Only My Name is Earl could turn a prison prom into a heartwarming story. Well, first it’s heartwarming, then emotional train-wreck, then heartwarming again.
It all revolves around the warden getting a bad rap for dismal rehab numbers, so he puts Earl -- a.k.a. The Scumbag Listener -- in charge of a reconciliation program to help victims and prisoners make peace with each other. In exchange, Earl gets six months off his sentence, leaving only ten days of prison life to deal with. He’ll do it!
So he sets up a sit-down with John the Artist, in the slammer for burning down his parents’ house after a meth lab gone awry. John’s ok with it, but not the parents, so Earl sends Joy and Darnell out to talk some sense into them – which works, thanks to a tearful turtle story from Darnell. Does anyone else think Darnell’s getting just a little too close to those turtles?
Anyway, the first John-Parent session goes badly, so Earl has to spend the rest of his lottery earnings organizing a Prison Prom to make John happy so he’ll make up with his parents. Sure, it’s a lot of money, but we’re talking about Earl’s freedom here, and well, once he’s on the outside, he can wear a different shirt every day. A different plaid shirt, that is. In short, this prom is Earl’s “Get Out of Jail” party.
Since the five trannies at Earl’s prison are all spoken for, Earl recruits some girls from a nearby women’s prison. Things go well, and Earl even gets voted Prom King, which he promptly turns over to John, to make up for the crappy childhood he had.
But none of this helps. At the second sit-down, John blows up at his parents, blaming them for, well…everything that’s gone wrong in his pathetic life.
Earl makes a point by getting steaming mad and making a nice bonfire out of John’s stuff, including all his paintings. “Hey, it’s out of my control!” says Earl. “You treated me like crap, so now I’m treating YOU like crap.”
Not his finest moment. But it’s all good, because John gets the point, quits blaming his parents for everything, and ends up doing paintings of all the family photos that burned up in the meth lab fire. Turns out he memorized them all in great detail while staring at them when he was stoned.
And things are looking up for Earl, who gets his six-months-off certificate. But as soon as the Warden realizes he’ll be lost without Earl, he shreds all of the time-off certificates, putting Earl back at square one. Or would that be cell one?
Anyway, looks like Earl will be taking a page out of Prison Break’s book.
