My Name Is Earl
NBC | Release Date: September 20, 2005
CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
77
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 30 Critic Reviews
Positive:
26
Mixed:
1
Negative:
3
Watch Now
Stream On
Stream On
Buy on
Stream On
Stream On
Expand

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Detroit Free PressMike Duffy
Season 1 Review: Brimming with cockeyed echoes of everything from "Raising Arizona" to "King of the Hill," NBC's best new comedy since "Seinfeld" is that rare chucklehead treat: it's both wildly irreverent and blessed with a cheerful, endearingly upbeat nature. Read full review
100
Miami HeraldGlenn Garvin
Season 1 Review: My Name Is Earl rampages like a bull in a politically correct china shop. Read full review
100
New York Daily NewsDavid Hinckley
Season 1 Review: One of this season's most tasty and twisted TV treats. Read full review
100
Orlando SentinelHal Boedeker
Season 1 Review: Jason Lee excels as scruffy Earl -- he's a Jed Clampett for the new millennium. Read full review
100
Philadelphia InquirerJonathan Storm
Season 1 Review: One of the best comedies in years. Read full review
100
San Francisco ChronicleTim Goodman
Season 1 Review: The fall's funniest sitcom. Read full review
90
Boston GlobeMatthew Gilbert
Season 1 Review: The NBC sitcom is so unpretentious and original, it will probably win you over on its own sweet merits. Read full review
90
The Hollywood ReporterBarry Garron
Season 1 Review: The buzz is that "My Name Is Earl" is good, and the truth is that it's better than the buzz. Read full review
90
Wall Street JournalNancy DeWolf Smith
Season 1 Review: Watching "My Name Is Earl" unfold is like taking a hydrofoil ride and flying so fast above the ordinary surface of television life that when the show ends you feel dazed and amazed for hours afterward. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesDoug Elfman
Season 1 Review: The casting is for awesome, flat-out too-good-for-TV acting. Read full review
88
USA TodayRobert Bianco
Season 1 Review: Earl shares the look and heavily narrated sound of Arrested Development, but it has its own scruffy comic tone. Read full review
83
Entertainment WeeklyKristen Baldwin
Season 1 Review: Lee may be a tad too smart to embody this reformed dimwit, but his smooth charm makes Earl go down as easy as a tallboy. [23 Sep 2005, p.82]
80
Cleveland Plain DealerMark Dawidziak
Season 1 Review: "My Name Is Earl" is a good show that doesn't quite have the feel of being the next "Seinfeld" or "Cheers." But like Lee's Earl, Garcia's feel-good concept is strangely effective. If not brilliant, it is ambitious, and it is definitely funny. Read full review
80
PopMattersTerry Sawyer
Season 1 Review: What's so wonderful about My Name Is Earl is that it's a comedy with its heart in the right place and everything else gleefully in the gutter. Read full review
80
San Jose Mercury News/Contra Costa TimesCharlie McCollum
Season 1 Review: Manages to be crude and sweet, smart and splendidly stupid, all at the same time. Read full review
80
Seattle Post-IntelligencerMelanie McFarland
Season 1 Review: Cute and smart, "Earl's" pilot pulled a coup unheard of in recent network comedy memory, juggling un-P.C. humor with a winning sweetness. Read full review
80
The New York TimesAlessandra Stanley
Season 1 Review: Offbeat and utterly charming. Read full review
80
VarietyBrian Lowry
Season 1 Review: "My Name Is Earl" isn't the best comedy around, but it's pretty darn good. Read full review
80
The A.V. Club
Season 1 Review: The premise is gimmicky, but based on the promising first two episodes, Lee's infinite list of wrongdoings should provide many seasons' worth of amiable comedy. Read full review
80
TV Guide MagazineMatt Roush
Season 1 Review: Earl is unashamedly crude, at times downright stupid in its lowlife caricatures, yet it's all so cheerfully endearing that you can't help but be won over by its lowbrow high jinks.
75
New York PostLinda Stasi
Season 1 Review: Bad taste meets good writing. Read full review
70
Chicago TribuneSid Smith
Season 1 Review: "My Name Is Earl" is cheeky, inventive and often bewitching. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesPaul Brownfield
Season 1 Review: Watching "My Name Is Earl," you feel like you're in a movie, or at least a movie trailer. In ways more good than bad, it's immediately comprehensible. Read full review
70
NewsdayVerne Gay
Season 1 Review: Congenial. Read full review
70
Pittsburgh Post-GazetteRob Owen
Season 1 Review: Though the characters are quite different, "Earl" somehow brings to mind NBC's "Ed," perhaps because both shows feature a cast of oddballs and are ultimately uplifting, heartwarming portraits of people trying to do good by making a fresh start. Read full review
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)John Leonard
Season 1 Review: We have to put up with characters whose brainpower compares unfavorably with a fire hydrant, but Lee is funny even in a gay bar. Read full review
60
Baltimore SunDavid Zurawik
Season 1 Review: My Name Is Earl is not a stupid sitcom - that is what makes its sexist and homophobic jokes so maddening. Read full review
38
People WeeklyTom Gliatto
Season 1 Review: Lee may lack the essential sweetness, or pathos, to make Earl ever seem like more than a cute variation on those lovable, loquacious losers who tumble, beer can spurting, through Coen brothers movies. [3 Oct 2005, p.39]
20
The New YorkerNancy Franklin
Season 1 Review: The show is charmless and patronizing, and as refreshing as dust. Read full review
10
Washington PostTom Shales
Season 1 Review: Amounts to a character study of a character not worth studying. Read full review
Current TV Shows
By MetascoreBy User Score
1 92 The Pitt: Season 2
2 90 The Celebrity Traitors UK: Season 1
3 87 Hacks: Season 5
4 87 Industry: Season 4
5 87 Genndy Tartakovsky's Primal:...
6 85 The Beatles Anthology
7 85 The Traitors [UK]: Season 4
8 85 Bait: Season 1
9 84 Mel Brooks: The 99 Year Old Man!
10 83 Lord of the Flies
11 83 Riot Women: Season 1
12 83 For All Mankind: Season 5
13 81 The Muppet Show (2026)
14 80 Outlander (2014): Season 8
15 80 The Other Bennet Sister: Season 1
16 80 The Mighty Nein: Season 1
17 80 The Comeback: Season 3
18 80 The American Revolution
19 80 One Piece (2023): Season 2
20 80 Dark Winds: Season 4
SEE ALL