Written by Charlie Johnson
It has almost been a full 18 months since we’ve had the comedic genius of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia on our screens. It was nearly too long in my opinion, but I’m thrilled that it’s back. There was some speculation for a while that season twelve would be its last, but “The Gang” has brought the goods again to kick of season thirteen with more ridiculous antics.
Quickly for those of you who aren’t familiar with the show, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia (I’ll be calling it Philly for short) revolves around the daily lives of “The Gang”. They are twins Dennis and Deandra Reynolds (Glenn Howerton and Kaitlin Olson), Charlie Kelly (Charlie Day), and Ronald “Mac” Macdonald (Rob McElhenney) who were high school friends with Dennis. And finally, Frank Reynolds, who is played by Danny DeVito and is Dee and Dennis’ father. Together they own Paddy’s Pub in South Philadelphia where they constantly fight, do zero work, drink, and abuse any substance they can find, and indulge each other in ridiculous get-rich-quick schemes. With the right mix of toxic attitudes and disregard for humanity, “The Gang” cause suffering to whoever happens to stumble across their path. Cue hilarity.
New Beginnings?
To kick off the new season of Philly, “The Gang” appears to have magically matured overnight. A young Indian woman is making a speech about how accepting the people of Paddy’s are to a crowd of Liberals. After some touching words and applause, “The Gang” pull Cindy into the office and celebrate behind closed doors. The crowd outside had bought the lies Cindy was selling them in an attempt to drum up more customers for the pub. There had to be an ulterior motive somewhere. I was concerned for a moment, thinking that the characters had grown, but no, it was the perfect psyche out. It is also worth noting here that Dennis is still absent after his departure last season. New plans are discussed to take down the other Irish bar nearby, Murphy’s. “The Gang” all get their assigned jobs from Cindy who appears to be the new ringleader and go off to practice.
Special Delivery
Later that night, “The Gang” plus Cindy are having dinner at Mac’s apartment when he gets a huge crate delivered to his door. This is where Philly really comes into its own and things start to get weird. Mac opens the box to reveal a life-size Dennis looking sex doll.
Mac seems pretty happy with his purchase while everyone else is weirded out by his idolisation of his old roommate. In classic Philly style, it would seem that Mac misinterpreted what Cindy meant when she said that he had to fill the Dennis shaped hole inside him. Meanwhile Charlie’s girlfriend, The Waitress, is continuously calling him after some attention.
Mass Hallucination
The next day everyone meets at the bar again to discuss the plan. Mac, who spent the off season getting shredded, arrives in his trademark duster jacket and brings along the Dennis doll despite vowing to destroy it. Revealing his new muscles for the umpteenth time Mac tries to get his ripped bod into Cindy’s political plan. As it turns out, the Dennis doll told him to do it. When he says told, he really imagined what Dennis would have said in this scenario and applied it. Charlie and Frank also start giggling at something they imagined he would say and “The Gang” is once again off the rails, ignoring any good advice Cindy might have for them.
A Plan Comes Together and Falls Apart
Everyone is over in Dee’s apartment getting ready and it all looks good. Everyone is doing their bit and Frank even managed to learn the tuba for such an important plan. As they’re marvelling at this he stops mid blow and is psyched out by something. Dennis doll is looking at him, mocking him soundlessly. Frank loses his cool and suddenly everyone is imagining Dennis judging them, feeding their insecurities. One by one they crumble into jittery messes.
The Gang Has a Hard Night
To try to kill two birds with one stone, Charlie takes the doll back to his house and gives it to The Waitress. She can talk to it while Charlie is out with “The Gang” and it won’t be there judging him. Win-Win, right? Turns out while everyone was showing Cindy how little they had accomplished after Dennis got in their heads, The Waitress actually used the doll for its intended purpose and breaks up with Charlie while naked in bed with said doll and a bottle of wine. To drown their sorrows “The Gang” heads to a strip joint and vows to lift their game and change because Dennis is not coming back.
And on The Third Day He Rose…
Everyone arrives late for the plan that Cindy made, and Frank and Charlie make a dramatic entrance playing the Dennis doll-like a trombone by blowing through its butthole. Cindy comes to the disgusting conclusion that after the strippers, everyone must have gotten drunk and had a doll orgy to figure out how it could make that sound. While this is being discussed the real Dennis returns in place of the doll. He degrades Cindy out of her position of current plan maker and resumes what he believes to be his rightful place. “The Gang” grab a beer. Roll credits.
For anyone unfamiliar with the show, what I have just described sounds like the fever dream of a horrible human being. But that’s the appeal of the show. What makes Philly a funny show is that these terrible people have the opportunity to better themselves but simply refuse to. They continuously bring each other down. And after watching this episode, it is safe to conclude that the reason everyone sucks is because of Dennis’ own toxicity. Without him they seemed to do alright. All in all, it was a great way to kick off the season. Starting out by subverting expectations and then bringing it back to the status quo.
