Earl

[robin_d_laws]

There’s been a lot of talk about this season’s bumper crop of serious message movies about the Iraq conflict, and how they’ve landed in theaters with a series of resounding thuds. Undoubtedly this is because they’re serious message movies, and who wants that?

Last week’s episode of My Name Is Earl, on the other hand, marked a true shift in the

Comments

[ex_gobi]

I dunno... Yeah, it was funny, but I think any subversive social commentary was a mitigated by focusing it on feuding trailer park bumpkins and panicky state fair attendees.

[robin_d_laws]

This episode made the show's central conceit, that Camden is America, clearer than ever before.

[ex_gobi]

*gasp*

God, I hope I'm Crabman.

[robin_d_laws]

So do we all, man. So do we all.

[ex_gobi]

You know, taking this metaphor further: Darnel is the only intellectual in the group, but he is forced to keep his education hidden to fit in. He is also kept in check by an overbearing, willfully ignorant wife.

Is this a message about the suppression of rational thought in a culture of hysterical paranoia?