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May 09, 2007
Karma is a funny thing.
2 of 2 found this helpful This extremely funny show is about Earl Hickey (Jason Lee), a petty thief, scam artist, and all around jerk.
Here's how the story goes...
One day while buying "a pack of smokes, a couple Lotto scratchers, and a tallboy at 10:00 in the mornin'" from a local convenience store, he is overjoyed to discover that he is the winner of $100,000.00. So overjoyed, in fact, that he runs into the street for a celebratory dance and is promptly hit by a car. Just before he loses consciousness, he sees his "lucky" lotto ticket get swept away in a gust of wind.
While recovering in a hospital, Earl reflects on his life and wonders why it sucks. He married his wife Joy (Jaime Pressly) after their booze-soaked first date, and was too drunk to realize that she was six months pregnant at the time. They named the kid Dodge because she remembers that his daddy drove a truck. A few months later, Joy was pregnant again. Earl Jr. had a decidedly darker complexion than Earl Sr. {he also had a bushy afro that looked suspiciously like that of Darnell (Eddie Steeples), a waiter at the Crab Shack} but Earl loves the kid anyway. Earl is also saddled with a sweet but dumb younger brother, Randy (Ethan Suplee). When Joy brings him divorce papers while he's lying in the hospital bed, Earl tries to decide how to get his life back in order. He gets his answer from an unusual source: while channel surfing, he stumbles across Carson Daly discussing the idea of karma...what goes around comes around.
Earl decides that he must have lost his Lotto ticket because of this karma thing, so he sets out to correct all of the wrongs he committed over the years. He makes up a list ranging from littering to faking his death to break up with a girl. He and Randy move into a crummy motel where they befriend housekeeper Catalina (Nadine Velazquez) and get to work crossing things off of his list. When his winning lottery ticket literally comes flying back into his life, Earl realizes that he has finally found his purpose.
Each episode consists of at least one of the evil-doings being scratched off the haggard yellow notebook paper kept in his pocket. But unlike many comedic shows, "My Name Is Earl" has a very touching aspect and moral story to every episode. Earl is not only able to scratch off a task, but he learns & grows through this new found addiction. The good acts become contagious and soon those around him are experiencing the new found wealth of karma. Maybe if we all took some lessons from Earl we'd live a much happier and wholesome life, a life that teaches others, while at the same time learning for ourselves.
The cast is amazing. You couldn't ask for a better fit for Jason Lee or Jamie Presley. The acting is so familiar to the characters, it's as if everyone was born for the role. The Hickey brothers fit each other so perfectly that you can't help but love their state in society.
Some of the episodes contain audio tracks with the creators & some of the actors. The audio tracks are interesting and will entertain anyone who finds the show even slightly funny.
The DVD set also contains deleted scenes & a blooper reel. There is also a behind the scenes feature, but the best featurette is entitled "Bad Karma." This featurette is a hilarious outtake on what things would have been like if Carson Daily wasn't Earl's influence, but someone else was. The strictly DVD release of the featurette makes the DVD worth the purchase and at least a couple rentals.