My Name Is Earl: Bad Earl
By fred | January 11, 2008
(S03E13) Damn, how long has it been since the last time we got to see this show !?? Really, I feel that the last time was months ago ! Do you guys remember Earl, his friends, and his list ? Do you also remember that for most part of this season so far, he’s been behind bars. I’ve many times expressed my feelings about this, and needless to say I was pretty happy to see him go free, whenever was the last time we got to see an episode of My Name Is Earl.
I was happy about that fact, but not so much about how things happened. Not so much how he got out, but what he done in order to get there. And by “get there”, I don’t mean just out of prison.
See, Earl didn’t just get out, he did so after making sure he did not had any money no more, nor a place to stay. He spent all of his money on a crappy prom or something, in jail, and looking back you have to wonder about two or three things. First, how stupid was this ? Second, where did the money go ? Cause really, that party didn’t scream “cash” by any means. And third, how freaking stupid was he !??
And with all those issues, last time Earl started to doubt Karma, because doing good things is what got his thrown in jail, and then in the hole. While doing not so good things, eventually got him free. So, really, screw you Karma!
That’s pretty much how he’s feeling right now, and even when all his friends are doing an intervention, and his brother is asking for him to be a nice guy again, because it feels bad to do what they’re doing now, even when Randy wants to see in his brother hope that things can be, or are good, that doing good is better than doing wrong, even as Earl can see how bad he’s been treating his own brother ever since he got out, he doesn’t care.
And while you may appreciate the effort of not ignoring all the previously set issues and have Earl to go through such a phase, I have to say that in the end I wasn’t much of a fan of it all. Because if this whole thing was nice when it comes to character development, well, it didn’t took long for Earl to switch back to careless DB mode, but bringing back back on tracks required a lot of work. I wanted to believe that Earl wasn’t in on the list just because Karma was threatening him, but because he believed in it. I wanted to believe he wanted to treat his brother right, becasuse he cared, not because of some stupid list. Because he believe in more than that.
Not just in Karma, but in doing good, in changing things. And let’s be honest here : Karma didn’t throw you out on the street, Earl, you did it to yourself, by acting like a moron and throwing all your money away for nothing. Karma can be a helping hand, but it won’t do all the work for you !
More importantly, while there was still a few good things, I felt that this episode wasn’t as funny as the show can be. And, I have to say, I really wanted to enjoy the first time we’d be back to a “normal” show with everyone back together, and it didn’t feel like what I was expecting.
And to be completely honest, I’m even thinking that I almost wish I hadn’t seen this episode, not yet, not with the current situation things are in. Because of course we all saw it coming big time, but the allusion to the pilot of having Earl to be hit by a car was a very nice move. Plus, we got Alyssa Milano back, and I’m not sure how long she’ll be around, but I’m all for it !
But in the end, this felt like - finally - a fresh start for Earl. The “old Earl” was gone again, and the new Earl returned back. Now he was back on track and would have to go at his list again, I would imagine. By the time both of them were lying there on the road, you could feel a sense of relief in yourself, knowing that, finally, the show might be back on tracks, where you’ve been wanting it to be pretty much ever since this season started.
Only problem is, that was the last episode we’ll get to see in a while. Yes, because of the writers’ strike and the stupid & childish behavior of the AMPTP & friends, we’re likely to be in for months and months of blank, of emptiness, of boring crap, silly games and stupid reality TV. And sure, we can turn to other things, but no where will we find Earl and his friends.
For that, we’ll have to wait for the strike to be over, and things to go back to normal. But that may be a while, a (very) long while, and all in all, I was much better left hanging last time, with Earl finally free, than I find myself now, with something just starting, but I won’t get to see any of it, not now. It’s a lot more frustrating I feel, but not in a good way.
So, I was happy to see Crabman and Joy, even though we barely saw them, same goes for the always sexy Catalina, and there were a few funny moments. Bot overall, this episode was more of a transition, it was less funny, and it would be much easier to accept that if we only had one week to wait.
Posted in Reviews
Shows: My Name Is Earl
