SERIES PREMIERE: The first two episodes of My Name Is Earl creator Greg Garcia’s new series are presented back-to-back tonight. Watch them both, because it takes two helpings of this new TV treat to begin to comprehend just how ambitious, clever, and entertaining it really is. The Guest Book, like HBO’s new Room 104, is an anthology show in which every episode features a new cast, set in the same rented room. In this case, it’s a rural cabin in a small town, it’s a comedy – and while every episode features a new cast of visiting characters, it also makes room for recurring players who staff the resort or live in the town. Those characters interact with the rotating visitors, and the plot, even with all those episodic changes, advances like a serial narrative. As complex comedy plots go, The Guest Book is a playful little Rubik’s Cube of shifting, interlocking elements, like Arrested Development or the soon-to-return Curb Your Enthusiasm. Watch, tonight, in the second episode, for Stockard Channing and Mary Lynn Rajskub, portraying a devout Christian and her atheist potential daughter-in-law. For my full review on NPR’s Fresh Air with Terry Gross, visit the Fresh Air website.

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