My Name Is Earl – Season 2
Reviewer: Jordan Brown
Issue 100 February 2008
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Karma is still a funny thing
The Lowdown: It‘s been a year since Earl first made a list of his past misdemeanours and he’s still making up for them one by one. This time though, the moustachioed hick has to make up for robbing a stoner, making a woman believe he was God and getting Catalina deported to Mexico. No rest for the wicked.
Review: As original and hilarious as Season 1 of ‘My Name Is Earl’ was, you’d be forgiven for worrying about the show’s formula rapidly becoming stale. After all, the fledgling season offered nothing more than Earl crossing an item off his list of past sins each episode. That’s fine for the first season and all, but keeping it up for a second one could have seen things quickly become monotonous. It’s a tricky situation. On one hand, you don’t want to deviate too much from the list stuff as it’s the show’s bread and butter. On the other, viewers will want something they can get their teeth into. Fortunately, the scribes have managed to hit the perfect balance this year. While Earl cracks on with trying to achieve karmic harmony, the supporting characters get fleshed out.
Earl’s supremely trashy ex-wife, Joy, for instance, spends the entire run facing trial after stealing a delivery truck. Rather than worry about it too much though, she spends most of the time laughing at her deaf lawyer’s voice and grinning meekly through a tranquiliser-laced smile that’s intended to make her sympathetic to the courts. Elsewhere, Earl accidentally gets Catalina deported due to a slip-up, while Randy’s infatuation with her finally comes to a head when the pair get hitched.
Other standout moments include superb cameos from Burt Reynolds and Christian Slater as well as an episode that sees Randy get stoned. The result is that he sees his friends as claymation versions of themselves. The season’s shining glory however has the gang watching an episode of ‘Cops’ on which they appeared in Earl’s pre-list days. Cue Randy, oblivious to his impending arrest, trying to sing along to the show’s theme tune. Hilarious stuff.
The DVDs have been given the same TLC as the programme itself. Features include some informative commentaries that reveal plenty of nuggets of trivia on the show. Aside from a few featurettes and deleted scenes though, there’s not really a lot else worth getting excited over. But hey, it’s quality not quantity here. We would have quite liked the scratch and sniff card that’s meant to go with the episode in which Earl gets a job, though. The only ones who get that are Region 1 shoppers who buy the set from Best Buy. Americans get all the best stuff, but at least they’ve shared this glorious sitcom with us.
FILM: 8
EXTRAS: 6
DVD Info:
Certificate: 12
Starring: Jason Lee, Ethan Suplee, Jaime Pressly, Nadine Velazquez, Eddie Steeples
Director: Various
Distributor: 20th Century Fox
Original Release: 2006
Audio: Dolby Digital 5.1
Visuals: 16:9 Anamorphic Widescreen
Running Time: 508 mins
Price: £34.99
Special Features:
Episode selection
Scene Selection
Audio Commentary On ‘Sticks & Stones’ With Creator/Executive Producer Greg Garcia, Writer/Producer Danielle Sanchez-Witzel, Jason Lee, Ethan Suplee and Giovanni Ribisi
Audio Commentary On ‘Larceny Of A Kitty Cat’ With Creator/Executive Producer Greg Garcia, Writer/Executive Story Editor Hilary Winston, Jason Lee, Ethan Suplee and Amy Sedaris
Audio Commentary On ‘Our ‘Cops’ Is On’ With Creator/Executive Producer Greg Garcia, Tim Stack, Ethan Suplee and Jaime Pressly
Audio Commentary On ‘Kept A Guy Locked In A Trunk’ With Creator/Executive Producer Greg Garcia, Jason Lee, Ethan Suplee and Fans Beth Perry and Alesia Lewis
Audio Commentary On ‘Foreign Exchange Student’ With Creator/Executive Producer Greg Garcia, Writer/Executive Producer Bobby Bowman, Writer/Producer Mike Mariano, Ethan Suplee and Nadine Velazquez
Audio Commentary On Episode ‘Guess Who’s Coming Out Of Joy’ With Creator/Executive Producer Greg Garcia, Jaime Pressly, Eddie Steeples and Beau Bridges
Audio Commentary On Episode ‘The Trial’ With Creator/Executive Producer Greg Garcia, Director Mike Fresco, Editor Billy Marrinson, Jason Lee and Ethan Suplee
‘Karma: Take 2’ Blooper Reel
Deleted Scenes
‘Robbed A Stoner Blind – From Start To Finish’ Documentary
‘Web Cam’ Featurettes
‘My Name Is Earl As A Telenovela’ Featurette
