(S02E11) I wasn't that thrilled with this episode. I can't seem to put my finger on it as to why I didn't find it so funny. The concept was a good one with Cops filming in Camden County, but it just seemed so over-the-top. I mean, how many crimes did Earl, Randy, Joy, Darnell, and the rest of the gang commit in a single episode?
That doesn't mean there weren't any genuine laughs here, either. The appearance of Tim Stack as himself was clever--I enjoyed him on Son of the Beach and he was really funny here. The scene where the officer (Mike O'Malley, late of Yes, Dear) lets him drive off when he's absolutely blind drunk was hysterical. When he mentioned his 62 items on his IMDB page, I nearly fell out of my chair! (BTW--it's now 63!)
The other notable guest star was Kathy Kinney, who played another police officer. (In case you don't remember, she was "Mimi" in the Drew Carey Show. She was wearing A LOT less makeup.)
Anyway, the story takes place on what Earl describes as "another boring Sunday" at the Crab Shack, and everyone there seems to be lamenting over something. Suddenly, Cops shows up on the bar's television, and it's a repeat of the episode filmed in Camden County back in 2003, and we are "treated" to some of Earl's worst behavior before karma entered his life. Randy also does his best to get into the act and joins in on some of the criminal behavior, all in order to be on Cops.
We're treated to a number of high crimes and misdemeanors, including Crabman's garden of hydroponic marijuana plants and Joy's throwing of Earl's stuff of the roof of their trailer. In between, we see some of the other characters get into mischief, and the local peace officers can't seem to get a handle on things. In fact, Earl steals a police car, and later we see him and Joy getting naked in the back seat being filmed by the embedded cameraman. Another funny scene was when Earl was trying to run away and he falls down and yelps, "I skinned my pecker!"
However, I have to say that overall I just couldn't get into it this week. Earl did say at the end that he saw some things that were on his list that he needed to take care of, but I'm not sure what the purpose of this episode was in the entire scheme of things. Plus, there was no sign of Catalina, and that's always a disappointment.
Hopefully this was just an anomaly and we'll soon get back to Earl's quest for karma, as well as Joy's pending trial. We know the writers want to develop more stories and not stay wedded to Earl crossing off something of his list every single week, but it might be good to back to that for a little while just so we can see him right his past wrongs.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
1-05-2007 @ 12:02AM
Geof F. Morris said...
Yeaaaaaaah. It was definitely subpar. Not the way to come out of the Christmas break.
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1-05-2007 @ 12:29AM
Dave said...
While I agree, it wasn't a "typical" Earl, I found myself laughing out loud a lot more at this episode than others that had more character development. Sometimes, it's OK just to laugh for no reason.
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1-05-2007 @ 12:52AM
alison said...
Maybe it *was* subpar, but it was still worth it for "You had me at balls."
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1-05-2007 @ 1:17AM
Donnie said...
It was ok, but Reno 911 has done it all before.
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1-05-2007 @ 1:21AM
SJ said...
I don't know, I really enjoyed this episode. It was fun to see "Evil Earl".
Btw, how was Crabman living with his grandma in Camden county? Isn't he part of the witness protection program? I guess it doesn't really matter.
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1-05-2007 @ 6:57AM
KMF said...
I thought the episode was really funny. The IMDb reference made me laugh out loud. I live in an area with many Earls and so the multiple crime part was hilarious to me. And it let you in on how things came about (like the postman's eyepatch). Earl though did get back to Karma and add to his list. He realised that unlike everyone else who celebrated their appearance on the show, Earl didn't and began adding stuff to his list.
But yeah Darnell is in the witness relocation programme so havign him live with his grandmother still has me wondering if they can't get that right.
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1-05-2007 @ 7:00AM
Al Mendelsohn said...
Subpar? Not funny? What is wrong with you people???While I freely admit it was not the typical Earl, I laughed out loud WAY more than usual. I found it one of the funniest half hours of TV I have ever seen. I was laughing the whole way through.
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1-05-2007 @ 7:14AM
Dr. Funbags said...
Yeah - I thought this was a top notch episode filled with lil tidbits/easter eggs for Earl fans. C'mon who didn't laugh when they saw Donnie (before he found Jesus - and his tattoo)naked and then in his snake pants - or with Kenny driving by twice to get a look?
"Turn on the Radio and see if you can get some Wu-Tang"
"When did you start listening to rap?"
"I'm not cheating on you!"
The funniest episode of the year!! (2006 included)
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1-05-2007 @ 7:36AM
Stephen said...
I think this was the funniest episode of earl yet. I almost fell over laughing when they shot randy out of the tree with the tranq gun
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1-05-2007 @ 7:51AM
RSL said...
Even though it did rehash some other shows' ideas [Mr. Show/Run Ronnie Run, Reno 911, and even a viral video about shooting a bear down from a tree] I think it was a very funny episode. I loooooved the fact that Darnell, who usually shows up as a pretty straight-laced [if odd] character, has another, erm... LIGHTER side. I did wonder about Darnell's being in witness protection yet staying at his grandmother's house, though.
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1-05-2007 @ 8:10AM
Rick Foster said...
"Bad Boys Bad Boys, whats it gonna be" had me dying!
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1-05-2007 @ 8:21AM
Kath said...
This show had more "out-loud-laughs" than any other comedy I've seen in a while......except maybe for a few other "EARL" episodes. The one liners were hysterical. Loved it!!
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1-05-2007 @ 8:55AM
Stuart said...
I am not a regular view of Earl, but I noticed that Tim Stack was credited for writing this episode. I am not sure if he is a regular writer, but that may explain why it felt so "different" to people?
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1-05-2007 @ 8:58AM
imdennycrane said...
The Wu Tang/I'm not cheating exchange was damn funny! Joy is a classic character - she can make me laugh every show.
I thought this was pretty funny - got a lot of chuckles out of it!
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1-05-2007 @ 9:43AM
R-Bro said...
I agree with most... this was one of the funniest "Earls" yet. Except for the part with Randy up in the tree; that was just painfully unfunny. But I'm *still* giggling at, "You had me at balls." That's definitely the best line of 2007, so far...
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1-05-2007 @ 9:45AM
Josh said...
This was definitely one of the best episodes of Earl I've ever seen. It was so unbelievably funny!
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1-05-2007 @ 9:56AM
Alan said...
The Wu Tang exchange was a gas, had me a good belly laugh with that one.
But yeah, they seem to reconn the show every so often, which is kind of odd for such a character driven show.
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1-05-2007 @ 10:01AM
johnnymac said...
Randy in and then out of the tree was the best. Add me to the list of folks how loved this episode.
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1-05-2007 @ 10:18AM
tommy b said...
Funny, i thought it was very funny, maybe the funniest my name is earl this year! Unlike the critic micheal S, ofcourse there is going to be lots of crimes in one day, it's fiction, lots of stuff packed into 1/2 hour. I laughed more at this episode than any other this year. Altho Randy gets a little tiring, i love the look on darnells face when he had the pot plants and had the leaves blown off of him... Where was jumping Catalina??? Hey IMHO it was funny... but then again... I AM CANADIAN! EH
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1-05-2007 @ 10:18AM
Mike said...
Yeah, I wasn't thrilled with it either. I love the secondary characters as much as the next guy, but they seemed a bit too heavy-handed with the townies this episode. I love it when a couple of them just pop in for one or two scenes in an episode. Having pretty much every secondary character in the show involved in one episode... It was a little too much for me... It was still funny, don't get me wrong, but I thought it was definitely below-average on the "Earl" scale.
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