Quick TV Show Update

My Name is Earl: Not worth it.

I watched about ten episodes. It was cute and likeable, but likeable doesn't keep me watching. Funny keeps me watching. Well-crafted keeps me watching. Engaging keeps me watching.

Earl is almost these things but falls short. Funny? Well, I laughed once out loud every couple of episodes, which is actually far more than I laugh at most sitcoms. If it weren't for that, I wouldn't have sat through the whole DVD. Well-crafted? Well, kinda. They tried to do the Arrested Development thing of having the plots come together at the end, but they were just too predictable or felt forced. Engaging? To some, engaging means likeable. Earl is a likeable character, but in such a banal way that he almost has no personality. To go back to Arrested Development (the comparison is inevitable, as Earl seems to be trying to do AD but with an audience), the characters were engaging because they were both likeable and horrendous. Let's take a look at the characters side by side:

My Name is Earl

• Earl. Is a "bad guy," but he's changed his ways. And the bad stuff he did was, for the most part, not too bad at all. He loves his brother, sticks like a born-again Christian to his newfound "karma" philosophy, and is your usual stereotypical underdog character.
• Randy. Loveable oaf? Check! Randy also loves and would do anything for his brother. He's dim, but in that Lennie from Of Mice and Men puppyish kind of way. What's not to like?
• Joy: Caricature bitch. Her purpose is to make Earl look good in comparison. Too annoying to be funny.
• Catalina: Perfect sagely Latina. Bland bland bland.

Arrested Development

• Michael: The "likeable" center of the show only works because he's snarky and mocks everyone and sometimes can be a real dick.
• GOB: The loveable oaf, here played by a douchebag. His likeability comes from his over-the-topness and hilarious assholery. And the fact that he's a loser and doesn't realize it.
• Lindsay: This shallow blonde bitch works because she's not an annoying caricature. Similarly...
• Lucille: This shallow bitch works because her plots are brilliant. While Joy would say "Gimme my money!" and go after Earl with a shotgun (vaguely funny), Lucille would slyly play her children off of one another to get her way (sounds unfunny, but is actually a very good way to build a hilarious plot arc).
  
• George Sr: This sage works well because he's a criminal and only doles out advice when he's manipulating people.

And so on. I'm sorry, Earl. When you're everything to everybody, you lose the quirkiness that would make you watchable. That's not to say it's completely terrible, but I'm not going to use my Netflix queue slots to watch more.