My Name Is Earl - Season 4

After season three featured a lot of continuous plot lines, the fourth returned Earl to his natural environment as he got back to his list, with 27 episodes of wacky trailer park hijinks for us to enjoy. Earl has never gotten as much attention as the other shows on NBC's consistently solid Thursday evening lineup, but it's always there, providing solid laughs without asking you to care too deeply about anything in particular. It's sort of a nice appetizer before heavier hitters like The Office. I don't love Earl, but I appreciate it.

I liked some of the continuous stuff in the last season, though the show is probably best in this form, with Earl checking off past transgressions in fairly humorous and clever ways with plenty of opportunities for one-off guest appearances. They do dip into the serialized stuff here and there still, with cool things like a long-awaited reveal of the truth behind Crabman's past and a two-parter that tells the story of the Crab Shack's former owner, featuring Geraldo Rivera. The show's fun whenever it deviates from the formula by putting the cast on another show within the story, and they poke some fun at the odd decisions made by network executives as well. It seemed like Ethan Suplee showed off his range a lot more this time, emerging from his standard dopey-guy persona, and I'd like to see him be in that mode more often. Randy's funny, but maybe not the best outlet for a talented comedic actor. The finale ends on a cliffhanger, and the show's future has yet to be decided. I'd like to see it come back, not because I care too much about the unanswered question, just because I still enjoy it most weeks.