My Name Is Earl: Season 1

Back in college, I watched a lot of TV on Thursday nights. There was The Office, Scrubs, and Parks and Recreation. There was Survivor and 30 Rock. There was Always Sunny and there were isolated seasons of both Lost and The OC. One show that I watched occasionally, but never regularly, was My Name Is Earl. I was usually amused, though rarely floored, by the characters and subplots. For all intents and purposes it wasn't a show I'd have considered a favorite at any point in time. But when I found the third and fourth seasons on sale for $10 each (and the first two for $15 each) earlier this year, I decided to give the entire series a go from the beginning through the end. Not the wisest move I've ever made since beginning the Back-Blogged project, but by no means did it burn a hole into my wallet. For those of you unfamiliar with the show's concept, it's a rather formulaic one. Jason Lee plays Earl, a morally reprehensible man who one day learns about the concept of karma and concurrently wins $100,000. Earl decides then and there to change his ways, making a list of all the bad things he's ever done to other people and then trying to go around making things right by whatever means necessary. The set-up allows for the show to be very formulaic when it wants to be; Earl decides to help someone on his list, attempts to do so, usually runs into some sort of setback, and then things all work out in the end. I say "formulaic when it wants to be" because I know of episodes (in later season) that ignore Earl's list entirely. But here in the first season, I can't remember any episodes that didn't deal with Earl's list of karma in one way or another. Overall I'd call it an okay first season. It definitely took a little while for a lot of the supporting characters to hit their stride, but they're absolutely the driving force of the humor in this show. Earl is just too sweet and good-natured for his occasional "white trash" confusion to evoke many giggles from me on his own. All in all, this is a solid and unique sitcom that I look forward to watching the remaining three seasons of, but I'd stop short of telling anyone else to watch it.