(S02E08) This episode gave us a look at the eco-friendly Earl Hickey. Who would have known that he had a burning desire to save the Earth from global warming after spending a week in a dung cottage at the Sunshine Collective?
I know I'm repeating myself, but this show continues to make great use of guest stars, and Christian Slater as Woody IMHO was outstanding here. Of course, one could be cynical and say that he was a good choice to play a stoner based on his past history--the scenes of him stumbling around his house as Earl and Randy slowly rob him of all his possessions were certainly authentic.
The big issue surrounding this episode was the use of Claymation at certain points in the story. I didn't truly understand why Randy had all of these hallucinations--he was eating some natural grains, but it seems the years of junk food and beer have formed a defense mechanism in his body from anything considered "healthy."
I thought the two characters who looked the best/funniest in Claymation were Crabman, where you see his hair moving in a number of directions, and Catalina--'nuff said. Joy also looked good, and Randy staring at her Claymation boobs in motion was funny. Earl was everything you would have expected, but when Randy pulled his chin over his head while looking in the mirror, I nearly lost it. The old naked lady behind the bushes at the commune was disturbing, Claymation or not.
I came into the episode thinking that the Claymation gimmick would overpower the story, but it didn't. It blended very well and the writers should be commended for doing such a good job.
As Earl continues to right his past wrongs, he's learning a lot about himself and his place in the world. He may be almost overzealous in trying to do good things for people, but he is sincere, and watching him do what he could to save the Earth was actually touching. It really IS true--if you just take 5 minutes out of your day to do something, it will count.
As usual, there was some great music in this episode, and all of the tunes fit into what one would guess would be on the playlist at a commune filled with "hippies." It was nice to hear snippets of oldies but goodies like Good Morning Starshine, I'd Love to Change the World, Draggin' the Line, and Big Yellow Taxi. I know that a CD of songs used in the first season was released a couple of months ago, but there might be a market for another one.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
11-17-2006 @ 1:12AM
Jyoti said...
Regarding the paste Randy ate. The guy warned him not to eat it and said that it had a lot of things from nature. You seem to forget that marijuana comes from nature and while it doesn't have you seeing things in claymation, the experience is ... not exactly normal.
Certain plants have hallucinogenic compounds.
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11-17-2006 @ 1:33AM
Akbar Fazil said...
I would have to say there were magic mushrooms in the paste.
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11-17-2006 @ 2:21AM
Man said...
Yes Randy was warned of the paste toxic effects.
You do know that perfectly natural plants like nightshade can kill a person. Just because nature makes it does mean it is good.
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11-17-2006 @ 7:23AM
Brian D said...
Great ep. Did anyone notice the long haired blonde guy was "Hollywood Steve" from the http://yachtrock.com/ vids? If you are not familiar, it may be one of the funniest sites I have ever seen. I think he was credited as Steve Huey. Great ep.
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11-17-2006 @ 9:09AM
Kira said...
The paste Randy ate was a Peyote past.... from the Peyote cactus and a major hallucinogenic. Great episode. Loved Joy and Crabman in bed at the end too.
"My Aunt's got reach!" BWAH!!!
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11-17-2006 @ 9:27AM
Rick said...
'past history'... as opposed to 'future' history??
Anyway, it was a great episode, as usual I would say. This must be the most underrated comedy (along with scrubs) at the moment.
How anyone could rate 'According to Jim' higher than the geius of Earl is beyond me.
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11-17-2006 @ 10:09AM
heinlein said...
This was the worst episode o Earl yet. It was so preachy, that it could just as well been written by Al Gore.
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11-17-2006 @ 11:11AM
Thumper~ said...
Remember when Randy first ate the paste, looked down and saw his hand in claymation? Does anyone remember the name of the song that began playing? It was just a few strums of a guitar, the intro ... It's been driving me nuts. I can't remember it. HELP??
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11-17-2006 @ 11:21AM
rvkey said...
I loved this episode. I thought the montage when Earl is trying to do his part in saving the environment all the while holding that can of oil in his hand because he hasn't quite figures out what to do with it was genius! Also, when Catalina was in claymation dusting the table she was saying (in Spanish) that originally the scene was supposed to be her taking her head off and dusting the table with her hair but that claymation was expensive so you'd only get to see her dance. Mucho funny!!
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11-17-2006 @ 5:01PM
Lizbeth said...
I love Earl. But in last night's episode I was distracted by Christian Slater's face. What kind of hippy has that much Botox? I swear his face didn't move.
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11-17-2006 @ 1:41PM
Tucker said...
Great ep - heinlein, go crawl back into your Hummer and change the channel to Bill O'Reilly if you can't handle a little comedy in current events context.
The claymation bird turning to Randy saying "Dude, you're brother's buggin' out" almost made me choke to death. I'm serious!
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