I really am pulling for My Name Is Earl. I want it to be good again. But I’m sick of being let down. I’ve been hurt too many times before.

It is Earl’s birthday. He is celebrating all the good things he has done this past year. At his party, people are actually focusing on all the bad things he hasn’t fixed yet. That’s a nice enough twist on the show’s original theme. I accept this plot.

This is rather fun. It is mostly flashbacks of the terrible things Earl has done. It’s like a clip show, but of stuff we have never seen.

And things were crossed off the list! That was Earl’s birthday present. All of his friends forgave him for one thing and crossed it off. You know what? That was a pretty good episode.

See? That’s a pleasant surprise. I assumed it would be bad and it turned out good. It doesn’t matter that I was wrong because now I am happy! I’m one of them there cheerful pessimists.