The third season of this show saw an alarming dip in quality in the second half of the season and it did give me doubts about bothering with the fourth, to the point that I recorded it from Channel 4 and it sat on my disk for ages till I got round to watching it. The problem was that the show had already spent the latter stages of season 3 using comas, fantasy episodes, celebrity guests and all the usual things that suggest a show has run out of ideas and I just didn't see how they would turn it round. So I was pleasantly surprised to find that actually it does do a good job of producing some solid funny episodes right off the bat. At this point the show reminded me of the show in the first season, solid little episodes with strong dialogue and laughs, and I hoped it would continue.
Sadly, by the middle of the season it appears that the break between seasons had only been long enough to produce half a season of good ideas because at this point it starts getting silly again. Running low on good ideas the show uses Darnell's witness protection plot as a device as well as several other plots (space camp) that are not only a bit too silly but also are not actually that funny. This hurts the show and it feels like it is constantly reaching and frantically doing whatever it can to keep things moving – essentially the writing is weaker than it was originally. The final handful of episodes produce a few good ones in there but the heart of the season seems to be filled with so-so or average episodes and it is hard to get away from these.
The cast continue to try hard and when they have the scripts they can certainly deliver. Earl continues to be an engaging character and well delivered by Lee but more and more the comedy comes from Pressly as Joy, a character who doesn't suffer too much from exaggeration because she always was to a point. Steeples has more to do this season and, when it is good he is good and, when it is weaker, he still manages to be good in the middle of it. Suplee is given some poor material and his presence on the screen suffers from it while poor Velazquez has so little to do one wonders if she upset someone between seasons. The various special guests vary in quality but it is telling that none of them are game changers who can produce a great episode as and of themselves – only a few of them come over as being as cheap as Paris Hilton's pointless season 3 appearance though.
The season ends on a cliffhanger of sorts but, to be honest, by that point I was pretty much just watching the show to see it end so it didn't upset me that much. Season 4 of My Name is Earl is not "bad" and indeed it does have a good number of episodes that are as enjoyable as the show has ever been, however too much of it shows the fatigue and lack of spark in the writing that made the second part of season 3 such a mess. I enjoyed it when it was on and, while season 4 is roundly better than season 3, it did only serve to remind us that it really had had a good run and it was probably right that it ends here.
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