"Creative Writing (My Name is Earl)", 10-18-2007

One of the first signs of burnout for a series writer is to pitch an episode dedicated to the pains of writing a story. This allows the writer to write about the difficulties of writing, instead of writing anything that might contribute to characterization. Furthermore, the writer gets to fob off his own creative difficulties on the audience. Some shows have dedicated episodes to character/writers trying to come up with ideas --and most of those shows aren't very good -- but with "Creative Writing" the "My Name is Earl" writers actually add new touches to characters about whom we think we know everything worth knowing.

This Season 3 episode continues with Earl right where we found him at the beginning of Season 3 -- in prison. Earl takes a creative writing class offered to the prisoners because he believes it will offer him the opportunity to take a mental vacation from the awfulness of prison. However, when the instructor (wearing helmet and flack jacket, no less) asks the inmates to write something, Earl finds himself stumped. Earl has never been a writer, and he finds filling up the page virtually impossible.

Television traditionally recreates the "landscape" of a character's writings through a sort of a dream sequence, and Earl is stuck in an endless expanse of white space. He can't fill up his imaginary realm and until he can, he is stuck surrounded by nothing whenever he picks up a pencil.

In the meantime, the storytelling meme spreads. Randy finds writing a story very easy. His story is sort of a stream-of-consciousness action adventure story, where he teams up with H. R. Pufnstuf - you can't make this up - to fight crime. Randy, through his training, mastery of the arts of ninjitsu, etc. etc., manages to defeat the evil forces that have kidnapped Earl and Catalina. (Hint: one of the evil forces is a loud blonde with pigtails.) The story is very much in character with Randy's gentle, childlike nature.

Joy can't get her kids to do homework, so she tells them a story about what happened to two losers who didn't do their homework. This vignette is told in cartoon form, and the two losers happen to have the last name of Hickey. Joy's cartoon portrayal has her as glamorous as a porn star, and both losers meet bloody ends with a little assist from God. I don't have the exact lines, these are paraphrased from memory:

GOD: Looking good, Joy.
JOY: Just usin' what you gave me, God!

Crabman (Darnell) is busy suffering from some existential woe, worrying about the fate of the crabs who get cooked at the Crab Shack. He sings a song about his pain at the death of all those crabs, and Joy and Earl lend a hand with an assist from some appropriately-rapped stanzas.

Meanwhile, Catalina is being pestered by a suicidal stalker at Club Chubby, and has time to write a story on her own while evading his attentions. Titled, "Catalina: Woman of a Thousand Tears", the drama on Catalina's paper plays like a telenovela, where Catalina's attempts to marry a rich man and rescue her kidnapped brother are thwarted by an evil Joy.

However, Earl still lacks inspiration. He decides to write about the simple things that give him pleasure, in this case, an imaginary scene of a typical dinner at the Crab Shack, with Randy, Joy, Catalina and the Crabman nearby. When reading the scene to the prisoners, he gets applause: they enjoyed his straightforward detailed glimpse of freedom over the more fanciful renditions offered by other prisoners (one of Earl's cellmates relates a story of beating up a gymnast, and it takes a while for Earl to work the gymnast out of his mental "white space").

One of the high points of a good episode is that it tells you things you never knew before but keeps the focus on humor. With Crab Man's affection for Mr. Turtle, I never thought much about Crab Man cooking live crabs at the Crab Shack. It seems that Crab Man believes in protecting all living things, and for the first time we learn that the details of his job deal a little angst.

Furthermore, despite Joy's trailer-trash manners, we get a stronger glimpse of how much she cares for her kids -- her tale of the perils of not doing homework has them running for their books. We got one of our most significant tender glimpses of this affection at the Season Two final episode, "The Trial", and I'm glad to see that the writers have not forgotten.

Randy's tale is just pure wacky fun, but Catalina's falls a little bit short -- Catalina comes off as a cartoon, sometimes, and I suspect that the writers don't have the grasp on her essential character the way they've mastered the other main characters. But on the all, this was a good episode. I only hope that the use of the "character must write a story" trope has seen its last use, and that there are no "character must film a TV episode" episodes in the future.

"The Frank Factor (My Name is Earl)", 10-11-2007

An epic comedy? The "Lord of the Rings" of television? Who would have thought it?

"My Name is Earl" is not only a comedy, it's a tale of spirtual redemption. For those who have don't watch television, the narrative device is simple, but ingenius. Local petty-thief and ne'er'dowell Earl J. Hickey (played by the earnest Jason Lee) is hit by a car after winning $100,000 from a lottery ticket (he loses the ticket). While recovering at the hospital, his wife leaves him and he learns about "karma" from watching television.

He decides that the loss of his money (and his wife) is the result of karma -- all the awful things he's done are coming back to haunt him. Earl decides that what he needs to do is re-right his karmic balance, and makes a list of every bad thing he's done that he can remember (the list is at least 200 items). He makes it his goal to mark all of those items off his list and set karma straight. While completing his first item, he recovers his missing ticket and sees it as a sign that he should keep working. (The lottery ticket cash provides the means for Earl to work full time.)

Like Frodo Baggins, Earl and his dimwit brother Randy set off on a journey. They don't know where the journey will take them, but they expect to have several adventures along the way.

Season Three begins, however, with Earl paying the ultimate karmic price -- not wanting to see his obnoxious, trailer-trash wife Joy separated from her kids after Joy is moments from being convicted for stealing a truck, Earl takes responsibility for the crime. Earl is therefore sent to prison for the crime Joy committed.

Amazingly, the first four episodes of Season Three take place in the prison setting. In this episode, Earl meets another acquaintance in prison, a man named Frank whom Earl had met seven years earlier, but lost track of. Frank tells Earl his story, and the mystery of what happened to Frank is solved.

For the rest of the episode, the tale goes backwards, knitting together the way that all of the main character's lives have joined at this place and time in the world: Earl, Randy, Joy, Darnell (Joy's husband), hotel maid Catalina -- all are a part of Earl (and Frank's) tale, a revelation of how all of them came together. Even Howie Mandel and Tim Stack show up!

(* * *)

"My Name is Earl" works on two levels: the redemptive tale of Earl Hickey, and on the typical humor you find in situation comedies. One might not think that a morality tale like "My Name is Earl" would make it big in the 21st century, but Earl's triumphs -- and occasional tragedies -- add to the show's compelling charm. Some writers have suggested that the show is a veiled allusion to the healing power of religion (whether or not that religion is Catholism, Scientology or something else). With shows like "Heroes" and "My Name is Earl", we might have the seeds of a new era where television has something positive to say about the human condition.

Of course, it's a great comedy, too. The hits from this particular episode:

* Joy's solution to finding pornographic material for Earl while in prison.
* Randy and Earl's first apartment.
* Why Catalina came to the United States, and what happened to her mother.
* Randy's fascination with the wonderful productions of Sid and Marty Krofft.
* Who worked at the Crab Shack before the "Crab Man".
* How Joy and Earl got the trailer.

Moral redemption and inspired humor? If "My Name is Earl" is a veiled advertisement for Dianetics, I don't care. Keep it coming, NBC. Keep it coming.