The Morning After: His Name Is Still Earl

Lee in sitcomland with guest star Alyssa Milano. / NBC Photo: Chris Haston

My Name Is Earl returned from its strike coma last night with the title star (Jason Lee) going into a coma of his own and experiencing a Kevin Finnerty moment, imagining himself as a sitcom dad marrieed to guest star Alyssa Milano. When an unconventional sitcom produces a conventional sitcom-within-a-sitcom there's always the potential for it to be a little self-congratulatory, though I think that Earl mostly stayed on the good side of that one. But I do agree with Maureen Ryan about the bigger problem, which is that the show has been making its already-cartoony characters too outlandish. Still, it's good to have the show back—and it's now officially less than a week until The Office and 30 Rock return. Did anyone out there come back to Earl?