TV-Reviewed

Earl’s season opener was in my opinion an average affair and even though it’s good to see them return to the old format of Earl completing the list, it didn’t offer anything new, so therefore it was a good episode, but just not anything to cheer about.

This episode would have served better as the season opener, because it continued the old formula, but what it has that the last episode didn’t was heart. This week Earl finds a used hot tub sitting on the side of the road which reminds him of the time when he cost Joy a hot tub, by burning up her hair, even though Joy was spraying an awful amount of hairspray around, so sooner or later something was going to happen. Joy enjoys her hot tub, but because no one was smart enough to disinfect it before they used it, Joy gets a contagious staph infection. With Crab man being the one that has to live with her, it was funny watching how phobic he was about coming into contact with her. Another funny scene had him even boiling his clothes. Things get so bad that Crab man put Joy’s inside her own bubble.

Jaime Pressly as Joy Turner

With Joy gone, Earl takes over for her, doing everything that she does on a regular basis, which is a lot. Some of the tasks were meaningless, but there were things in there that showed that Joy does do a lot for the family. When Joy tells Earl to pick the kids up for school and tells him that Dodge and Earl Jr. don’t have any friends, Earl can’t figure out why. Joy thinks it’s simply because no one likes her kids, Earl finds out that it’s Joy that nobody likes. When the kids get invited to a party, because Joy is out, Joy goes out with hopes of crashing the party and ruining it, but when Earl gets there Joy is simply just watching everything happen.

Some of the best episodes of Earl are when they show that Joy has feelings just like everybody else and that happens in this episode. Joy starts to doubt whether she’s a good parent or not in this episode and while she’s definitely not the most conventional parent, it can be agreed that she does a lot for her kids; not crashing the party might have been one of the hardest things that she’s had to do.

Randy had good lines in this episode too from talking about his imaginary friend, who he’s given a whole backstory which involves him becoming a drunk, becoming married and by the end of the episode, turning to drinking again or suggesting that he introduce Dodge and Earl Jr. to the old man who’s always playing with kids.

It was a good episode and it does feel like the show has went back to the Earl that we know and love. This Earl did a good thing by injecting a little heart into the episode, while remaining consistently funny through out.

Rating: 8.0