Spoilers for "My Name Is Earl" and "The Office" coming up just as soon as I read this message from the future..."My Name Is Earl" has been better this season than it was last year, but this was the first time I felt it was outright funnier than its companion. Another tweak of the formula with Catalina tagging along -- and with Randy going meta with his explanations of how the list works -- plus a rare and welcome instance of Bad Earl appearing in present day. They don't have to show him struggling against his better nature every week, but this kind of episode was past due.
"The Office" wasn't bad, but plot advancement was the primary goal over the jokes. We now have a semi-plausible explanation for why Scranton gets to stay open, but Josh goes away so it's not a total remake of the British second season. Still, some good comedy: Jim sending Dwight faxes from the future (Stanley's reaction made the coffee scene), Ryan and Stanley's glee at being laid off (they may need to cool it on Happy Stanley for a while, though, or he'll lose his effectiveness), Kelly's manic-depressive reactions to the bad and good news, Roy looking to Cinderella (the band, not the movie) for solace, and Michael's flustered reaction to Dwight's perfectly reasonable role-playing. And in the 'shipping news, Karen has become the Jim in her relationship with Jim, down to being hurt when he suggested she take a different job (just like Pam did with that Maryland gig). Interesting that the writers have avoided coupling off any of Pam, Roy, Jim or Karen before putting them all in the same building.
What did everybody else think?
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