My Name Is Earl: Season 1 (DVD)

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His name is Earl, Earl Hickey, and he´s the trailer trash hero of Greg Garcia´s always irreverent and funny sitcom "My Name is Earl." Combining the comedic talents of actor Jason Lee with a brand of humor that feels a little like "Family Guy" filtered through a more focused lens, the show is a great way to spend half an hour. Collected in its first season DVD set, you can enjoy the hilarity at the press of a button.

The set up is a simple one; in hopes of turning his life around, Earl creates a list of wrongdoings he´s committed over the years and plans on rectifying his actions and making it up to the people he mistreated. You see, Earl had won $100,000 off a lottery ticket but his glory was short lived as he was hit by a car and as a result the ticket floated away. Earl, knowing full well that he isn´t a very good guy, gets a sign in the form of Carson Daly, who espouses on his talk show about the essence of karma.

Every episode follows Earl as he tries to make up for his misdeeds and the result is an often hilarious look at human nature. The greatness of the show rests in the way the characters interact with each other and often react to Earl´s new philosophy in life. Over the years he´s surrounded himself by an off beat cast of cohorts that include: ex-wife Joy (Jamie Pressly), his brother Randy (Ethan Suplee), Joy´s new husband Darnell (Eddie Steeples), and Catalina (Nadine Velazquez).

The show really owes as much to its cast as it does to its writing. Lee is great and gives Earl a nice balance between being an ignorant hick bent on making his life (and those around him) better. Pressly is a great foil for Lee, in that her character is almost a 180 to Earl´s good hearted charm. Suplee also provides a nice bouncing board for Earl, almost always acting as Earl´s right hand in his various misadventures. Rounding out the cast are Steeples and Velazquez, who offer a nice touch of humor, while serving as a means of grounding the knee jerk antics.

Garcia and company have found a nice balance between styles blending satire, slapstick humor, situational comedy and a genuine dose of heart, into a brilliant little half hour serving. In the episode "White Lie Christmas," which guest stars Brett Butler ("Grace Under Fire") as Joy´s mom, the set up is that Earl always managed to screw up Christmas for Joy and the kids when they were married. With Randy´s help Earl hopes to win Joy a car in a radio contest. Things get complicated when Joy´s parents arrive, but Joy hasn´t managed to inform them that she and Earl are divorced (she told them Earl left to serve in Iraq) and that she´s now married to Darnell, who she fears will cause her father to write her out of his will (and her stake in the family business). Earl agrees to play along, but only because she guilt´s him into believing that it´ll be his fault if he comes clean and ruins yet another Christmas. Earl´s situations never go quite as planned but things ultimately turn out for the best because karma is on his side.

"O Karma, Where Art Thou?" finds Earl filling in at a fast food restaurant as part of his list, where his faith in following the karmic path is put to the test by his new boss (Jon Favreau), who is, without a doubt, the boss from hell. The boss is a jerk in every sense of the word and seems to be doing great from himself; he lies, cheats, steals and even has a hot wife. However, when the boss pushes Earl too far, Earl let´s his fists do a little talking which causes karma to take its toll on Earl´s boss. The result is funny but the epiphany that Earl has is even better.