It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (TV Timeout)

FX’s It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia is the best show on television to hold no meaning besides the events on the screen. I’m not particularly sure the world would be a much different place without it, certainly no worse, but television doesn’t get much funnier than this. Most great sitcoms hold some transcendent power. Community illustrates the idea of your life not quite going where you planned. Seinfeld was not a show about nothing but about perceived nothings within our everyday society. It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia exists entirely in its own universe, and all I can say is that these characters are incredibly entertaining to watch, but I hope I never meet any of them.

The premise of Always Sunny is essentially this: the viewer spends a half hour observing some of the worst people on Earth. They are mean-spirited, stupid, manipulative, and often just plain evil, but at the end of the day the various shenanigans they get into are hilarious. Each episode is shot and cut together so quick and dirty you’d think there was a gun to their heads, but the result is gloriously anarchic. Everyone involved with Sunny knows one thing: what is funny, and I cannot think of an episode that didn’t make me laugh. It never makes me think, but it always succeeds in the humor department.

The main characters are the owners of an Irish bar in South Philadelphia that gets almost no business at any point, thus allowing the characters to go on various misadventures. There is Dennis Reynolds (Glenn Howerton), his sister Dee (Kaitlin Olson), and their friends Mac (Rob McElhenney) and Charlie (Charlie Day). In the second season the show introduces Frank Reynolds, played by Danny DeVito, who they believe for a time to be their father. Dennis is as narcissistic as they come, obsessed with his own looks, and he believes just about any situation can be solved by “popping his shirt off”. Charlie is certainly the least intelligent character, but he can leap into a hilariously angry outburst at the drop of a hat, and he showers about once a month or so. Mac fancies himself a strong, angry Irishmen but is actually quite childish and cowardly. Dee dreams of becoming an actor, but much like Arrested Development’s Tobias Fünke couldn’t get a gig of it danced in front of her. Franks used to be wealthy, but he wants to revert to his filthy, risky, younger days, so he moves in with Charlie.

There are almost no multi-episode arcs to be found throughout this show’s duration. Each episode exists in its own vacuum, and it isn’t necessary to view it from front to back by any means. The only major cast addition was that of DeVito in the second season premiere “Charlie Gets Crippled”. Nobody dies, has a baby or gets married, so feel free to sit back and watch with no strings attached. There is no Lost labyrinth to be navigated here, except perhaps the various mysteries that almost certainly exist in Charlie and Frank’s apartment.

The show has never strayed from risqué humor, but it never comes off as offensive because as Glenn Howerton has laid it all out in one sentence: “If it’s not funny, it’s offensive. If it’s funny, it’s not offensive.” Always Sunny may not push as many hot buttons as South Park, thus staying out of the headlines, but it’s never safe. The first episode to air was titled “The Gang Gets Racist”, and immediately we were looking these character’s shortcomings in the eyes. In these 22 minutes there are endless race jokes, and in the second half their bar begins to cater to gay men. You know exactly what kind of show you’re dealing with once that episode is over, and it’s your choice to take it or leave it.

It all began with a short film made by McElhenney, Howerton and Day. The plot entailed a man going over to his friend’s house to borrow some sugar. However, it turns out his friend has cancer. Nonetheless, he is intent on getting his sugar. This idea led to a deal with FX for a 7-episode first season, and thus It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia was born. McElhenney was credited as the creator and showrunner, and he, Day and Howerton would be the main writers of the show. Other writers would eventually come in, but these three to this day remain the main creative voice behind the show.

If I have a complaint about the show it’s that it is not aired nearly enough. We are about to go into the sixth season of the show and they have made only 58 episodes. The show comes every fall, cranks out 13 episodes, and then we have to wait for the next fall. On the plus side, there is less room for filler episodes and the quality of each episode shines through a little brighter. That’s why cable shows get such a good reputation: they don’t have to pump out episodes like the network shows do.

There is no other show on TV which provides such an endless supply of goofy, meaningless fun. Each actor knows their character inside and out, and they perform each scene to an utterly hilarious tee. Throughout the 58 episodes thus far, we are treated to football tryouts, musicals, the World Series, hallucinations involving Sinbad and Rob Thomas, the thoroughly repulsive McPoyle family, various references to political issues of the day and the set of an M. Night Shyamalan film about Serbian genocide. It's low-class, it's crude, and it's one of the funniest things on television.

My 5 Favorite Episodes (In order of airdate)
“Underage Drinking: A National Concern”
“Mac Bangs Dennis’ Mom”
“Sweet Dee’s Dating a Retarded Person”
“Mac is a Serial Killer”
“Mac and Charlie Die”

Last year they released a Christmas Special on DVD called “A Very Sunny Christmas”. I’m guessing it didn’t air because of the F-bombs in its second half, but I hardly consider it essential viewing. If it did air I’d consider it a rather sub-par episode.

Season 6 will begin September 16th on FX at (probably) 10pm EST.