Over the past decade, we've seen a fair number of hit comedies whose appeal stems from their focus on both feeling good and becoming a better person. Shows like The Good Place, Ted Lasso, and Schitt's Creek come to mind.
Those shows are excellent, making them so easy to rewatch, but they weren't the first comedies to focus specifically on self-improvement. Among the very first shows to center around the subject in the 21st century was a forgotten NBC hit sitcom called My Name is Earl.
My Name is Earl, starring Jason Lee as Earl Hickey, a good-for-nothing petty thief who decides to turn his life around after getting hit by a car mere seconds after winning $100,000 via a scratch ticket. After learning all about Karma in the hospital, Hickey decides to make a list of every bad deed he's done in his life and make amends with each person he's wronged to improve his life.
After finding the $100,000 scratch ticket after completing one of the deeds on his list, Earl makes it his mission to use that money to right every wrong he's ever done.
At first, Earl follows through with crossing things off his list primarily because he believes Karma will come to kill him if he doesn't make amends. Over time, however, he realizes how much happier he is doing good deeds for others. More than that, the good deeds he does lead to him making new friends and improving strained relationships with family members.
Is My Name is Earl as good as the shows mentioned above that came after it? No. It's a bit more simplistic, and there isn't as much continuity, but watching it on the air from 2005 to 2009 was still a joy.
Much like the characters in those shows, it is primarily about Earl learning self-improvement, which is why when watching it, you can clearly see how much it influenced the shows that followed it.
My Names is Earl is surprisingly not formulaic
At first glance, My Name is Earl sounds like a formulaic sitcom where Earl picks a mistake on his list that he'll make amends for and ultimately does it in the 22-minute episode. While that is how it would usually end, the show typically switched up how exactly Earl was going to do that.
It wasn't as simple as making it up to the person. Sometimes, he had to do things that were way out of his comfort zone. Sometimes, he made it up to those he wronged by doing multiple things for them before he crossed them off his list. Sometimes, he realized he was doing things not for the sake of Karma but because he was who Karma sent as a comeuppance for someone else.
Even more impressive, there are episodes in which Earl doesn't succeed in fully making amends no matter how hard he tries, but he does succeed in making things somewhat better than before. There are episodes in which, in his attempts to make things better, Earl actually keeps making them worse.
In fact, there's one episode in which he doesn't cross the wrong deed off his list because he realizes it was better not to make amends with the person he wronged. The show kept coming up with creative ways to execute Earl and his list.
It didn't stop there. Some episodes occur in flashbacks that demonstrate that even if Earl was a petty crook, he wasn't an all-around horrible person. Other episodes took place that made it look like an episode of COPS where Earl's and others' misdeeds look hilariously dumb. It may not look like it initially, but My Name is Earl managed to avoid repetition.
Part of the charm is watching how horrible Earl used to be
Part of what made My Name is Earl hysterical was seeing the kind of man Earl was before he changed his life. To be fair, Earl wasn't a malicious person per se before his accident. Just a very selfish one. He wouldn't hurt people if he didn't have to, but because he always looked out for No. 1, he didn't care about the damage he would cause.
For example, in one episode, Earl and his brother Randy con a golfer into thinking he's mastered golf, all in their effort to get free beer and lunch.
Now that's pretty funny.
Without spoiling too much, Earl's schemes like this one were primarily about benefiting himself, but little did he realize that this particular one ruined the golfer's life.
Not only were Earl's schemes hilarious, it was heartwarming to watch him try to make up for what he had done. It showed a pretty good example of someone learning the error of his ways and, upon turning a new leaf, finding that trying to make it up to them is not easy.
The comedy went beyond Earl himself
Earl's old schemes as a criminal were only the tip of the iceberg of the show's comedy. He was pretty funny by himself, but the supporting characters - Randy, his ex-wife Joy, her new beau Darnell, and the hotel maid Catalina - also made up a fair amount of the show's comedy.
Randy was Earl's good-hearted but dimwitted little brother who followed Earl's lead no matter what. Part of why the comedy worked so well was seeing their dynamic when they interacted with each other. However, there were times when Randy was funny just by himself.
Joy was one of the show's abrasive characters. She starts as the antagonist, but her arc revolves around her and Earl forming a friendship after their divorce. Her aggressive nature made for some pretty funny moments and plotlines, but at times, it became a little much.
Darnell's comedic appeal as a character at first stems from the fact that despite Joy cheating on Earl with him, he and Earl are still pretty good friends. More outlandish plotlines came out about Darnell over time, but we can't delve into too many spoilers.
Catalina's hilarity came from the horrible but well-meaning advice she would give Earl with a lot of it stemming from her horrible upbringing. Her role varied a bit throughout the show's history. She got more shine in some of the seasons than the others, which is a shame because she is a pretty funny character
The frustrating ending of My Name is Earl
Among everything that went right with My Name is Earl, its finale was the worst thing about it because it wasn't supposed to be the finale. The show was abruptly canceled after Season Four wrapped up.
That wouldn't have been a problem if the fourth season hadn't ended on a massive cliffhanger. Several revelations come to light in the show's final minutes, which were supposed to be expanded on in Season Five, but viewers never got to see it through.
Making it worse was that Season Five was supposed to be the series' last one, but its premature cancellation ended all of that, meaning everything they had set up would never be resolved.
While it is sad to know that My Name is Earl never got the chance to finish what it started, it's undeniable that the show executed its self-improvement story quite well. So if you're in a show hole hoping to watch something that centers around someone trying to be a better person, and you've seen the more modern ones, My Name is Earl is worth a watch.
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