My Name Is Earl: Season 2

I'm halfway through this series now, and frankly, I'm not in love with it. That's okay, of course. Not every show out there is a gem, and someone who wastes as much money and time on DVD sets as I do is well aware of this before every purchase. Earl is decent. It's funny enough to be the kind of show I sued to watch now and again (but not regularly) and the characters are likable and unique enough to keep you coming back for more. (Because our affinity for certain characters, more than anything, is what keeps us coming back for more TV. Right?) But if the characters in Earl are the show's biggest strength, then the show's inability to find a tonal center for itself is its greatest weakness. The show started out with a formulaic premise - Earl has made a list of all the bad things he's ever done, and one by one, he's making amends and crossing items off the list. Easy enough. The show has stayed consistent in its overall "purpose" in Season 2, but the writers have now begun to dabble in longer story arcs. Because of this, Earl's list often takes a backseat to, say, Joy's court date or Randy's affections for a motel cleaning lady. I'm fine with this. By paying less attention to the list and Earl's karmic quest for redemption, the show is capable of being much funnier and expanding its scope much more. That said, this new and expanded approach in Season 2 only made the list-centric episodes all the more boring and one-note by contrast. I should point out that I sued to occasionally watch Earl in college, but only in this second season. The remaining two seasons on DVD, then, are still complete mysteries to me. The only thing I know is that the show got canceled after the fourth season, and that the fourth season's finale was in no way an adequate series finale. I've also heard there's a huge deviation from the "Earl's list" format coming up in Season 3 that left some people satisfied and some people wondering what the hell was going on. And based on the way this season ended, I've got my guesses - as well as my own suspicions regarding whether or not I'll enjoy it. Time will tell!