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My Name Is Earl
SERIES: NBC, Tuesday 9:00p (30 minutes)
Starring
Jason Lee,
Jaime Pressly,
Ethan Suplee,
Eddie Steeples,
and
Nadine Velazquez
This unconventional comedy centers on Earl (Chasing Amy's Jason Lee), a redneck, drunk, no-good thief, who wins the lottery, loses his ticket, and is hit by a car. While recovering, he is inspired by a Carson Daly appearance on his hospital televison to change his life for the better, and he sets out to correct each wrong (all 259 of them) that he has done in his lifetime.
| GENRE(S): |
Comedy
|
| CREATED BY: |
Greg Garcia
|
| FIRST AIR DATE: |
September 20, 2005 |
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
100
Detroit Free Press Mike Duffy
Brimming with cockeyed echoes of everything from "Raising Arizona" to "King of the Hill," NBC's best new comedy since "Seinfeld" is that rare chucklehead treat: it's both wildly irreverent and blessed with a cheerful, endearingly upbeat nature.
100
Miami Herald Glenn Garvin
My Name Is Earl rampages like a bull in a politically correct china shop.
100
New York Daily News David Bianculli
One of this season's most tasty and twisted TV treats.
100
Orlando Sentinel Hal Boedeker
Jason Lee excels as scruffy Earl -- he's a Jed Clampett for the new millennium.
100
Philadelphia Inquirer Jonathan Storm
One of the best comedies in years.
100
San Francisco Chronicle Tim Goodman
The fall's funniest sitcom.
90
Wall Street Journal Nancy DeWolf Smith
Watching "My Name Is Earl" unfold is like taking a hydrofoil ride and flying so fast above the ordinary surface of television life that when the show ends you feel dazed and amazed for hours afterward.
90
Hollywood Reporter Barry Garron
The buzz is that "My Name Is Earl" is good, and the truth is that it's better than the buzz.
90
Boston Globe Matthew Gilbert
The NBC sitcom is so unpretentious and original, it will probably win you over on its own sweet merits.
88
Chicago Sun-Times Doug Elfman
The casting is for awesome, flat-out too-good-for-TV acting.
88
USA Today Robert Bianco
Earl shares the look and heavily narrated sound of Arrested Development, but it has its own scruffy comic tone.
83
Entertainment Weekly Kristen Baldwin
Lee may be a tad too smart to embody this reformed dimwit, but his smooth charm makes Earl go down as easy as a tallboy. [23 Sep 2005, p.82]
80
Cleveland Plain Dealer Mark Dawidziak
"My Name Is Earl" is a good show that doesn't quite have the feel of being the next "Seinfeld" or "Cheers." But like Lee's Earl, Garcia's feel-good concept is strangely effective. If not brilliant, it is ambitious, and it is definitely funny.
80
Variety Brian Lowry
"My Name Is Earl" isn't the best comedy around, but it's pretty darn good.
80
San Jose Mercury News Charlie McCollum
Manages to be crude and sweet, smart and splendidly stupid, all at the same time.
80
Seattle Post-Intelligencer Melanie McFarland
Cute and smart, "Earl's" pilot pulled a coup unheard of in recent network comedy memory, juggling un-P.C. humor with a winning sweetness.
80
The New York Times Alessandra Stanley
Offbeat and utterly charming.
80
The Onion A.V. Club
The premise is gimmicky, but based on the promising first two episodes, Lee's infinite list of wrongdoings should provide many seasons' worth of amiable comedy.
80
TV Guide Matt Roush
Earl is unashamedly crude, at times downright stupid in its lowlife caricatures, yet it's all so cheerfully endearing that you can't help but be won over by its lowbrow high jinks.
80
PopMatters Terry Sawyer
What's so wonderful about My Name Is Earl is that it's a comedy with its heart in the right place and everything else gleefully in the gutter.
75
New York Post Linda Stasi
Bad taste meets good writing.
70
Newsday Verne Gay
Congenial.
70
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Rob Owen
Though the characters are quite different, "Earl" somehow brings to mind NBC's "Ed," perhaps because both shows feature a cast of oddballs and are ultimately uplifting, heartwarming portraits of people trying to do good by making a fresh start.
70
Chicago Tribune Sid Smith
"My Name Is Earl" is cheeky, inventive and often bewitching.
70
Los Angeles Times Paul Brownfield
Watching "My Name Is Earl," you feel like you're in a movie, or at least a movie trailer. In ways more good than bad, it's immediately comprehensible.
70
New York Magazine John Leonard
We have to put up with characters whose brainpower compares unfavorably with a fire hydrant, but Lee is funny even in a gay bar.
60
Baltimore Sun David Zurawik
My Name Is Earl is not a stupid sitcom - that is what makes its sexist and homophobic jokes so maddening.
38
People Weekly Tom Gliatto
Lee may lack the essential sweetness, or pathos, to make Earl ever seem like more than a cute variation on those lovable, loquacious losers who tumble, beer can spurting, through Coen brothers movies. [3 Oct 2005, p.39]
20
The New Yorker Nancy Franklin
The show is charmless and patronizing, and as refreshing as dust.
10
Washington Post Tom Shales
Amounts to a character study of a character not worth studying.
 The average user rating for this tv show is 8.7 (out of 10) based on 126 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
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