This episode feels like another cop-out for Earl as a character. I don’t see the point in episode where Earl isn’t doing a new deed, just thinking about deeds that he’s done in the past. The fact that Earl has done things on his list that we haven’t seen brings up new questions like how many deeds does he actually left and how many exactly are there.

Jason Lee as Earl Hickey

The deed this week had Earl helping his friend Raynard, because due to him not having a place to stay, Raynard ended up living in the jungle. Earl sets out on a journey to get Raynard’s life back on track by trying to give him a job and a place to stay. None of this works out; due to Raynard being out in the jungle for so long he’s lost a lot of the social aspects in his life.

The first half of this episode wasn’t so bad and I have to give most of the credit to Ewen Bremner, who was the most delightful thing in the episode. The accent combined with the character in the beginning was pretty funny. The problem with Raynard was once the episode shifted to him being in the jungle, everything just stopped being funny. It’s unfortunate too, because it would have been nice to see Raynard in future episodes, hopefully we still do.

At least Randy was back to his normal dumb self, and his lines gave a chuckle or two. There just didn’t seem to be any kind of meaning to this episode. In the synopsis for the episode it said Raynard gives Earl a new way to look at life, but it didn’t come off that way. The last two episodes haven’t done anything for Earl as a character. That’s why this episode and this season have failed, because of the lack of character development.

At this point “bad episodes” aren’t surprising. Never before have I seen a show take such a dive in one season. All we can do now is hope that the next episode will be better, but I wouldn’t get my hopes up if I were you.

Rating: 5.0

“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

Earl comes into the Crab Shack to fix a dent that he put in the counter years ago. It’s not really made clear whether this was on his list, but we’ll assume it was. This triggers Earl’s memories of Earl and Joy’s marriage. It’s weird because up until this episode, I think the majority of us always assumed that while Earl was scum, that it was mostly due to Joy’s cheating and lying that the marriage broke apart. This episode shows that Earl was a horrible husband. He did the worst things like swapping his dirty corn for her clean one and just basically being inconsiderate and rude; it was definitely odd to see a different side of their marriage where Earl was that bad.

While Earl was made to look like a horrible husband, this episode made Joy look like a good wife; she cooked, cleaned and took care of the children, while Earl did nothing. One thing that Joy apparently took pride of was a piece of cake that Earl gave her for an anniversary. Unfortunately, during one Randy and Earl’s drunken night, Randy eats the cake, which really upsets Joy. So Randy throws a party and mistakenly invites every person that Joy’s had sex with, which includes Earl’s cousin.

Jason Lee as Earl, Jaime Pressly as Joy

It was cool to see Jason Priestley back on TV, since the last time I remember seeing him on camera was in the short-lived series, Tru Calling. Jason does well with what he’s given and it would be cool to see Earl’s cousin in a future episode, but he just doesn’t work out too well in this episode.

The problem with this episode was the way the writers tried to add back story or fill in things with Earl and Joy’s marriage. We really didn’t need this and the only thing that this episode did was make us feel like Earl deserved to be cheated on and that Joy was a better wife then he deserved. Also it seems like Jason Lee can play the present Earl, but lacks the same effect when he plays Earl from the past; he used to have it nailed down, but now when we see old Earl it doesn’t feel like he’s that much different from new Earl. Randy had a couple of funny lines, but none of them were particularly memorable.

The secondary storyline had Earl, Patty, Kenny, and Darnell trapped in an elevator trying to avoid killer bees. There were problems here, and the first one was Darnell and Catalina meeting. I could have swore that they had met before or after Earl and Joy got married. The biggest thing that annoyed me about this episode was the way they rewrote how Catalina started jumping at club Chubby’s. Supposedly she got the idea from Darnell, even though in the episode “Jump for Joy” I thought they gave a different reason.

This episode failed on numerous levels and there were very few moments where I even laughed. This seemed just like a filler episode and if Earl is going to do one thing off his list. I’m sure we’d prefer that it wasn’t fixing a dent in the bar.

Rating: 4.5

This week’s Earl had him running into Lloyd, a happy guy who got sold a car that didn’t work. Lloyd bought the car only to realize he had gotten ripped off and thus he began his life of thinking all people are scum. Lloyd ends up moving next to Earl and at first, Earl is just annoyed by the sounds from the next room and doesn’t even realize it’s the guy he screwed over, but eventually remembers him and works on fixing this, because after all it is on his list.

Ethan Suplee as Randy, Nadine Velazquez as Catalina

This story was weak from the beginning. It’s hard to feel too bad for a guy who buys a car without driving it first and it’s also hard to believe that someone would hate the world based off buying a bad car. Earl usually has some weird and quirky characters on the show and Lloyd was quirky and weird, but not in a good way. We couldn’t feel bad for him, because he seemed quite crazy especially when we find out he’s been trying to build a rocket ship to go out into space. This episode just reeked of a bad plot all the way through.

The other storyline had Joy helping Earl Jr. with his science project so she could win the grand prize. I do like that we’ve been seeing Joy take an active interest in her kids, even if it is because she’s trying to win money. Her project was pretty stupid and felt like it was just filling time and then in the end when Earl Jr. ends up using the rocket, it made the rest of the storyline feel useless. There was no character development or anything that amusing about this episode.

It was a watchable episode, but it was far from Earl’s strongest episode. If Earl wants to get better it’s going to have to take some risks again that hopefully pay off. It wasn’t a great episode, it wasn’t a good episode, it was barely a decent episode, but it was watchable and that’s what most of this season feels like it’s been; just watchable.

Rating: 5.3

This week, Earl takes on the daunting task of crossing off two things off his list. Now crossing off one thing takes up a whole episode so trying to fit two things doesn’t work out so well. The first thing Earl crosses off is “cost Randy the chance to have a big brother”. Some of these things on Earl’s list are a bit ridiculous and Earl being responsible for his mother getting her tubes tied didn’t feel right. Since apparently Earl’s mom can’t just have another kid when her kids are both over thirty, Earl sets Randy up with the big brother program, which Randy ultimately is rejected.

Eddie Steeples as Darnell

Randy then decides to take care of Catalina’s nephew Oscar. When Randy sees Oscar steal a tip from a table, he goes to confront him about returning it. Then Oscar gets Randy to believe that he’s doing voodoo. A little kid doing voodoo is a bit of a far-fetched thing even for Earl.

There were some good moments in this episode mostly due to the ridiculous comments Randy kept making and the way he reacted to the whole voodoo thing. Earl talking in his high-pitched voice was somewhat amusing also. I also liked that the character brought into question Earl’s belief in Karma. Earl kept saying that voodoo wasn’t real, but believed in Karma and it was cool to see Oscar bring it up and make Earl think about it. The whole belief thing didn’t really pan out into anything deep though.

Earl’s second item was “ruined Dodge and Earl Jr’s Halloween,” but there wasn’t a lot of time devoted to this item. In fact, Earl crossing it off his list just seemed too easy and due to the other item, he just was able to cross it off.

Fitting two tasks from the list onto this episode was a bad idea and the fact that either one led to any character development or even a very good episode is disappointing. I’m not sure if we were supposed to feel bad for Oscar or what because if we were supposed to feel some sympathy for him, it didn’t work. Even at the end when Oscar saves Randy, it doesn’t erase the fact that he acted like a monster the entire episode.

There were some things to like about this episode, but ultimately this episode just seemed like a lame way to cross two items off the list.

Rating: 6.5

With Randy’s birthday coming up, Earl uses it as a way to cross never letting “Randy get anything better then me” off his list. Earl gets Randy a new car that looks better then his. When Earl goes to show Randy his new car, it’s been stolen. In Camden county, there’s a code of conduct that all criminals don’t steal from other criminals. Since Earl is trying to do good now, he’s not protected under the criminal code of conduct anymore. Earl is able to get the car back again, but for a fee and then it gets stolen again.

Earl ends up in quite a bind, because if he were the old Earl, he would have done something illegal to get even, but then again like Darnell said, “if he was the old Earl, his car wouldn’t have gotten stolen anyway.” After contemplating, Earl decides that he has no choice but to go to the cops. This turns out to be a bad idea, because in Camden County snitches are the lowest of low. With Earl snitching, he’s faced with the silence of the whole county.

Why wasn’t I in this episode more?

It’s weird with Earl at such a disadvantage. It was almost like watching a bully pick on the kid who refuses to fight. I did like that the episode challenged Earl’s conscious and Earl had to figure out his own way of getting things done. It was also quite fun to watch Earl go back to his old ways and try to hotwire a car only to realize that he’d forgotten. Scenes like this show that there has been some character development with Earl and that so much time has passed that Earl isn’t at the top of his criminal game anymore.

This episode wasn’t without its flaws though. It was kind of a downer that we didn’t see more of Randy this episode. While we get that Randy couldn’t see his birthday gift, it would have been nice to see him in another capacity on this episode. Also a great episode of Earl, is one where Earl learns a lesson and we see some character development, but this wasn’t one of those episodes. By the end of this episode, nobody really learns any kind of lesson except the fact that everyone in Camden County is a snitch.

I thought there were some good to decent moments in this episode, but this episode was weaker then most of the episodes so far this season and it lacked the heart that we’ve gotten from most of the episodes this season. This episode did enough to entertain us, but Earl needs to get back on the track that it was on before this episode.

Rating: 7.0

I’ve said it before, but one of the cool things about this season of Earl is how fluently the show goes into what Earl is going to do next for the episode. There’s been some cool sequences before hand that just has Earl remember something. This week Earl’s watching a cheerleading competition when he remembers how he made fun of Kenny for wanting to be a cheerleader when he was a kid. I have to say this task on his list seemed like it didn’t totally belong on the list because it seems rather petty to put making fun of someone when they were kids on the list. The task though takes an interesting turn when Earl finds out that it wasn’t Kenny who wanted to be a cheerleader and that it was Randy. The task then turns into Earl having to cross Randy off his list instead of Kenny. It was nice to have Kenny back and great to have an appearance by Mike O’Malley playing his boyfriend.

Ethan Suplee as Randy

Earl goes with Randy to the cheerleading camp where the two realize that Camden continually have the worst cheerleaders at the camp every year. The Camden cheerleader’s apparently have one of every stereotype on their team too, with the black chick, the nerdy one, the pregnant one, and the weird one I guess. I’m also pretty sure that the pregnant cheerleader’s name being Juno was something that the show just wanted to throw in their just for fun.

Jenna Elfman was cast well as the head of the cheerleader camp, and it was fun watching her play an adult who was still into cheerleading. Randy really was center stage in this episode and it’s good to have the stupid Randy back. Whether it was Randy talking about how the pilgrims make the rules or copying Earl’s decision, it’s just nice to see that the writers have went with a consistent character for Randy again.

The side story this week started off disturbing with Joy finding out that Dodge had a little crush on Catalina, so the whole episode has Joy trying to get Dodge to think of her as being pretty. By dressing up in skimpy outfits and other things it became rather sick. It takes a little bit of a turn when we realize that this isn’t just another random thing that Joy is doing, but that she doesn’t want her kids to grow up. This season has really given us a new take on Joy’s feelings about being a parent. It just sucks that we were already disturbed by the time the sweet part of the plot came along, plus if the writers would have given that story more time and changed the plot it would have made the episode better.

So in the end, we get another pretty good episode of Earl. The problem this season is that every episode is another task off the list and nothing else. While last season did not enough list, my fear is that this season will do too much of the list. Hopefully by the end of the season, there will be some good character developments as well as some tasks off the list crossed off.

Rating: 7.5

Joy getting carjacked gets Earl to attempt to cross “sleeping with Sweet Johnny’s girlfriend” off his list. Sweet Johnny was the neighborhood stuntman and Earl had a thing for his girlfriend, Sheila; it was supposedly her nice hiney that did it for him. Just so Earl could spend precious moments with Sheila, he would get Johnny to do stunts that were dangerous so he could injure himself, which would give Earl more time to have sex with Sheila in Johnny’s van.

David Arquette as Sweet Johnny

Johnny’s reaction when Earl tells him what happens was funny which involved shooting staples at Earl. Earl decides to give him a day to cool off, only when he comes back the next day, Sweet Johnny has no recollection of the previous days events. When Earl goes to see Johnny, he tells him about how an accident that he had that basically has him reliving the same day ala Groundhog Day or 50 First Dates.

We’ve seen this used before and Earl doesn’t bring anything different to the whole situation. After the first couple of times of reliving the day, the whole thing does start to get a bit annoying. David Arquette was a pleasure to watch and Earl continues to pick the right guest stars to appear on the show. Unfortunately though, the character of Sweet Johnny is somewhat forgettable. We don’t really get to know Johnny as well as some of the other characters that we’ve had on the show and giving him memory loss doesn’t help at all.

It was weird, but Randy trying to prove to a beer bottle that he wasn’t a virgin was just as interesting as Sweet Johnny. Randy is back in full form this season and it’s great to have the random Randy back instead of the inconsistent intelligent Randy from last season. The other storyline had Joy getting a gun after being carjacked at the beginning of the episode. Darnell doesn’t like guns and the writers should give be given props for making Darnell into the most anti-stereotypical character on the show. Joy packing a gun had its moments, but was mostly due to Darnell being in on it.

This was one of those episodes that wasn’t bad, but it had no heart and it’s one of those episodes that didn’t have any moments where we’ll remember it a season from now.

Rating: 6.7

It’s interesting how Earl is choosing which things to do on his list now. In the first two seasons, he was going to down the list mostly and choosing himself, but this season the things he’s choosing to do usually come up after someone else brings up a memory. While Earl choosing doesn’t add or subtract anything from the show, having Earl just sort of doing them randomly flows a lot better with the story.

Earl’s latest list item is triggered when Joy reminds him of the time they blew up an RV they stole from Jerry, a retired vet. When Earl goes to see Jerry, he’s sitting around in his house waiting to die — literally just sitting around. Jerry starts to become more alive though as Earl and Randy replace items that were lost in the RV explosion. There’s only one more item left to get before Earl crosses Jerry from the list and while at first it seemed like Jerry’s search for a one of a kind pendant from an old buddy was going to be simple, it becomes obvious that Jerry’s pendant was going to be his old buddy’s ear.

Ethan Suplee as Randy Hickey

The story about how Joe left Jerry was funny and it was truly an honor to have John Amos and Jerry Van Dyke play their respective roles. It wasn’t just the sight of seeing two people relive their old army days, but it was more the sight of two seventy-five year olds (even though John is younger then seventy-five and Jerry is older then seventy-five) past their prime trying to get at each other. It would have maybe been nice to see more contact between the two, maybe even a funny fight scene, but that probably would be pushing the two veteran actors too far.

Joy’s pursuit of trying to catch Pigsquatch had its moments too, but mostly served as a distraction to the main story. Randy’s habit of finding hats and having a different personality when he put them on was funny because it happened throughout the episode, never really distracting because it flowed so well. Randy’s personality change was just one of those things where you could tell when he did it and you couldn’t help but laugh.

My Name is Earl is definitely on the right track this season and this episode was another good addition to an already flourishing season. If the writing team keeps cranking out great stories to coincide with Earl’s list, we could be looking at one of Earl’s better seasons.

Rating: 7.5

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