It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia has run for five seasons on FX (who are rocking ass on the comedy front with this and Louie) as possibly the most morally irresponsible show on television. Its humor is one that lives and breathes by the caustic banter between the gang, a dynamic built on unique chemistry that can be copied, but will never have quite the same nasty ring to it. The show is profane, filthy, and focuses on a group of people that are self-centered to the point of depravity. Each character has their own special form of emotional ADD, but Mac, Dee, and Dennis especially have a unique dance of insulting and dismissing each other until finding their own motivation for being interested in whatever scheme or situation has been put forth. Nearly every episode is set up with a discussion in which no one gives a shit what the others are saying, but by the end have all figured out their own reasons to care (which often have nothing to do with what was originally brought up). And of course, Frank and Charlie provide a backbone of functioning retardation for the group.
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harlie, Dee, Dennis, Mac, and Frank enter the sixth season of It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia looking for love starting with a two-part saga that sees everyone in the gang in their own forms of matrimony (except for Dee, who is breaking up a marriage). The episodes are fun, and still feel like pure Sunny, but I’m at a loss for too many memorable lines or moments. They may not be the strongest episodes to lead off with frankly, and I’m hoping the other two shows (Who Got Dee Pregnant? and The Gang Buys a Boat) are an indication that the sixth season will end up just as great as the rest of the series has been.
Who Got Dee Pregnant? is Sunny by way of Kurosawa as the gang tries to remember back to a crazy Halloween party to figure out the answer to the question for which the episode is named. I wont’ spoil the gag, but the pay-off to the crew’s constant harassment of Dee for looking like a bird is one of my favorite moments of the entire series. The boat episode is standard for the show in set-up –Mac and Dennis buy a shitty boat with Dick Towel money and try and make it sea-worthy– but it’s consistently funny and every gang-member gets a great moment (naturally Frank’s moment is him clumsily destroying something). Dennis’ theories on getting laid while at sea are worth the whole episode by themselves.
Season 6 (or at least the portion I’m privy to) feels exactly how It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia should feel. The comedy of Sunny works best when the crew is escalating some terrible idea to the point of it all going to shit, with them ultimately slinking away whistling. Much of what I’ve seen shows that they’re still exploiting this to perfection. There’s always a danger though that its particular brand of crazy will start to ring flat if they run out of scenarios with enough energy to support it, but there’s still plenty of dumb shit to try. For now, this show needs to be on your comedy radar, if you’re not already in on the goods.