(S02E20) Our protagonist Earl has gone and crossed another item off his list -- after adding it to the list in the beginning of the episode. When I was reading the description of this episode, I was a little dubious. What does Earl getting his GED have to do with righting the wrongs on his list. But Earl's friends made a pretty compelling case that Earl should be on the list for ruining his own life. That, and as Randy points out, things go much more smoothly when Earl's on the list -- they don't have to waste time tracking somebody down and explaining the list.
As the woman giving out free t-shirts to anyone who qualifies for a credit card tells him, he's homeless, uneducated, and unemployed. Sure, he won the lotto, but seriously, how does he have any of his winnings left after all this time?
So Earl's off to become a grownup, and he decides to start by getting his GED. Until he realizes that he doesn't know anything about any of the subjects on the test.
When he heads back to his high school, he finds that the teachers have given up on educating their current students and have no interest in helping out a former hellion. So he and Randy decide to help the teachers regain control by scaring the students straight.
The best moments of the episode come when Earl takes the students on a field trip to show them what happens to students who don't graduate (with the possible exception of Earl telling Randy that "This is going to be one of those times when you think I'm talking down to you, but the squirrel on TV's a cartoon," just moments before he finds out that he can't get a credit card because he's, among other things, uneducated).
I have no idea how all of these kids were supposed to have hopped on the back of his El Camino (or how it was legal for him to take them on a field trip without parental consent), but they visited the motel and the crab shack. And they learned that Earl had recently had his head peed on by a speed freak and had been beaten at rock, paper, scissors by a monkey at the zoo.
What I love about Earl is that he earnestly admits these are all horrible things and that his life generally stinks. The list doesn't really seem to change that very much, but at least he feels better about himself. And just when you think the show's getting a bit too earnest for its own good the students flip Earl's car on its side and before you know it, the teachers have blown up a student's car.
The end of this episode seemed a bit trite, and some moments sounded like they were written by adults trying to remember what dumb kids sound like. I'm not going to end up a loser like you because I rock at Guitar Hero? Umm yeah.
But there was enough off-beat humor and Randy one-liners to almost make up for the throwaway plot. And we got another peak into Crabman's sordid past when we find out he graduated from high school with honors, but has seen the darkest parts of a man's soul.
This was a good, but not great episode. I'm going to give it a 4 out of 7.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
4-27-2007 @ 10:42AM
Zach said...
I love crabman, "subsets, look at you, growing up before our eyes" Good episode
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4-26-2007 @ 10:55PM
Matt said...
They didn't capture the young kids very accurately. No one five stars Freebird on the first try...at least on Expert! >_>
I liked the episode. The little swerves here and there, like the diversion the girl played on Earl, were humorous and mostly unexpected.
I also thoroughly enjoyed what I assume was a Mallrats reference in Randy's drawing of a sailboat.
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4-26-2007 @ 10:56PM
Borat said...
My favorite part was when Crabman got angry at the kids...I love this "other" smart side of Crabman which we may perhaps never know about.
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4-26-2007 @ 10:56PM
Bill said...
I thought the episode was very funny, but the fact that in a show that's normally like heartwarming, having a car bomb solve all their problems seemed very weird.
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4-26-2007 @ 10:57PM
tricia said...
I thought the same thing about Randy and the sailboat, being a tribute, as such, to Mallrats! But then, we had breaking news and missed the last half of the episode. So I am glad to get to read what happened. And we missed the beginning of The Office, but they came back into it pretty early, but after the set up. Mind you, this was news that could have waited until the 10 p.m. news, but we had live coverage, AND a recap of everything that we had just seen. And bonus, it was TiVoed!!!! Okay, I'm a little ticked off about it.
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4-27-2007 @ 7:53AM
keepitreal said...
i hope crabman gets his own show soon...
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4-27-2007 @ 7:51AM
Kyle Beabo said...
I totally didn't catch the possible reference to the Mallrats' sailboat. Good call.
Instead of the bomb, I think would have preferred to see the original plan of the teachers. That sounded pretty funny and not nearly as life threatening.
(Anyone else think that they were going to use the videotape against Earl or was that just paranoid me?)
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4-27-2007 @ 7:51AM
Kathy said...
I think Crabman is awesome.(did he do an Office
Depot commercial?) But, if he was to get a spinoff, all his mysteries would be unveilled, and thus he would loose his character. Like if we ever saw Norms wife. Loose the mystery and the facination fails.
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4-27-2007 @ 7:53AM
keepitreal said...
kathy, very valid points. i guess the heat of the moment blurred my vision.
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4-27-2007 @ 7:54AM
Mark said...
A 4? A 4????
Seriously, you guys need to change your rating system. I'm not harping on it being out of seven - I'm harping on the fact that it is weighted all wrong. The only "good" scores are a 6 and 7, and 5 on down are various degrees of sucky. And even using your scale, this show had to be a 5 or 5.5 at the very least.
Also another nit - Earl didn't get to cross something off his list, he got to cross of one subset, that leads to crossing off an entire item ;) He's still got the permanent residence and a paying regular job to get to.
I thought this episode was absolutely hilarious. I love how Randy can turn on a dime and become mean at the slightest of criticism, and the teachers getting back at the students was gut laughing at times. The monkey story... I could actually picture that - without actually seeing the visuals on the screen. I guess that shows how good a job the actors do in making us believe in their characters.
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4-27-2007 @ 1:13AM
Mark said...
A 4? A 4????
Seriously, you guys need to change your rating system. I'm not harping on it being out of seven - I'm harping on the fact that it is weighted all wrong. The only "good" scores are a 6 and 7, and 5 on down are various degrees of sucky. And even using your scale, this show had to be a 5 or 5.5 at the very least.
Also another nit - Earl didn't get to cross something off his list, he got to cross of one subset, that leads to crossing off an entire item ;) He's still got the permanent residence and a paying regular job to get to.
I thought this episode was absolutely hilarious. I love how Randy can turn on a dime and become mean at the slightest of criticism, and the teachers getting back at the students was gut laughing at times. The monkey story... I could actually picture that - without actually seeing the visuals on the screen. I guess that shows how good a job the actors do in making us believe in their characters.
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4-27-2007 @ 8:15AM
puddy77 said...
Randy pouring out a little chocolate milk for the dead shop teacher killed me!
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4-27-2007 @ 8:33AM
Hugeliver said...
What was with the chocolate milk? Was this a tribute to something?
Kathy, I was thinking the EXACT same thing when I came across your post. Weird. I think they should keep Crabmans mystery. I laughed my ass off at that 'powerful' acting. Just give us little tidbits like that and I think the character would be much better. He wouldn't LOSE (not loose) the character.
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4-27-2007 @ 1:42PM
Haggis said...
The chocolate milk being spilled was a "one for my homies" when they mentioned the shop teacher died.
I also didn't catch the sailboat reference, and I'm a rabid Kevin Smith fan. Good one.
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4-27-2007 @ 8:59PM
Melissa said...
"Guest teachers"
Hee hee. Is it just me, or is Randy reaching all new levels of wacky and dumb and loveable? I love Randy, he always has the best one-liners and backwards logic.
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4-28-2007 @ 7:39AM
Joe said...
'Just because you have a stripper name, doesn't mean you have to grow up to be a stripper.'
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4-28-2007 @ 2:08PM
Ben Watson said...
The best was the song "Lean on Me" playing while Earl is teaching Summer. I totally bought it!
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