Weekend round-up: Life, Earl and Always Sunny

Brief spoilers for the most recent episodes of, in order, "Life," "My Name Is Earl" and "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" coming up just as soon as I buy a grenade and a wedding dress...

If I hadn't already seen this Monday's episode of "Life," I'd be far more concerned that season two has opened with two disappointing episodes in a row. "Everything... All the Time" was actually weaker than the season premiere, which at least had some memorable "Life"-style visuals and a plot I could follow from beginning to end. I spent this one feeling like the Donal Logue character, not sure what the hell Crews and Reese were doing, or why, and so other than some of the business about Charlie not having a car (and then getting another awesome one), this didn't work for me.

Again, Monday's episode feels much more like the sort of thing they were doing late last season, so I'm not too worried yet. But since I'm skeptical that the show's going to be around very long, I want as many good episodes as possible before it goes.

This week's back-to-back "My Name Is Earl"s were both better than either of last week's. (They were also helped by being one of the few Thursday shows I watch that wasn't pre-empted by the VP debate, since I was just glad to have something scripted to watch.) Joy's one of the show's two strongest characters (Randy is the other), and the combination of her abrasiveness and Darnell's germ-phobia made for some funny moments before the inevitable "Earl heart-warming ending. Meanwhile, the second episode cast Jerry Van Dyke as the world's greatest killing machine, and I have to admire it for that. It's still inessential viewing, but on a week like this, it was welcome.

I should probably only write about "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" when they do an episode I like, which tends to be once ever three or four times out. But people like to talk about it, and I did watch the two-part "Mac & Charlie Die," even if most of it fell flat for me (other than Dee's unfortunate SEPTA bus ride and the matter-of-factness of the pawn shop guy), so have at it.

What did everybody else think?