Tuesday Night TV

Just got done watching two shows: My Name is Earl and The Office. Both were season premieres- both were hilarious.

Jason Lee as Earl Hickey


Earl stars Jason Lee, a relatively little known actor to anyone except Kevin Smith fans. Lee has long been a favorite of mine ever since he took the screen for the first time playing Brody in Mallrats. He's been in several films- but this is the role he was born to play. Man was this show funny. He plays Earl Hickey, a white trash piece of work whose wife just left him after he got hit by a car while celebrating winning $100k in the Lottery. His brother Randy is played by a seriously trimmed down Ethan Suplee (The Butterfly Effect, Remember the Titans, and his best work, the racist SOB in American History X.) It was quality entertainment with Earl deciding to right the wrongs of his past after discovering the concept of karma ("Are you a follower of Carson Daly too?")- meaning that if you do good works, good things will happen to you, and vice versa.

Earl sets out to help a man he tortured as a youth, and what follows is fun hijinks, including a trip to the gay bar where Randy discovers something about himself after 13 beers.

But nothing compares to the painful hilarity of The Office. Steve Carrell, who recently hit it big as the star of the 40 Year Old Virgin, is in his second season playing Michael, the boss of a paper company. Carrell took over the role from Ricky Gervais, who originated a similar character in the original British version of the series. This show is hysterical. We've all worked with people who simply have no idea how irritating and morbidly un-funny they are. You know the type- a group of people will be talking, laughing, telling jokes, and there is always the person who makes the last comment that absolutely KILLS the fun- and brings on that horribly awkward silence as people refuse to make eye contact.....I see them all the time in class- I have a couple of students that are that way- and when they speak, you just see everyone's eyes go down, because they simply don't know what to say.

Michael is that type of boss- the one who butts into everything, has absolutely zero social skills, is incredibly lonely because of their lack of tact, but deep down inside is really not a bad person. You can't help but secretly wish Michael will catch a clue- like in tonights episode, after just being a racist, bigoted, ignorant moron the entire episode while hosting his personal awards show for his employees at a local Chili's, he finally says something meaningful at the end the somewhat redeems him.

Somewhat.

But the characters of the supporting cast- whos real names I am too lazy to look up- Dwight, the sycophantic Yes-man pseudo-Nazi-in-training...Pam, trapped in a relationship with a bully.....Kevin, the temp...>Stanley, the black guy who puts up with WAY TOO MUCH MICHAEL....they follow Carrell's lead wonderfully.

I highly recommend this program to anyone who's ever been in an office, classroom, or social situation with a person like this- the pink elephant in the room that no one is willing to talk about.