TV Verdict

Last week I complained that the previous episode took a well-written idea and didn’t do a good job of making it funny. This week, I sort of had the opposite problem. I laughed out loud a lot, easily as much as I have with any good episode this season. The actual story, though, was a bit meandering, with a few wasted opportunities. It was a pretty good episode, and I’m intrigued by the new storyline possibilities for Joy and Crabman. I just think it didn’t maximize some of the opportunities it had.

On the upside, Mr. Turtle has finally found his way home. Earl and Randy, who now live in the trailer park after Joy and Crabman left, wake up one night to find him scratching at the door. His adventures apparently were pretty harrowing, including a marathon, some nudists, a shooting, and even a stint with drugs which literally landed him on his back. Also, he took a lover and good for him for finally getting some long-need action. Nonetheless, his return does make a bit of a problem for Earl, who now must figure out how to get him back to Darnell. When he calls the number Darnell provided as an emergency, he learns the Turners’ new address and decides to drive all the way over to drop off Mr. Turtle. When he arrives, however, he discovers that Joy, in her new role as Goldie Crystal, is having a hard time fitting in with the trophy wives of her suburb, who include Morgan Fairchild as Carol and Joan Van Ark as Janine. When Earl accidentally blinds Carol’s dog Gucci with his car’s exhaust fumes, he is so desperate to not make Joy look bad that he brings it back to Carol and explains the concept of the karma list. Carol and her coven, however, immediately see in karma the new fad they can use to get a good night’s sleep. Earl and Joy give a presentation on karma that they hope will help her be more accepted, but it backfires when Earl, desperate to look good, overpromises what karma’s results will be. After anguishing all night because he promised such life-changing results as a new pool and new breasts, all for being nice to other people, he gets a reprieve when the women mention they don’t really need those things anymore. Having started by being nice to their maids after mistreating them for years, they suddenly earn a good night’s sleep. Having put Joy on the road to finally being accepted by her new neighbors, so does Earl.

Like I said, there was a lot to like in this episode. The scenes of Carol and Janine and their brood attempting to make up for their mistreatment were golden, especially when one of them apologized for making her maid play with her kids on Christmas because the kids really like “brown mommy.” Mr. Turtle’s “freak-out” when he got the news that the Turners were gone was nicely depicted. The scenes of poor little Gucci stumbling around were brilliantly done (if obviously CGI). Also, the notion of Kenny the Gay working as the new server at the Crab Shack was inspired. Just seeing the Shack revamped as a more “festive” place was hilarious, especially when it resulted in a nice swipe at Sex & the City. That’s not even to mention the B-story of Randy, after being left alone, mistakenly picking up Jim, a gay guy at the new Shack, and embarking on a torrid new relationship that was entirely one-sided on Jim’s part. Randy, of course, was never the wiser, even after Jim asked if they need to slow down and Randy responded by stretching out every syllable he said. I do think, however, that it was a shame that we never got to see much of Crabman in his new cushy office job. How did he get there? What does he do? This was a golden opportunity that I hope the show will make more of in later episodes. We never even got to see his long-awaited reunion with Mr. Turtle, which is what this whole arc was building to in the first place. I’m also hoping we don’t see too much of Joy’s attempts to fit in with her neighbors. A little of this story was fine, but it doesn’t seem too promising, especially since we all know that eventually she’s going to have to leave to go back to the trailer park. And I hate to sound like a broken record (kids, ask your parents what “records” are and what they did when they were broken), but if you’re only going to have Catalina on to say one line, it’s better to not have her on at all. Overall, though, I thought it was a funny episode that had some promising ideas. I do hope the next few deliver on them.