DVD Review: My Name is Earl: Season One

Instant karma is going to get you….to laugh your arse off. Earl has a list of wrongs that he has to right if he’s going to get back on the good side of karma, with hilarious results. Earl’s fans must have good karma because this 4 disc set is here.

Earl J. Hickey (Jason Lee) is the na’er-do-well’s na’er do well. He steals anything that isn’t nailed down and is generally on the wrong side of the law. One day he wins $100,000 in the scratch off lottery and dances into the street to celebrate and is run down by a car and his winning ticket is blown away in the breeze. While recuperating in the hospital he watches the Carson Daly show and Carson is talking about karma, if you do good things then good things will happen to you. Earl takes this to heart and decides to turn his life around by making a list of all the people that he’s wronged and making right by all of them. He’s joined in his quest by his not-to-bright brother Randy (Ethan Suplee). He and Randy move into a fleabag motel and also get support from Catalina (Nadine Velazquez) the cleaning lady. Karma smiles upon Earl and the lottery ticket is soon back in his hands and the winnings committed to helping mark people off his list. However, a constant thorn in his side is his ex-wife Joy (Jaime Pressly) who is after his money and divorced Earl in his sick bed to marry Darrell “Crab Man” Turner (Eddie Steeples). Earl is the fly on karmas windshield

Earl is the fly on karma's windshield

Disc 1
Episode 1: Pilot: Earl starts working on making things right with people on his list. He starts with Kenny, a boy that he picked on in elementary school. He decides that Kenny (Gregg Binkley) is lonely and needs a woman, but Earl is trying to sell a cat to a man who fancies dogs. Episode 2: Quit Smoking: Earl finds that even quitting smoking is easier than facing the man who went to prison for a crime that Earl committed. Episode 3: Randy’s Touchdown: The odds are against him when Earl tries to make up for having fixed a high school football game in order to win a bet. Episode 4: Faked My Own Death: The next item on Earl’s karmic agenda is to make up for the fact that he faked his own death to avoid having to break up with a girl. Episode 5: Teacher Earl: Earl tries to teach English to a group of immigrants to compensate for having made fun of people’s accents while his friend Ralph (Giovanni Ribisi), just out of prison, plots to steal Earl’s money. Episode 6: Broke Joy’s Fancy Figurine: The only way Earl can make up for breaking Joy’s fancy figurine is to participate in a beauty pageant…as a target of a other/daughter knife-throwing act. Episode 7: Stole Beer from a Golfer: Randy’s excited about going to the county fair, but it will have to wait until Earl can clear up some bad karma at the local country club.Disc 2
Episode 8: Joy’s Wedding: Earl tries to make up for ruining Joy and Darnell’s wedding, but he only makes things worse when he winds up sleeping with Joy. Episode 9: Cost Dad an Election: Four years ago, Earl’s unruly behavior cost his father (Beau Bridges) the mayoral election, and not it looks like history will repeat itself. Episode 10: White Lie Christmas: ‘Tis the season and when Joy’s parents (Blake Clark and Brett “Don’t judge me” Butler) come for a visit. The problem is that Joy has never told them that she divorced Earl and he has to pretend they’re still married so he doesn’t ruin Christmas. Episode 11: Barn Burner: Hoping to get Joy’s children admitted, Earl returns to his “rotten kids camp” where he accidentally burned down the camp’s barn… or did he? Episode 12: O Karma, Where Art Thou?: Earl fills in at a fast food restaurant, and his faith in karma is shaken by his new boss (Jon Favreau), a reprehensible jerk with an enviable lifestyle. Episode 13: Stole P’s HD Cart: The fast food wars are on as Earl tries to put a well-liked hot dog vendor back into business since he and Ralph put him out of business on the suggestion of the competition (well the money didn’t hurt things either). Episode 14: Monkeys in Space: While Randy searches for his purpose in life, Earl tries to brighten the day of an old buddy (Tim DeKay) who is being transferred to the state prison.

Randy is living the high life - no more generic cereal for him

Disc 3
Episode 15: Something to Live For: While trying to compensate for having stolen some gasoline, Earl becomes determined to help a suicidal man (Adam Goldberg) find a reason to go on living. Episode 16: The Professor: Earl becomes a guest lecturer and Randy pledges a fraternity when the two head to a university to return a stolen laptop. Earl is close to finding love with the lady professor (Christine Taylor), but karma has other plans. Episode 17: Didn’t Pay Taxes: Earl gets tangled up in red tape when he tries to repay his debt to the government. Episode 18: Dad’s Car: As a Mother’s Day gift to his mom (Nancy Lenehan), Earl tries to mend his strained relationship with his father. Episode 19: Y2K: Earl fondly recalls New Year’s 2000 when the Y2K bug spelled “doomsday” and the gang had glorious plan for building a new world. Episode 20: Boogeyman: Earl has his work cut out for him as he tries to cross “made a kid scared of the boogeyman” off his list. Episode 21: Bounty Hunter: With a warrant out for his arrest, Joy is stalked by a vicious bounty hunter (Juliette Lewis) who happens to be Earl’s embittered ex-girlfriend.Disc 4
Episode 22: Stole a Badge: Earl and Randy return a stolen police badge to help its owner get a promotion, but the cop only wants to be a professional bowler. Clint Howard guest stars as Crazy Rodney. Episode 23: BB: Earl tries to help reunite a former crush with her estranged father (Geoffrey Lewis) in order to make up for having shot her with a BB gun in the ass. Episode 24: Number One: Earl decides to cross the first item off of his list, but what he thinks will cost him $10 winds up costing him all of his lotto winnings, leaving him broke and wondering when his good karma will kick in. My Name is Earl is a damn funny show. Thanks to the solid comedic acting by Jason Lee, Ethan Suplee, Jaime Pressly, Nadine Velazquez, and Eddie Steeples. Jason Lee has Earl down pat and is just a wonderful comic actor. Whatever Earl tries to set right sometimes ends up blowing up in his face to begin with and this creates some great comedy (stole a car from a one legged girl comes to mind).

Joy and Darnell (Hey Crab Man)

Even when he does find a task that he can accomplish to cross off his list the results are comedy gold. For example, in the pilot he thinks that Kenny is lonely and needs a woman. Only Earl and Randy discover that women are not exactly Kenny’s cup of tea. After running out of Kenny’s house in reacting to meeting their first gay, Earl feels bad and returns to then find Kenny a man. The supporting cast is also, well, perfectly cast. Jamie Pressly steals every scene that she’s in as Earl’s trailer park trash ex-wife. Ethan Suplee is wonderful as Earl’s dimwitted (think Lenny from Mice and Men) brother and his comedy timing is fine tuned. However, let’s not forget Nadine Velazquez (also a hottie) and Eddie Steeples (Hey, Crab Man).I’d like to yammer on about my favorite episodes but I’ll let you discover them on your own. They’ll have you laughing your head off – hey I wouldn’t lie to you, it would be bad karma. My Name is Earl is presented in anamorphic widescreen (1.78:1) and enhanced for 16x9 televisions. Fox knows that anyone buying this set has good karma so they’ve laid on the special features (those with bad karma will find that they’re missing a disc or they’re all scratched up). There are multiple commentaries on the discs. The Pilot episode has one from creator Greg Garcia, executive producer Marc Buckland, Jason Lee, and Ethan Suplee. Teacher Earl has commentary from Garcia, Lee, Suplee, and Giovanni Ribisi. Joy’s Wedding has commentary from Garcia, Buckland, Lee, and Suplee. White Lie Christmas has commentary from Garcia, producer Tim Stack, Jaime Pressly, and Nadine Velazquez. O Karma Where Art Thou? Has commentary from Garcia, Lee, Suplee, and Jon Favreau. Dad’s Car has commentary from Natalie Garcia, Mary Buckland, Carol Lee, and Debbie Suplee (otherwise known as the Moms of Greg Garcia, Marc Buckland, Jason Lee, and Ethan Suplee). Number One has commentary from Garcia, Buckland, Lee, and Suplee.

Catalina

Each disc also offers a selection of deleted scenes with optional commentary from Garcia and Buckland. The rest of the special features are located on disc 4. They include a special “lost pilot” made especially for this DVD called Bad Karma. It has Earl turning the channel from karmic Carson Daly and instead listening to the advices of vengeful Stewie Griffin from Family Guy. He decides to avenge himself on everyone that he feels has done him wrong, with hilarious results. This episode also features an optional commentary from Garcia, Buckland, Lee, and Suplee. Next is the 38 minute “Making Things Right: Behind the Scenes of My Name is Earl.” It has interviews with creator/executive producer Greg Garcia, executive producer/director Marc Buckland, Jason Lee, Ethan Suplee, Jaime Pressly, Nadine Velazquez, Eddie Steeples, director of photography/director Eyal Gordin, head hair stylist Patricia Gundlach, head makeup artist Peggy Teague, editor Billy Marrinson, associate producer Kim Hamberg, editor Lance Luckey, Gregg Binkley, and executive producer/writer Bobby Bowman. There’s also a 20 minute blooper reel and a 30 second soundtrack promo. My Name is Earl is the most fun I’ve had watching a DVD set in awhile. The show is a hoot and fans that caught it on TV (I’m not too big on network telly, prefer to catch up with DVD season sets) will be happy that there’s a great selection of special features. Give it a try – your karma will thank you.My Name is Earl – The Complete First Season is now available at Amazon. As of yet, there is not a release date for the UK. Visit the DVD database for more information.