My Name Is Earl

Detroit Free PressMike 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.

Miami HeraldGlenn Garvin

My Name Is Earl rampages like a bull in a politically correct china shop.

New York Daily NewsDavid Hinckley

One of this season's most tasty and twisted TV treats.

Orlando SentinelHal Boedeker

Jason Lee excels as scruffy Earl -- he's a Jed Clampett for the new millennium.

Philadelphia InquirerJonathan Storm

One of the best comedies in years.

San Francisco ChronicleTim Goodman

The fall's funniest sitcom.

Wall Street JournalNancy 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.

Hollywood ReporterBarry Garron

The buzz is that "My Name Is Earl" is good, and the truth is that it's better than the buzz.

Boston GlobeMatthew Gilbert

The NBC sitcom is so unpretentious and original, it will probably win you over on its own sweet merits.

Chicago Sun-TimesDoug Elfman

The casting is for awesome, flat-out too-good-for-TV acting.

USA TodayRobert Bianco

Earl shares the look and heavily narrated sound of Arrested Development, but it has its own scruffy comic tone.

Entertainment WeeklyKristen 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]

Cleveland Plain DealerMark 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.

VarietyBrian Lowry

"My Name Is Earl" isn't the best comedy around, but it's pretty darn good.

San Jose Mercury News/Contra Costa TimesCharlie McCollum

Manages to be crude and sweet, smart and splendidly stupid, all at the same time.

Seattle Post-IntelligencerMelanie 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.

The New York TimesAlessandra Stanley

Offbeat and utterly charming.

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.

TV GuideMatt 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.

PopMattersTerry 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.

New York PostLinda Stasi

Bad taste meets good writing.

NewsdayVerne Gay

Congenial.

Pittsburgh Post-GazetteRob 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.

Chicago TribuneSid Smith

"My Name Is Earl" is cheeky, inventive and often bewitching.

Los Angeles TimesPaul 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.

New York MagazineJohn 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.

Baltimore SunDavid Zurawik

My Name Is Earl is not a stupid sitcom - that is what makes its sexist and homophobic jokes so maddening.

People WeeklyTom 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]

The New YorkerNancy Franklin

The show is charmless and patronizing, and as refreshing as dust.

Washington PostTom Shales

Amounts to a character study of a character not worth studying.