TV-Reviewed

There was a hope at the beginning of the season that My Name is Earl would return with a great season; especially considering the failure that was last season. Unfortunately this season is nowhere near great. This episode was another example of how stale the show has become. After an episode like this, I find myself losing all interest in Earl and his friends.

“Nature’s Game show” is an episode that dabbles in religion a little bit. My Name is Earl and religion are two things that on paper don’t go so well today and off paper it’s probably even worse. When a tornado hits Camden, it affects Earl and his friends in different ways. Randy thinks he’s a superhero because he got lifted with the tornado, Catalina and Patty think that the tornado is a sign from God, and Earl questions whether the tornado is a sign from God or if there’s such thing as something being random.

It appeared that the writers were trying to give us some deep meaning in this episode, but when you’re trying to get that meaning by using the characters from this show, it turns out looking just plain silly.

Ethan Suplee as Randy Hickey

Sometimes Randy is a shining beacon in most episodes, but he wasn’t in this episode. The writers have a problem when it comes to Randy and it’s that they don’t seem to give him any consistent intelligence. Some episodes he can be smart, others he’s dumb, and in this episode he was really dumb. We know Randy is “special,” but mistaking two hearts for steaks seems a bit farfetched. Then Randy seemed to think he could fly and that he was invincible. Randy is usually funny because the writers make him believably dumb, but this episode took Randy’s intelligence to a place so unbelievable that it wasn’t funny to watch at all. By the way, did anyone else notice Ethan Suplee’s tattoo slip?

Is it me or is Earl becoming boring? Jason Lee’s portrayal of Earl was interesting in seasons before, but now it doesn’t even feel like he’s putting any effort into the character; like he’s just out there repeating the lines. While this episode didn’t actually stray from the list, it did stray from the typical Earl formula. Earl didn’t learn a lesson by the end of the episode, in fact he really didn’t put much time into doing anything with the list at all. A couple of seasons ago Earl, himself, was interesting. It was interesting watching him get his life in order and better himself. Now it seems like the writers have sent him back to square one.

Maybe the only good thing about this episode was the debate between Joy and Darnell about who was smarter. It’s pretty obvious to us that Darnell is the smarter one, not to mention the smartest person on the show. It’s kind of cool to see them bring this to the fore-front. While we know that Darnell is the smarter one, it was pretty cool the way Joy went McGyver to blow up a door.

Sadly McGyver wasn’t enough to save this episode. The episode wasn’t funny and most of the characters actions didn’t make sense. Usually I try to give a little hope, but at this point I really don’t think My Name is Earl has anything left in the gas tank. Hopefully I’ll be proved wrong.

Rating: 3.5