Earl Hickey is a goddamn, no-good piece of white trash who would steal your teeth if they were false. When he wins the lottery he is so happy that he doesn't see the car driving towards him until it has already laid him out. Recovering in the hospital he sees a Carson Daly piece on TV that is looking at the concept of karma and he realises why his life is so rubbish because he has spent it doing bad things. He resolves to write down a list of all the bad things he has done and work though them to make amends, thus balancing his life out. His first good deed sees him reunited with his winning lottery ticket thus setting him up with the resources to tackle the rest.
Along with "Everybody Hates Chris", My Name is Earl came to the UK with lots of praise and critics hailing it as one of the saviours of the American sitcom. As someone who has been left uninspired and bored by the bland flavour of Friends, Raymond, Just Shoot Me and countless other safe, studio-bound sitcoms this was an offer I couldn't turn down and I'm very glad to say that I wasn't disappointed. From the very start and throughout this series delivered a great concept with energy and imagination to produce a show that is the complete opposite of all the bland, studio-bound sitcoms that fill the US schedules by pushing obvious buttons and playing it safe to the point where it is hard to tell them apart. With Earl the concept sets up lots of individual episodes that are only limited by the writers' imaginations. Generally they are all well devised and those that are weak are generally carried by the laughs.
In this regard the series produces lots of great lines and shows that the writers have a great ear for dialogue. The laughs come from straight jokes, clever asides and even just the way the characters present themselves. It is consistently funny and, although I wasn't rolling that often, I still had more than enough laughs to make each episode memorable and have plenty I would still be chuckling about days later. The direction is good and the series avoids the "studio" feel of many other sitcoms. Needless to say the lack of canned laughter is a welcome thing, making it much easier to enjoy without that grating on me all the time.
Responding really well to the material, the cast are consistently impressive and fun. I've always liked him and with Earl, Jason Lee seems to have found a character that suits him perfectly and whose only downside may be that he'll never get better. He is a tremendous lead and he delivers his character and dialogue really well. However he is not so selfish so as to dominate the series, because he works really well with the support cast, allowing them to shine. Suplee is great fun as Randy, getting a lot of the best lines and making him lovable and dumb, as opposed to the type of dumb that would turn the audience against him. Pressly may not have done anything but white trash roles but that is because she does them very well and, "Earl" has handed her a doozy. Joy is tremendously b*tchy and fun, with great lines and a great presence. Not to be outdone on the sexy front, Velaquez is cool and is funny when given the chance, even if she is down the pecking order from the others. Steeples is funny and "gets" his character. The supporting guest stars are mostly well cast and take to the material well.
If it has a weakness, it is that each show seems to take "lessons" and sentiment from the story too easily. Set in a world of poor, white trash it would have been nice to see some harsh edges and some bitter reality served up, but generally the laughs cover up for this forgivable lapse into sitcom obviousness. Overall then a very enjoyable series that had me consistently amused and laughing, using a clever concept to produce good stories and delivering them with great imagination, humour and wit. The cast all take to it like ducks to water and from just a few episodes I felt it deserved the praise it had got. Along with "Everybody Hates Chris" it stands head and shoulders above the majority of the sitcoms cluttering the schedules with laughter tracks and uninspiring ideas.
