Television It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia

Snowjoe said:
Finally watched the new one, honestly thought it was painful and probably the worst one I’ve seen.
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Spoilers for season 13:

It was a smidge too meta for my liking, but I think the poor jokes are the point. The gang's dynamic doesn't work without Dennis there so the jokes immediately go to shit and knock the balance off. I thought the constant acknowledgement of the elephant in the room grew a little tired over 22 minutes, but those last two minutes with Dennis in the bar felt very much like normal and confirmed for me that the previous 19 minutes were deliberately off. It was written by David Hornsby who's been involved with the show as both Cricket and a writer since season 3. It's been on a slight decline since season 10, but that decline has been incredibly slight and there was nothing to suggest that the show would just lose it out of nowhere. We'll see how the rest of the season pans out, but I'm expecting more solid work.
 
Much better episode :lol:

“His neck is high, it makes me trust him”
 
Just watched them. First one was truly awful and the second one I dozed off before the end...Hopefully third times the charm. And what the feck did the waitress do to her hair:confused:
 
Good second episode. Again, a little too obvious with what it was trying to communicate thematically but still a solid episode of Sunny.
 
Third episode was pretty decent. One of the weaker offerings of recent seasons, though.

Again, for the third episode in a row now, this was far too meta for my liking. We get it, the Ghostbusters reboot wasn't good. I think these new writers they've got on board are almost too aware of character and too aware of what the show is trying to say, so subtext jumps to text too quickly, maybe? It doesn't kill the joke as such, but it just means it works on one level and one level only. I think it's also pretty obvious that this was one of the episodes written when they weren't sure if Glenn Howerton was returning to the show - I do wonder how much that's going to affect the season as a whole.

Still, the big pay-off with Artemis' vomit-inducing gross-out humour gag was superb. To watch something slowly creep in from the background like that and explode in such a hilariously graphic way is classic Sunny. I also think I'm gonna be sold on an episode without much fuss whenever Mrs. Mac and Mrs. Kelly turn up. They're a fantastic duo to return to every now and again, and the fact that they reached California just as their sons did in season 10 was a nice touch. So yeah, probably the weakest episode since 'Dee Made a Smut Film', but average outings for Sunny are generally pretty solid.

Next week's episode is called 'Time's Up for the Gang', so I presume that's the one the trailer was mostly built from, with Mac lifting Dee up by the crotch? Hopefully Dennis is involved in a B-plot somehow.
 
I thought the last episode was painfully bad and like 13.01, one of the worst 4 or 5 in the entire run. The premise was just poor, I struggle to believe anyone wanted an episode devoted to those characters, particularly Charlies mum, whose portrayal is perhaps the worst and most irritating performance I've seen.
 
Man i love this show, I've probably seen every episode at least 3-4 times.

But damn the new season is fecking awful. That last episode might be the worst one to date.
 
Oh, one minute in and I see. Trying to be meta about the female reboot thing but a whole episode on it :/
 
Yeah wasn't great. Even if you constantly reference the fact you're copying an older episode, you're still just copying an older episode.
 
Always Sunny, the deathbell tolls for thee.

These guys are clever and won't delude themselves into carrying on ala Two and a Half Men and Big Bang Theory, if they think they've taken things as far as they can I think they'll want out sooner rather than later.
 
Fantastic episode this week. The best one for nearly two seasons, I'd argue. Having the five of them together definitely makes the gang tick.
 
robinamicrowave said:
Fantastic episode this week. The best one for nearly two seasons, I'd argue. Having the five of them together definitely makes the gang tick.
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Agree. I watched the 4th straight after the 3rd. As soon as I heard their voices together again I knew it should be the only way.
 
Last two episodes in fine form for me.

Loved the Dee story in the last one as well.
 
Yep, season 13 has fully clicked into gear now. The last two episodes have been excellent. This one nearly suffered from being too scattered and having too many plot strands (like 'PTSDee' did last season) but they kept it all tightly wound and brought the loose ends together with some classic Sunny routines to pay it off. No idea how they've still got it.
 
Just read this..
Even more impressive is how you never feel like you're watching a performance. DeVito becomes Frank Reynolds.
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and realised how true it is. He's unreal at it.
 
VeevaVee said:
Just read this..

and realised how true it is. He's unreal at it.
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Yep. I got into this show just as I was starting university in 2012, and no matter how many films and TV shows I've seen since, nobody has dived into a role and become their character like Danny DeVito has embraced Frank Reynolds.
 
Mediocre episode again:/

1 episode in 6 has been decent, the rest have been forgettable to say the least.

I think this will definitely be the last season, the drop in quality is shocking.
 
Gotta say, I really enjoyed this episode. More than the others so far this season, actually - except for Time's Up for the Gang, which is a stone cold Sunny classic. I've not always agreed with the criticism aimed at some episodes so far this season but I could at least see the reasons behind the majority of the complaints. The opener was a little too meta, the Boggs re-boot wasn't heavy on the laughs. With this episode, though, I just can't see where the criticisms are coming from.

This isn't a top ten episode, or even a top twenty episode, but I think it's been deliberately placed as episode six of this season because it works as something of a companion piece to 'Hero or Hate Crime?', which was the sixth episode of last season and functioned in a similar way: put the gang on their own and watch them map out the most complicated route to the simplest solution. 'Hero or Hate Crime?' is a funnier episode, and because Sunny's first job is to be a sitcom that makes it a better episode than this one. But what this show has regularly excelled at since the back end of season 5/beginning of season 6, is getting right into the nuances of both sides of a sensitive issue and coming out with some astute and hilarious observations on hysteria, hypocrisy and language.

And this episode does just that. I remember back in late 2016 when they announced the first few episode titles for season 12, and the first one up was 'The Gang Turns Black'. I remember reading it and being a little disheartened that they were thinking of pushing the blackface button again. In 2018, they can refer to "the bathroom problem", I can know exactly what they mean, and I can trust the writers, actors, and everybody else involved to analyse the hysteria and hypocrisy in this debate, and still come out the other side having not preached a thing to me.

The point they settle on in this episode is somehow both a typically lazy conclusion of characters who've exhausted themselves by arguing the most ridiculous points until they're red in face, and also the simple, sweet, humanitarian mantra we probably all need to live by: "We all need to go into the bathroom to piss and shit, so why is there such a nasty argument brewing over it?" And that's what Sunny does best nowadays - it manages to utilise the increasing depravity and selfishness of its central characters to make astute observations on sensitive topics. It's tackling these subjects with an increased elegance while still challenging the audience and without leaning too heavily on just preaching what the audience already knows.

Plus, I think there are some classic Sunny moments in this. "I'm a bear! I'm a bear!", "God, I hate it when you're on my side...", Charlie using chopsticks with two hands, Charlie and Mac both flying madly off the handle at innocuous comments, Dee remaining a close second to Dennis in terms of sheer awfulness, Danny DeVito holds a gun in this episode so I'll automatically love it anyway, "He identifies as a woman when he poops". And it does all of this with five characters in one location for more than twenty minutes. It's classic Sunny set-up, solid Sunny delivery, and a good Sunny episode.
 
Ep6 was alright although felt super low budget for some reason (just the gang sat in the pub I guess). Dennis getting pissed off at Frank being on his side was the highlight for me.
 
VeevaVee said:
Ep6 was alright although felt super low budget for some reason (just the gang sat in the pub I guess). Dennis getting pissed off at Frank being on his side was the highlight for me.
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They do it every now and again. Bottle episode.

The Gang Gets Held Hostage, The Gang Dines Out (kinda), The Gang Gets Quarantined (kinda), The Gang Beats Boggs (kinda), CharDee MacDennis, Charlie Work etc.
 
robinamicrowave said:
Gotta say, I really enjoyed this episode. More than the others so far this season, actually - except for Time's Up for the Gang, which is a stone cold Sunny classic. I've not always agreed with the criticism aimed at some episodes so far this season but I could at least see the reasons behind the majority of the complaints. The opener was a little too meta, the Boggs re-boot wasn't heavy on the laughs. With this episode, though, I just can't see where the criticisms are coming from.

This isn't a top ten episode, or even a top twenty episode, but I think it's been deliberately placed as episode six of this season because it works as something of a companion piece to 'Hero or Hate Crime?', which was the sixth episode of last season and functioned in a similar way: put the gang on their own and watch them map out the most complicated route to the simplest solution. 'Hero or Hate Crime?' is a funnier episode, and because Sunny's first job is to be a sitcom that makes it a better episode than this one. But what this show has regularly excelled at since the back end of season 5/beginning of season 6, is getting right into the nuances of both sides of a sensitive issue and coming out with some astute and hilarious observations on hysteria, hypocrisy and language.

And this episode does just that. I remember back in late 2016 when they announced the first few episode titles for season 12, and the first one up was 'The Gang Turns Black'. I remember reading it and being a little disheartened that they were thinking of pushing the blackface button again. In 2018, they can refer to "the bathroom problem", I can know exactly what they mean, and I can trust the writers, actors, and everybody else involved to analyse the hysteria and hypocrisy in this debate, and still come out the other side having not preached a thing to me.

The point they settle on in this episode is somehow both a typically lazy conclusion of characters who've exhausted themselves by arguing the most ridiculous points until they're red in face, and also the simple, sweet, humanitarian mantra we probably all need to live by: "We all need to go into the bathroom to piss and shit, so why is there such a nasty argument brewing over it?" And that's what Sunny does best nowadays - it manages to utilise the increasing depravity and selfishness of its central characters to make astute observations on sensitive topics. It's tackling these subjects with an increased elegance while still challenging the audience and without leaning too heavily on just preaching what the audience already knows.

Plus, I think there are some classic Sunny moments in this. "I'm a bear! I'm a bear!", "God, I hate it when you're on my side...", Charlie using chopsticks with two hands, Charlie and Mac both flying madly off the handle at innocuous comments, Dee remaining a close second to Dennis in terms of sheer awfulness, Danny DeVito holds a gun in this episode so I'll automatically love it anyway, "He identifies as a woman when he poops". And it does all of this with five characters in one location for more than twenty minutes. It's classic Sunny set-up, solid Sunny delivery, and a good Sunny episode.
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Great post mate
 
I thought the episode was ok but something just feels off. I feel like Dennis is the only character I still enjoy. Glenn Howerton’s delivery is always great.

I think it’s just they’re all looking a lot older now and the ideas don’t necessarily work as well these days. Also feels like the whole changing of the political climate with everything being offensive and people being pulled up for things they said years ago has affected them a bit and they’re using a lot of those themes in episodes so far. The Mac being gay angle I feel was funnier when it was a running joke but it doesn’t seem funny anymore now all the subtlety has gone from it. Charlie seems nowhere near as funny as he used to be and I can’t put my finger on why.
 
Solius said:
The Mac being gay angle I feel was funnier when it was a running joke but it doesn’t seem funny anymore now all the subtlety has gone from it. Charlie seems nowhere near as funny as he used to be and I can’t put my finger on why.
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This is what it is. The reason Charlie feels a bit too silly at times. Some things work when getting magnified like Dennis and Frank becoming more insane, but a lot of it doesn't. I like the show regardless but the earlier episodes rubs me just the right way, and its because of the subtleties in the characters development. There is not much else to reveal now really, unless they change them too much.

However i think it would have worked more better if they did dial it back a bit at some point. I don't enjoy it as much as i did, but it is still the same show at least.
 
People forget this show has been around for 15 years. That is truly insane for a live action comedy. It's a miracle that it's still watchable after all this time. What usually happens in long running sitcoms is the characters all become parodies of themselves and story lines go off the rails.
 
I actually think Mac being gay and hench has worked better than I expected.

It is all a bit less natural than it was. I imagine expectations have got higher, and that's also had an effect on how they approach the show.
 
First 3 episodes were so so. The most recent 3 have been solid.

It's not peak Sunny, but it's still better than the vast majority of current sitcoms, if not all, let alone anything that has ever gotten as far as a 13th season.
 
OnlyTwoDaSilvas said:
but it's still better than the vast majority of current sitcoms, if not all, let alone anything that has ever gotten as far as a 13th season.
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I think this is a really important aspect that people are forgetting. This show has been on the air since George W. Bush was beginning his second term, since before the iPhone was invented and before Facebook was in full public usage (two of these things are actually directly referenced in 'Frank Falls Out the Window'). That's a long, long time. I can't think of a comedy -- live action or otherwise -- that you can still rely on this deep into its run, whether that's by season count or by episode count. Cheers? South Park? Frasier? (My heart says to include Friends in this list as well).

Even if you manage to come up with a handful of shows, the numbers aren't exactly high, and they must be even lower from this decade. Community, 30 Rock, Arrested Development, The Office, Parks & Recreation, all the 00s US comedies held in high esteem -- they all either lost it or ended before they could. What Sunny is doing simply by still existing as a not only reliable but solid comedy show is completely remarkable in 21st century television, especially when you consider that other shows have been cancelled despite having more viewers.

And even that argument is even coming from the perspective that Sunny has lost it, which it absolutely hasn't. Is it the show it was up to season 9/10? No. But as we've established, very few things can maintain a gold standard beyond their 100th, 120th, even 140th episode (Sunny will hit 148 by the end of season 13). Hell, I have to admit that even the golden era of The Simpsons, my favourite TV show of all time, was showing signs of fatigue by its 170 / 180th episodes and by its 200th episode it was a largely spent force. Creativity runs out just like all else.

The number of episodes I consider to be top class/"classic Sunny" are falling year on year (four in season 10, two in season 11, two in season 12, one so far this season) but that's to be expected. And it's being made up by the fact that the number of "weaker" episodes per season are limited to just one or two. If you can get anything resembling a solid outing from Sunny after so long then you should count yourself lucky. This season got off to a rocky start, but it was only a rocky start by Sunny's standards -- that's still good comedy. Since then, though, we've been given an all-time classic with the Time's Up episode, we've confronted the nature of Dennis' absence / return, and we've clicked firmly into gear.

I think this season needs to be the penultimate one because they've taken the characters as far as they can, and I think they'll begin to exhaust quite a lot of tropes that still manage to feel fresh right now. It was on the verge of losing it between the end of season 7 / beginning of season 8, but the attention to character gave it a new lease of life. Suddenly, each character's role in the group was clearly defined. That's why, when season 12 ended, we were worried about how the balance of the gang's dynamic could survive without Dennis. I don't think the show is capable of re-routing itself like that again, and I don't think it should try to either.

Call it a day before the end of the decade and we can all go home happy. But calling it a day next year wouldn't be before time.
 
No fecking way have they fobbed us off with a show full of clips from old episodes.
 
Meh, they tried to do something creative with the clip episode format but it just ended up being a clip episode with a silly ending. I appreciate the effort they put in to reference the fact it was a clip episode and I appreciate that they tried to turn the last ten minutes into a plot-focused surrealist nightmare (Frank's legs, hilariously frightening) but I was already lost by that point. I suppose this is a consequence of being moved down from FX to FXX and then being pushed to a late night slot, so I can forgive them a little bit, but this wasn't a good outing at all. Like nearly all clip episodes, this was one of the weakest episodes of the entire series.
 
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