It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia - Mac and Dennis: Manhunters (Ep 4.1)
Synopsis: Frank has delusions of living John Rambo’s life, Dee and Charlie get caught up in the hunger for human flesh, while Mac and Dennis are off chasing Rickety Cricket around the city.
This show isn’t exactly story driven, or character driven, or even special effects driven, it’s basically one hundred percent comedy driven. While Seinfeld was a show about nothing, this show is about even less than nothing. All of main characters (or “The Gang” as they call themselves) have remained basically unchanged from episode to episode. The start of Always Sunny season four looks to be on that same course. Dennis is still overly confident and mean spirited, Mac still has a lot of energy and nowhere to use it, Charlie still can’t comprehend anything that’s being said to him, Dee still hasn’t built up enough confidence to get away from them, and Frank is still the craziest of them all. All that is to say, I love this show.
This episode has the gang separated into a few different groups, like many other episodes. Rickety Cricket (Bruce Hornsby) is back and in better condition than ever. There’s a morgue attendant that enjoys yogurt in his anus, and that’s not even the strangest part of the episode. This episode is the first of any television show I’ve ever seen where two of the main characters seriously believe they’ve become cannibals. I’m sure cannibalism has come up in a Law and Order ep, or some other crazy cop show, but this episode’s narrative is based around it. If you can find a way to laugh at two cracked out people walking down a major city street forsaking cheesesteak, and trolling for a human to eat, then this episode is right up your alley.
MandD: Manhunters is an episode that seems to hit most of it’s spots. Few jokes went unappreciated by my busted gut, and I’m always for a guest appearance from The Gang’s favorite fallen priest. This show certainly isn’t for everybody, and this episode proves it better than most. If you’ve watched this show before, but fell out of sync with it’s air dates, I recommend getting back on board. If you haven’t seen it, but enjoy shows like Arrested Development, Flight of the Conchords, and FX’s former show Starved, this one’s for you.
It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia - The Gang Solves the Gas Crisis (Ep 4.2)
Synopsis: Charlie has a failed experiment of running the bar on a gas generator. Mac and Dennis find out, and promptly intervene. While this is going on Dee and Frank try their hands at being spies.
On any other Thursday I think this episode would have been funnier, but after the insane premiere episode finished, it was unfair to follow it with this one. The former episode being one of the most outrageous the series has ever seen, and this one being a more standard production. Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate a good Charlie disguise as much as the next viewer, but I just think this episode was softened by the extreme comedy barrage of the episode that aired just prior. Now to get a little more objective.
This episode brought us back to the core of the show, the relationship between the three leads. Finally the cards have been put on the table and the viewer knows where the group stands. Dennis is the looks, Mac the brains, and Charlie the wild card, or is it Dennis the looks and the brains, and Mac the muscle, or is Frank the muscle? One thing is for sure, Charlie IS the wild card. Everything from his silly faces, his gas station destroying antics, or the way he pulled an un-Ghostbusterly shirt removal for a bank loan, it all reeks of wild card and hilarity.
The rest of the characters in this episode, not nearly as much. Frank and Dee’s ill concieved and executed plan has some funny stuff going on (water boarding for instance), but overall just felt thrown together to give them something to do during this episode. The ending of the episode is what I saw to be the high point, and the last face Charlie makes while driving in Frank’s “rape” van is worth watching the entire episode for itself. I’m still highly optimistic that the rest of this season will have me rolling on the floor, but I hope the episodes are more outrageous and/or shocking in the vein of the premiere episode.
By Jeffrey Paul Louis Schiller
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