I Love You, Man

You might guess this is another Apatow movie, but it's really just another of the several that have successfully modeled themselves after his revival of the R-rated comedy this past decade. It's actually not that similar stylistically in a lot of ways, although it's hard deny a bit of influence. The cast is pretty great, with all sorts of talent, both familiar and up and coming sprinkled throughout. The pedigree of the writer and director isn't fantastic, but they managed a solid hit with this. Paul Rudd is maybe a bit off-type, playing a guy who gets along with women and is a great boyfriend but never really connected deeply with another guy. After proposing to Rashida Jones, he realizes he doesn't even have a decent candidate for his best man, so he starts going on "man dates" looking for a friend. It's a cute idea, reversing the normal focus of a romantic comedy, and it sort of is the pinnacle of the bromance sub-genre. Eventually he meets Jason Segel, the two hit it off, and then there's the standard formula of growing friendship, troubles, and reconciliation right before the end (if you think that's a spoiler then you obviously have never seen a motion picture before).

So a lot of it is just Paul and Jason hanging out together, and Paul briefly seeing other guys played by a bunch of recognizable faces. Some of the better smaller parts are Andy Samberg and J.K. Simmons as his gay brother and dad respectively, and Jon Favreau as the dick husband of one of Jones' best friends, played by Jaime Pressly. A lot of the humor is fairly typical of modern comedy, although there were some unique bits that were pretty good. Throughout the movie Rudd can't help but try to come up with clever phrases in an attempt to sound cool and failing utterly, with each bomb funnier than the last. The best might have been "totes magotes" in place of totally, but it's hard to say. Certain things like Segel's "return the favor" engagement party toast were gold, and even something that could have seemed uninspired like the Lou Ferrigno part were saved by touches like the matter of fact the way others treat him with reverence. It's not a particularly groundbreaking movie and I'm not sure if I'll remember much of it a year from now, but as a simple funny movie it succeeds fairly well.

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.

My Name Is Earl - Season 3

The third season of NBC's redneck-comedy-that's-smarter-than-any-actual-redneck was much more plot-based than the first couple. To quickly recap, it's about a lowlife named Earl who decided to turn his karma around by making a list of every thing he's done wrong in his life and trying to fix them. The first two seasons had some continuity and entertaining flashbacks to his previous doings, but most episodes revolved around finding someone he'd hurt, realizing how the simple crime he committed had ended up turning their whole life upside down, and making things right in the end, learning valuable lessons on the way.

The third is different though. Earl starts off in jail, where he was put in season two's finale, finds his way into a coma, and then in a final plot dealing with Billie, the possible girl of his dreams. The list is still usually the center of focus, but there's still a lot of experimentation and changes to the formula. The show's interesting because it often has the mentality of a family comedy, always trying to teach lessons, but the humor and subject matter are quite often not child appropriate. I like Jason Lee more as the charismatic fast-talker, but he fits quite naturally as Earl. The thing is Earl makes more sense as the kind-hearted guy he's turned into than the jerk he spent most of his life as, but that might just be Lee's likability.

The whole cast is pretty spot-on. Ethan Suplee's really come into his role as Randy, Earl's simple-minded brother. He's pretty central as the season goes on, and has a lot of great moments. Crabman is still great, and there are some good guest appearances by Michael Rapaport and Alyssa Milano. I hope the fourth season is more of a return to form, but the third was an enjoyable diversion.

My Name Is Earl - Seasons 1-2

If you just look at the commercials, My Name Is Earl can look really dumb. But that's just the intentionally trailer-trash characters. The supporting cast is really good at conveying stupidity in a really entertaining way. My favorite secondary character is Darnell, otherwise known as "Crab Man". He has a very friendly relationship with Earl, his wife Joy's ex-husband, and often seems simple, but he actually has a lot of knowledge in his head and a shady past that has yet to be explored. There's plenty of things like that in the show, it might seem outwardly like just a dumb comedy, but a lot of time is spent developing characters and relationships.

The main character is Earl, obviously, played by Jason Lee. At first, he's almost unrecognizable in the part. If you're familiar with him from his other movies, like the Kevin Smith stuff, he seems a lot different. The voice is the same, but the mannerisms and appearance is like night and day. It's really impressive how much he dives into the role. Does Earl look like a guy who used to be a pro skateboarder? Earl is one of the best main characters in years. He's funny and likable, and while he's obviously made a lot of bad decisions, you can see that he's become a new person and is really trying to make the world better. Once in a while he slips up again, but his passion for the list and making up for his mistakes are very believable and endearing.

The first season was mostly a bunch of interrelated one-shot episodes where Earl usually found someone he'd wronged before from his list, fixed a relatively simple problem, but then realized something else that was wrong or an unanticipated way his error had been worse than he expected, and figures out to make it right while learning some valuable lessons. Season two branched out a lot more. The list was less prominent than before. He still used it a lot, crossing off names and adding more, but there were a lot of side plots that weren't even related. He goes all over the place helping his friends, and the big story arc for the season is Joy's trouble with the law after an attempt to get a refund on her busted entertainment center. It resolves with Earl making a big sacrifice to help the people he loves, and I have to wonder how major the ramifications will be for the next season. Earl and his friends and family have really grown, and the show has a lot more emotional depth than you'd really expect from a cursory glance at it.