Tonight is the last night of week #1 of the new fall season, with some

major shows returning (“Desperate Housewives” most notably). So far,

the first week has brought a few pleasant surprises. “Lost” won its

Best Drama Emmy, then debuted its second season Wednesday to

deservedly massive ratings. (The mystery numbers were on the label of

the drug that Desmond injected himself with — that’s a high-def TiVo

moment.) On Thursday, the 20-year dominance of NBC officially ended,

and “Everybody Hates Chris” shocked the world by debuting on UPN and

beating NBC’s “Joey.” (I haven’t seen “EHC” but people seem to like

it.)

On Tuesday, the big story was “My Name is Earl,” a quirky

single-camera comedy starring Jason Lee as an amoral good-for-nothing

who discovers the power of karma and decides to right all the wrongs

of his life. NBC promoted the show’s premiere like a feature film,

spending something like $12 million on bus billboards and the like.

And it worked. The show received heavy sampling in its 9 PM time

slot. But will audiences return for week two, the real test of a new

show?

I watched “Earl” this morning. Jason Lee is remarkably charming and

likable. The show uses extensive voice-over narration and flashbacks

to keep the pace up and get some easy laughs. The tone of the show

will seem fresh to anyone who has never seen “Raising Arizona” or

“Bottle Rocket.” Fans of independent movies will find the show

derivative, but still more fun than your average sitcom. But the best

thing about it is a breathtaking embrace of non-PC behavior and humor.

There is smoking, drinking, homophobia (Earl literally runs when he

discovers an old schoolmate is gay), drug jokes, adultery — all the

kinds of things you usually have to go to cable for. I don’t know how

series creator Greg Garcia got away with it, but I must applaud.

Also, Greg co-created “Yes, Dear,” so he gets extra double credit for

escaping the stigma sometimes attached to writers of “traditional”

sitcoms. Like me.

And tonight brings us “Extras” on HBO, Ricky Gervais’ new show. The

only thing I know is that it will not be as good as “The Office,”

because nothing ever could be. But I am watching. Or high-def

TiVoing.