't they find someone at least in her age range not 2 generations older than she is?

Rishi | Oct 18, 2007 9:54:15 PM | #

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This was, by far, the worst episode of Earl I've seen.

Get him out of jail and get him back to his list.

Moose | Oct 19, 2007 5:13:02 AM | #

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I'm not sure about plot in this episode, but it was dang entertaining.

Mustaches are cool. Chubby had a mustache, The Bandit from Smokey And the Bandit had a mustache, and Burt Reynolds has a mustache.

And Darnell works with live crabs a lot. When Joy was in the clink and the kids were killing his 'fro, he forgot to boil the crabs and served them live. When customers complained their crabs weren't dead enough, a zonked out Darnell malleted the crab between the eyes.

I can't find the lyrics to his single yet, but Steeples has a MySpace page advertising his own music.

Joy's dream reminded me of a South Park episode. Both good and bad, but the important part is that it left me laughing. Especially when real Earl imagines the giant coffee cup in his own mind.

I'm not quite sure about the Catalina novella, but it was entertaining to see the audio slightly out of sync for the episode. (and a reference to the Garcia family)

"Do the producers believe that each and every episode has to show some heart and issue a kind of moral?" Yes. That would be the reasoning behind Earl's list.

pakopako | Oct 19, 2007 6:58:37 AM | #

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Don't forget H.R. Pufnstuf! That was awesome!

Shell | Oct 19, 2007 7:01:55 AM | #

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Yes, Earl definitely has to get out of jail.

And, as they completely ignored the list last night, why not ignore the moral/heart too?

Josh Lasser | Oct 19, 2007 7:13:59 AM | #

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This was the worst episode ever.

I'm okay with Earl in jail, they don't have to get him out right away, but this was pitiful.

If things don't start getting better, this show will quickly become one of those shows that you DVR, but you catch it when you can rather than watching it live.

Seth | Oct 19, 2007 7:26:34 AM | #

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This episode and this whole season has been horrible! I'm ready to stop watching the show if they don't get him out of jail soon. However, the best part of the show was Catalina. Her story was a hoot and it was nice to see Catalina do something more than get put into a box for transportation across the border.

I hope the show picks up soon – I can’t take much more of the stupidity (and not the fun kind that the show had last year) of the show.

SS | Oct 19, 2007 8:38:50 AM | #

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I don't post here often, but felt the need to after watching this episode - it was one of the FUNNIEST things I've ever watched in my life. Right up there with seinfeld and the last two episodes of last season's the office. I understand some people's complaints about the show straying from its original idea - which I would like to see return eventually - but as far as laughs go, I don't know if I've ever laughed harder. Earl rapping in Darnell's song was priceless and should be a youtube favorite of many. Well done, Greg Garcia, and the rest of the writing staff.

Mark | Oct 19, 2007 10:33:44 AM | #

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Also, well done, Josh - for recognizing this could be the greatest earl episode ever.

Mark | Oct 19, 2007 10:34:41 AM | #

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Wow, I'm surprised some people didn't like this episode. I thought it was easily one of the funniest episodes of Earl, just for the Randy's imagination scene alone. I also don't really mind Earl in prison so far, it's a break from the routine of crossing someone off the list each week.

Darius | Oct 19, 2007 10:56:34 AM | #

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Worst. Episode. Ever.

I have been a fan of this show from season 1 episode 1. I can appreciate a once in a while escape from the formula of resolving one list item per episode, but that should still be their mainstay. That's the show we fell in love with, and I miss that show. Cops was an awesome episode as a conrast from the formula, but this season it seems like they are throwing the formula (and the list) away.

Get Earl out of jail and back to normal. It's like they have completely abandoned the premise of the show, and it was a good premise and an awesome show. Now it's just silly, self-indulgent nonsense. What a disappointment. This was the first episode of Earl that I didn't like. Worse than that, it was the first episode I could barely stand to watch. I am concerned and hope the show improves, pronto.

I miss the list | Oct 19, 2007 11:22:23 AM | #

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Wow. It looks like we're pretty evenly split here. People I think the episode was hysterical or the single worst one the show has put out. Odd. Can anyone explain why there should be such a vast difference between the opinions?

Josh Lasser | Oct 19, 2007 11:42:17 AM | #

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The vast difference can be explained simply: The producers took a risk. they shook it up just to have a little fun. They must have known going into this that there would be detractors. But they did it anyway. And in a sense, they freed Earl a bit from the confines of his prison storyline. They also got to show postpartum Pressley's Joy all slimmed down again for a bit. And Catalina, Randy, and Crabman had breakout sequences (with Joy somehow stealing each one!).

The formula employed here was not new by any stretch of the imagination. As soon as I saw where they were going, I recognized it as only the lastest rehash of the famous M*A*S*H "Dreams" episode (and the 4077th probably didn't originate the formula). And though the creative writing assignment setting all of this up seemed a bit forced, the lunacy of the imagination sequences made the contrivances forgiveable.

But the fans seem united on these points: Let's get Earl out of prison. Let's get back to the list.

Goph | Oct 19, 2007 12:56:13 PM | #

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I really liked this episode, but it does have the "Jim in Stamford" feel to it, it's losing the interactions between Earl and Joy big time, and yeah Earl definitely needs to get out of prison. It just limits what they can do.

As for the vast difference of viewpoints, either you take each episode as a separate entity or each episode as a chapter in a long story. Those who view it as the former loved it, those who view it as the latter hated it.

Corey | Oct 19, 2007 8:32:56 PM | #

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Do they want the show to get canceled?! I feel like the writing is just way to throw anything at the fans because they can. Why is he in Jail anyway? It's bad writing. The list has been compromised. The whole premise of this show is not even in place. GET OUT OF JAIL OR GET CANCELED.

James | Oct 22, 2007 12:19:01 PM | #

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Do they want the show to get canceled?! I feel like the writing is just way to throw anything at the fans because they can. Why is he in Jail anyway? It's bad writing. The list has been compromised. The whole premise of this show is not even in place. GET OUT OF JAIL OR GET CANCELED.

James | Oct 22, 2007 12:19:44 PM | #

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Do they want the show to get canceled?! I feel like the writing is just way to throw anything at the fans because they can. Why is he in Jail anyway? It's bad writing. The list has been compromised. The whole premise of this show is not even in place. GET OUT OF JAIL OR GET CANCELED.

James | Oct 22, 2007 12:20:03 PM | #

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