Starring:
Jason Lee (Dogma, Mallrats, Almost Famous, Chasing Amy, The Incredibles)
Ethan Suplee (Evolution, Mallrats, American History X, Road Trip, The Butterfly Effect)
Jaime Pressly (DOA, Not Another Teen Movie, Torque)
Eddie Steeples (Torque)
Nadine Velazquez (Entourage)

Run Time: 501 minutes
Language: English
Subtitles in : Danish, Finnish, Greek, Norwegian, Portuguese, Swedish, English for the Hearing Impaired
Certificate: 12

4 Disc Set

Includes: A lost pilot, deleted scenes, blooper reel and selected audio commentaries

Characters:

Earl Hickey (Jason Lee) - has spent his whole life doing bad things. Wins $100,000 on a scratchcard but gets hit by a car whilst celebrating and loses it. In hospital his wife Joy tricks Earl into signing divorce papers so she can marry Darnell. Whilst watching TV he comes across a Carson Daly show where he talks about karma. To Earl's morphine laced ears the concept that if you do good things, good things happen and you do bad things and bad things rings true to his own life - so he makes a list of every bad thing he has ever done and aims to make up for them. He is helped by his brother Randy and tries to have a Demi/ Bruce/ Ashton relationship with his ex wife Joy ( who got him drunk and married him when she was 6 months pregnant, then had Darnell's baby whilst still married to Earl.)

Randy Hickey (Ethan Suplee) - Randy is Earl's brother and partner in crime. He is a simple man with simple needs and has called "dibs" on Catalina. 9 beers are his limit - as demonstrated by the cat shaving incidents and he is often led astray by others. Without a doubt has the best lines and the "Barn Burner" episode is one of his finest.

Catalina Aruca (Nadine Velazquez) - The illegal immigrant maid at the motel Earl and Randy live in. She and Joy hate each other, but she has made a move on Earl who turned her down because of Randy. Can't help but siding with Joy in their feud though.

Joy Turner (Jaime Pressly) Earl's ex wife who tricked him into marrying her when 6 months pregnant with her son Dodge. Cheated on Earl with Darnell and got pregnant by him with her second son Earl Junior. Divorced Earl whilst he was in hospital but then found out about the $100,000 and tried to kill him to get to it. Runs a Premier Nail business from her trailer. She is ruthless and sassy but you can't help but like her and root for her and Darnell. In my opinion her best episode is "Dads Car" which shows Pressly's ability for physical comedy.

Darnell Turner (Eddie Steeples) Darnell (or Crabman as Earl calls him) works as a Chef at the Crab Shack. Marries Joy during Series 1 and is friends with Earl despite a somewhat shakey history between them.

Dodge Hickey (Louis T Moyle) Joys eldest son. She couldn't remember much about the father other than he drove a Ford - so he was named Dodge. Born June 10th 2000 (tattooed on the base of Joys spine)

Earl Hickey Jnr (Trey Carlisle) Joys second son (fathered by Crabman) noted for his afro hair. Born April 3rd (tattooed on the base of Crabmans spine)

Carl Hickey (Beau Bridges) Earl's dad. He hates Earl as since he was born has done nothing but cause him problems, such as losing him an election, gluing a nazi moustache on him as he slept and lost his Mustang. Blames all of Randy's misdemeanours on Earl. Earl was due to be named Carl Jnr but due to a Handwriting error the C became an E

Kay Hickey (Nancy Lenehan) Earl's mum. Is more forgiving towards her sons. Tries to help Carl deal with them.

Kenny James (Gregg Binkley) A boy who Earl tormented in his youth. Was the first person to be helped by Earl. Is gay, but hadn't told anyone so Earl took him to a gaybar to boost his confidence. Works in a copy shop and is always keen to help Earl after forming an unlikely alliance.

Ralph Mariano (Giovanni Ribisi) Earl's friend from his stealing days. Just released from jail and tried Earl's karma mission but after a morning of being good and not winning the lottery tried to steal Earl's winnings. Tortured Randy, stole a hot dog cart and a wedding dress. Cuts off his own toe to help Earl's list. He is one of the best characters in my view and played brilliantly by Ribisi

Patty the Daytime Hooker (Dale Dickey) Is hired to seduce Kenny before Earl realises his sexual orientation. Has had "relations with" Randy - on his birthday, Billy Reed and a Bengali speaking shop assistant.

Episodes:

1. Pilot
2. Quit Smoking
3. Randy's Touchdown
4. Faked His Own Death
5. Teacher Earl
6. Broke Joy's Fancy Figurine
7. Stole Beer From A Golfer
8. Joy's Wedding
9. Cost Dad The Election
10. White Lie Christmas
11. Barn Burner
12. O Karma, Where Art Thou
13. Stole P's Hd Cart
14. Monkeys In Space
15. Something To Live For
16. The Professor
17. Didn't Pay Taxes
18. Dad's Car
19. Y2K
20. Boogeyman
21. The Bounty Hunter
22. Stole A Badge
23. BB
24. Number One

Each episode is based around one main thing on Earl's list and often result in a mishap whilst crossing something else of the list. Even though there is a lot of physical gags in "Earl" a lot of the laughs are from the sheer irreverant dialogue between Earl and Randy.

Some of the storylines are completely outrageous but as the series moves on you can believe that nothing is beyond Earl, Randy and even Joy or Catalina (well before Earl discovered karma anyway.) To back up the A Grade gags are many physical jokes such as Randy's fear of birds - which leads to an incident with an ostrich, Kenny's 'not-at-all-gay' work colleague and the entirety of Joy's wedding to Darnell.

Awards:

Emmy - Outstanding Casting for a Comedy Series
- Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series
- Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series
- Outstanding Single Camera Editing for Comedy Series

2006 USA People's Choice Award - Favourite New Television Comedy

2006 Television Critics Association Awards - Outstanding New Programme of the year

Trivia:

• Earl's eyes are always closed in every photo
• The Series Premier drew in 15.2 million viewers in the US
• The original list has 259 bad things on but by the end of the series this is up to 267 (although 36 were crossed off)
• Filmed in California
• Darnell is referred to by Earl and Randy as "Crabman" as he supplies them with Crab meat not fit to go into the crab cakes at the Crab Shack.
• References other shows/ films including Stargate SG1, Forrest Gump, Mallrats and Smokey and the Bandit

Overview

Since the departure of so many great American Comedies there has been a gap on our TV screens. My name is Earl is witty, with well written characters and a great concept. The interactions of Earl and Joy are absolutely brilliant. If you don't have E4 this is well worth the investment as their are jokes on every level. However if you do have E4, save yourself the money as repeats are shown regularly. Keep an eye out for Series 2 early in 2007