KBearlog

Well nearly all the new shows I had planned to watch have come on. I’ve told you about liking Threshold and Supernatural. Since then I’ve watched the premiers of Kitchen Confedential, How I Met Your Mother, My Name is Earl, Everybody Hates Chris and Extras. Noticed all of these are comedies, which proves at least to me that comedy is making a comeback on TV. The two best comedies and best programs period are My Name is Earl and Everybody Hates Chris.

Earl is a petty criminal. Earl and his friends make the Connors on Roseanne seem like landed gentry. For all their lack of education, morals, drive or ambition they aren’t that bad, unless you’re their victim. Earl wins $100,000 in the lottery and loses the ticket when he’s hit by a car. While in the hospital he hears Carson Daly talk about karma. Earl thinks this is something new that Carson has come up with. Earl decides if he’s going to make his life better, he’ll have to make for the terrible things he has done. He makes a list of 258 bad things he’s done and goes out to correct them. Before this sounds like some uplifting drama, it’s actually an outrageous comedy. If you liked Raising Arizona then you’ll like Earl. They both share the same type of sense of humor. Jason Lee is great as Earl and the supporting cast is strong. If the writing continues to be strong and NBC actually decides to support it and allow it to grow, this could be the big hit comedy they’ve been looking for. Of course NBC has never fully supported Scrubs, so don’t get your hopes up to high. Don’t let me discourage you, watch the show, I think you’ll enjoy it as much as me.

The other great new comedy is Everybody Hates Chris. This is one of the shows I’m reviewing on my website KBearTV. This show has had a lot of hype, so I had prepared myself to be a little disappointed if it wasn’t as good as I thought it would be. I shouldn’t have worried, it deserves the hype. Some of the jokes I’ve seen in numerous promos, but in the context of the show they were still funny and the jokes I hadn’t seen before were hilarious. If the writing remains as strong with the great cast they have, UPN might have just hit the mother lode. With Chris and Veronica Mars, UPN is no longer a laughingstock.

I basically liked the other comedies I watched. I’ll be sure to keep watching Ricky Gervasis’s Extras. It’s not quite as good as The Office, what could be, but thankfully it’s in the neighborhood. Kitchen Confidential is the new comedy on FOX and it’s not quite good yet, but I’ve seen two episodes and I think it has the potential to be a good show. I didn’t like How I Met Your Mother; it wasn’t bad; it just didn’t catch my interest. It seems interchangeable with the other sitcoms on CBS.

After such a long dry period for comedies, it’s good that the networks have finally begun producing some good new comedies again. With the comedies I already like such as Arrested Development, Bernie Mac, Girlfriends, Curb Your Enthusiasm and the ones I’ll be looking to return later in the season like Scrubs, Reno 911 and Entourage, I should have something good to laugh at throughout the season.