My Name is Earl -- "No Heads and a Duffel Bag" --4/17/2008
 

Synopsis:

Not minding Earl being in the coma so much. Actually a very clever way to keep Alyssa Milano on the show.

My new favorite show: The Hickeys




Not.

Not this week :(

Average episode. I really like this show, but I wish it wasn't slipping consistently. Jail, and coma. Too many things affecting the premise of the show.

:shrug: I enjoyed it.

Does anyone know who played the drug courier? He seems familiar.

There was a nice moment after the drug dealer refers to Earl's dad as "dude."

Earl's Dad (Beau Bridges, brother of Jeff): Don't call me dude.

Drug Dealer: OK, take it easy Lebowski...

Girlfriend didn't know why I was laughing had to explain it. I actually didn't like Lebowski but still a funny joke

Michael Peña (Crash, World Trade Center)

I thought the main drug guy, Circus (not the courier) was pretty funny.

I loved the part when Randy told his parents that Earl was in a coma, after a month. And then they didn't even know he had been in jail.

I screwed up. That's who Michael Peña played. Not sure who the other guy is. He's one of those dudes whose in a lot of commericials.

Think I might have to argue with you there. The show seems to have decided that gimmicks and stunt casting is what's needed to keep them alive. I strongly disagree. It succeeded early on because it had good writing. Why the need to put Wonky McValtrex and the OCC dorks on the show? They don't add anything, and really distract from the storylines.

-jason

I somewhat agree. The problem with the show is, just crossing things off the list would get boring and it would run out pretty quick. But, the coma and jail was a little much, but it did work. If they (writers) do it right, he gets out of the coma and it goes back to how season one was.

He played Circus -- I want to know who played the dude who dropped the duffel bag in the back of Earl's car.

Edit: Oops -- should have kept reading, since you figured that out. So does anyone know who played the drug courrier?

Man, I'm trying to understand where all the hate is coming from this season but I just don't get it. Every week, the dialogue is some of the most hillarious I've ever heard on TV. Maybe everyone needs to start recommending the other shows they're seeing that are so much funnier, so I can relate.

I don't see putting Alyssa Milano on the show as "stunt casting." They gave a television actress a gig on a television show. She's not exactly A-list (less of a star than Jason Lee), and she may be a permanent, or long term cast addition.

I mean, it's not like Bruce Willis showing up on "Friends," where he's supposed to be some guy, but he's really just there to be Bruce Willis and plug a movie or something.

Paris Hilton was distracting, and I know those guys with the motorcycles are from another show, though.

I don't like the coma device. It's overused, and people don't usually go into lengthy comas and then recover like they do on television. And "Sopranos" was pretty much the last word in coma-dreams.

and I don't consider her stunt casting either. She's like Tim Stack, a person that occasionally shows up and is part of the oddness of Camden County.

having Paris Hilton on the show to say "Thats Hot" 3 times, or the Teuteuls to have Dad yell is nothing BUT stunt casting. Because I never watch TV live and always skip commercials, I'd assume that those episodes were promoted as "Guest Starring **" weren't they?

It used to be that if someone guest starred on a TV show, they actually did something, but nowadays, apparently having a throwaway line or 2 of dialogue is enough to get a "Guest Starring" credit and commercial time.

-jason

I thought it was Kevin Sussman (who I know from Wet Hot American Summer and some printer ink commercial that's running now), but "My Name Is Earl" is not listed on his IMDB page. Even the official synopsis doesn't list who played the role (although it does credit Michael Pena for his role). Weird.

For a while I thought maybe he was on a previous episode of Earl, but then my wife remembered him as one of Will Smith's clients in "Hitch."

Winner!

http://www.kevinsussman.com/

Sweet! What do I win?

Next Friday - played a gangsta

I actually think Earl should just wake up and go back to the list. The whole point of the show was the list, and since he "gave it up" the show hasn't been as good. And the list can give you any story line you really want anyways...

Thanks DJ Linus. Now if I could just figure out why he seemed so familiar to me.

This episode did feature the list. And so did last week's and the week before that as well. It also featured Earl awake in the best sort of way. I've always felt the best episodes feature Bad Earl, because the Bad Earl stuff tends to be funnier than Good Earl.

Maybe it's the Hickeys or something, but this was our "last chance" episode. We were finally going to get rid of this show if this episode was anywhere near as bad as it's been. But, we actually got enough laughs this time to grant it a pardon for now...