Photos
Video
'My Name is Earl': You're eating my baby!
I think we can all admit it, last week's My Name is Earl did not inspire much confidence in where the rest of the season was headed. The idea of Earl in a coma does not really work on a show that centers on Earl. This week, thankfully, was somewhat funnier due to flashbacks of Earl and Randy's shenanigans back in the day, but Earl's coma world still didn't work at all.
Tonight, Earl's coma-created sitcom revolved around Billie becoming pregnant and the usual foolishness that attends a classic sitcom pregnancy (the husband fainting, the couple getting trapped in an elevator while in labor, etc.). One gets the impression that Earl didn't really watch any good television as a kid, and the less said about the story taking place in his mind, the better.
Back in the real world, Randy had convinced Joy that Earl would become better if they kept working on Earl's list, that karma would fix Earl. Joy, for some reason, actually believed Randy and so they had Earl choose, via drooling onto his list, which item they would try and cross off. The winner tonight was "stole a motorcycle"
Randy ended up having to make amends to a family from a motorcycle shop, who, amazingly, looked and exactly like the Teutuls. However, Randy couldn’t remember what had happened to the motorcycle because he was rip-roaring drunk (he used the phrase "blackout drunk" but I like "rip-roaring" better) that night. So, the entire episode had Randy, Joy, and eventually Darnell too, piecing together what happened on the fateful day the motorcycle was stolen (yup, no Catalina).
Randy started off by going to see a very nice gentleman who sold stolen merchandise out of a self storage unit. He stated that Randy and Earl had been there, traded the bike chain for a chicken suit, and then went off to the Crab Shack to scare customers during nickel wing day. If the story Darnell told next was at all accurate, Randy in a chicken suit yelling that customers were eating his babies did in fact do the job. Darnell also told Randy that Homeless Joe might have seen he and Earl next that night.
Joe did see them, but the guys didn't have the bike anymore (instead they were in cute little Shriner-type vehicles which were owned by the Knights of Camden). Joe also said that Earl and Randy were having a fight when he saw them and that Earl was trying to kill his brother.
Even though Randy took that bit of news hard, Darnell was less convinced about the story's accuracy and got to Randy try and fill in the missing pieces. A trip to the Knights of Camden revealed that Earl followed Randy there on the fateful evening and tried to kill him with the "pantenna" (the antenna that women at the trailer park threw their panties at after hooking up with a guy in order to determine if it was true love or "the clap"). Randy escaped from Earl and the pantenna by stealing the mini-car that Joe would later see him on.
That led Randy, Darnell, and Joy to the original location of the pantenna which, as it turned out, was also the location of the bike. Upon seeing the bike, Randy remembered exactly what had happened that night. It seems that after driving the bike up onto the trailer's roof, the cops showed up. In order to stop Earl from hiccupping and revealing their location, Randy, accidentally, suffocated Earl just a little bit. In his drunken state, Earl thought Randy had killed him and went after Randy, with the pantenna in tow, in order to get his revenge.
Randy ended up returning the bike and got a little squeeze from Earl's hand for doing so. Earl isn't out of the coma yet, but if Randy keeps crossing items off the list hopefully that will happen soon.
It was all a little foolish tonight, but I enjoyed the flashbacks, the show tends to do a good job when they focus on Earl and Randy's past misdeeds. However, the Earl living in a sitcom needs to end. I get that it's supposed to be a bad sitcom, but it's more of a bad, bad sitcom and really doesn't generate any sort humor.
One quote and one question tonight:
- Jasper, the guy selling goods out of the self storage unit on explaining why he traded the bike chain for the chicken suit – "I have kids you know. I mean, I don't know who they are or if they exist, but I used to have a lot of unprotected sex."
- I'm starting to wonder if the writers are using Earl's fantasy sitcom world as a device to show us how much better their idea for a television show is than a traditional sitcom. What do you think, what is the reason for launching this multi-episode Earl-in-TV-land story?
While you're trying to come up with an answer for that, why not visit The TV and Film Guy's Reviews.
I feel bad for Nadine Velazquez (Catalina) as more than likely she will have little to no involvement in each ep that Earl remains in the coma. Unless the writers start to have Catalina help Randy with the list tasks I expect that we will see variations of tonight's ep until Earl wakes up. I know that Catalina has been used less and less as each season has progressed - especially after the Mexico trip stuff where she and Randy got together - but I still like her and wish that they would use her as that reduces the usage of the Joy and Crab Man chars and that helps them - i.e. they are funnier in smaller doses.
FTR, that's the way I feel about every break out supporting character on virtually every sitcom that I've watched the last 15 years. However, once the characters 'break out' and become stars the writers feel that they have to use them more, thereby reduces their effectiveness and making their chars stale much quicker than they would've been had their roles not have expanded. I know no actor wants to keep their part small when given a chance to play a bigger part, but I feel that evidence supports that no character that gets the laughs in a limited role should be expanded. I'd say less than 1% of them thrive with their roles expanded.
Rant over.
Rishi | Apr 11, 2008 1:46:45 AM | #NBC is doing a lot of "watch more TV" on these post-strike shows. (Michael Scott plastered to his $200 plasma screen TV, Pete wondering if everyone was away watching TV...)
Back to "Earl..". I hope, Rishi, that the next episodes aren't quite exact copies of this episode. It would be nice if we get episodes focused on how each of Earl's friends help him finish the list (I actually like Darnell, but Catalina does need more air time -- she could be in a "Ernest-esque" episode where the kids drag her into an adventure).
As per the question of the week: I think Earl's dreams are an excuse to play Yakkety Sax more.
pakopako | Apr 11, 2008 7:27:38 AM | #It seems like the TV dreamland sequences are a device to try to "break in" Alyssa Milano as more than just a guest star and to set up the fan base for a longer term quest by Earl to win her heart. Their post-coma interaction is sure to be a bumpy counterpoint to "The Hickeys," which, I agree, seems tired and overused.
Goph | Apr 11, 2008 1:54:50 PM | #Another terribly unfunny episode though marginally better than last week. That whole hackneyed coma thing really drains the energy and laughs from this show. Has that device ever worked well in a sitcom? And why put Alyssa Milano on at all if you're not going to actually use her? Bad unfunny writing. If this is the best the writers can do, I wish they'd stayed on strike.
Isembard | Apr 12, 2008 10:53:07 AM | #I hate to say it, because I loved Earl when it first came on, but I barely watched last season and these new episodes just aren't cutting it either. While we know that none of these people are upstanding citizens, they were funny and fun to watch. But now they're getting to the point where it's just not funny and getting to be quite tasteless in the jokes. Give NBC enough time and they will become the channel for reality shows and ten thousand more Law and Order spin-offs. The only things I watch (or will when they come back) on NBC any more is Chuck, Life and ..... um....well would have been Journeyman.....I will finish up ER I guess, since there is nothing else on at that time, though it should have died a few seasons back and I'll watch the end of Scrubs. But 30 Rock is stupid, I'm sorry, and The Office is starting to lose its appeal as well.
serene | Apr 13, 2008 9:11:47 AM | #
Zap2it Twitter Talk
