My Name Is Earl-Season 2 (2006)

Empire
4 stars out of 5 -- "[T]he further adventures of redneck Earl Hickey are as fun as ever..." 02/01/2008 p.146

Sight and Sound
"[T]his zany comedy mixes Looney Tunes slapstick anarchy with a karmic view of the universe..." 03/01/2008 p.98

Reel.com 9 of 10
NBC was so unsure of this show that they tested it five times with sample audiences. But you can't argue with karma...or a great sitcom concept. Along with Everybody Hates Chris, My Name is Earl was one of last fall's offerings to catch a pre-season wave of critical hype, and it just felt the love all year long. By the end of the first season, the show had won a People's Choice award for favorite new television comedy, a Director's Guild award for best direction, and Emmys for outstanding writing, direction, casting, and single-camera editing. If there were an award for best sitcom to have fun with redneck culture, Earl would have won that too, and faster than his friend's fiancee (and his ex-wife) could establish a gift registry at the local liquor store...The real surprise is that this show aired on network television rather than cable. It's off-color in a big, but entertaining way, and as Lee points out, plays a little like a feature film. - James Plath
 
Variety 8 of 10
Being funny is always a good place for a comedy to start, but when the title character is a crooked lowlife suddenly overwhelmed by the redemptive notion of karma, there's reason to fear that might not be enough. Blessed less with belly laughs than an amusingly wry tone, this single-camera half-hour disarmingly focuses on an underclass that seldom gets much attention in the neatly manicured world of primetime. Yet NBC has done this promising series no favors by asking it to be a self-starter, underscoring the deep state of disrepair into which the net's comedy footprint has fallen...In one of those life-changing moments that Earl takes as a sign from a higher power, he scratches a winning lottery ticket only to abruptly (and pretty hilariously, with "I'm a Loser" playing in the background) misplace it, which briefly lands him in the hospital...Watching TV in bed, NBC's own latenight guru, Carson Daly, introduces Earl to the meaning of karma, inspiring his self-appointed mission to do right by all those he wronged in the past as his "road map to a better life."...Of course, this do-gooding thing is new to Earl, and his first beneficiary, a schoolmate he tormented named Kenny (Gregg Binkley), isn't initially interested in any assistance -- especially when Earl decides the way to help is to find him a woman, which isn't the direction ol' Kenny swings...The show's demeanor, in fact, is essentially that of the Coen brothers' "Raising Arizona," which is to say more an arthouse snack than a full-blown meal. With NBC lacking a solid comedy foundation, the network can only hope that "Earl" and companion "The Office" prove an acquirable taste capable of building a loyal core following...Back when Grant Tinker took over a then-ailing NBC in the '80s, he famously told his lieutenants: "First be best. Then be first."..."My Name Is Earl" isn't the best comedy around, but it's pretty darn good. As for being first, well, it's probably going to be a while before that little bit of karma pays off. - Brian Lowry