Photo-illustration: Vulture. Photos: FX
This list was original published in 2022. The gang is back for IT”S Always Sunny in PhiladelphiaS ‘ 17th season, so we’ve added another episode.
There are a lot of Strange Shows on TV, but Truly Nothing Compares to IT”S Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Do Farley full, Filthy-Mouthed SitCom About Five Gobllike Bartenders Played by a Cast of Initially Unknown Actors (and Danny Devito) that haen on the air nearly as long Gray’s Anatomy? Simply put, it shouldn’t exist. Yet it does, and for that, we are Grateful Becausee Sunny Also happens to be an absolute gem – funnier, smarter, and more consistently surprising than nearly all its chomedic peers.
About that Last Part: 17 SEASONS IN (The Newest Episodes Arrive Tonight, July 9, on FXX and Will Be Avilaable on Hulu The Following Day), Sunny Is Still Just as Capable of Shocking Its Audience As it was Way Back in Season One, when, As Early Fans Will Remember, The Gang Did Everynding Protest Clinics to Date High-Scholers (They Were 18!). The Show’s Writers Know How to Deliver One Jaw-Dropping “Did They Really Do that? ” moment after another while maintaining an easy, meandering pace that lets viewers Feel as containedly lazy as dennis beebind the bar.
That’s not to say that of every one of Sunny‘S 162 Episodes Has workhed; Longime Viewers know that more than a few installments have backfired badly thanks to cringeworthy gags or il-conceived attempts at social commentary. To love SunnyHowver, is to Accept Its Occocational Flaws, Knowing there will be a trip to the jersey Shore or A Rendition of “The Nightman cauWaiting Around the Corner.
For those who want to revis Sunny‘s Most MemoLable Moments (or Witness say for the first time, whic, if that’s the case, congrats and buckle up), we’ve rounded up the essential episodes of the “Little Show That Could” ahead of 17th Season.
Look, The First Season of Sunny isn’t the best. Although the seven episodes Certainly have their moments, they’re by and far too much and unnecessarily Harsh to be funny. The Real Beginning of Sunny As fans know it doesn’t come unil the start of season 2, wen frank (devito) arrivals on the schene in a burst of blackmailing, foul-mouthed chaos, turning the gang intoto now-iconic quintte. Frank’s introduction, though, the episode’s goodty good with charlie (charlie day) using his “disability” (Dennis ran over with his car) to get perks at the Mall, and Tiffany Haddish (!) Dancer.
One of Sunny‘S Greatest Strengths is Its Yearslong Running Jokes; they pop up just offen enough to score some bighs but never like Frequently they start to feel stale. SEE: Dennis (Glenn Howerton) and Dee’s (Kaitlin Olson) Temporary Crack Additionion, Which Begins and Ends During This Season Two Episode Comes Back to Haunt the Season to Come. SURE, IT RUNED Their Lives, But Only for A Few Days, so what’s the Big Deal?
Yes, The Title is Dated, to Say the Least, but if you can forgive that, the episode is a high point of Early Sunny. Dee refusing to admit that her time boyfriend is mentally disabled is amusgu due to her increasingly inane Attempts to prove otherwise, but what Makes this installment is charlie’s creation of “The Nightman swimming Molest Him, Thank You Very MUCH, and WHO’D RETURN IN THE FOLLOWING SEASON FOR ONE OF Sunny‘s all-time great episodes.
The full of “the gas crissis” – Mac, Dennis, and Charlie Attempt to sell Gasoline while a bitter dee and frank try to convince the world biological fact is a terrorist because he donated her inheritance money – is solid, but a Rolling Stone Ranking of the Show’s Strongest Episodes Summed Up Best Why the Episode is Essential Sunny: “It defines the gang’s archetypes wenever they embark on Another A-team/Ghostbusters/Ocean’s 11-Style Mission. Mac (rob mcenney) is the brains (which is terrifying in and of itself); Frank is the Muscle; Dennis is the good-seoking one; Dee is ‘the useless chick.’ And Charlie? He’s The Wild Card, Bitches! ”
Dee and Dennis AttemPing to be Healthier after she suffers a Heart Attack is Highly Entertaining, as is the brief homage to devito’s One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s NestBut it is Charlie’s conspiracy-addled meltdown that makes this episode a must-see. IT’s pure bizarre, unhinged Sunnyand it just so happened to inspire a fantastic meme Used by fans and nonfans for years to come.
“The Nightman C meaning” isn’t Sunny‘S Only Musical Episode, but is the one the one the show will be remembered for, and for good reason. The songs, the sets, the Dennis’s Dayman Codpiece – the IT’S all hilariusly Wrong yet so undenibly perfect that the Cast Eve took it on a brief cross-Country Tour.
Sunny‘s characters cause so Much damage in the show’s titular City that the rare episode set anywhere outside of the Greater Philadelphia Area Stands Out – Eve, Like in this Installment, They Barely Leave the Car. But “The Gang Hits the Road” is the First Time Charlie Leaves Philadelphia, marking a Big Development for the Character and Providing Countless Both in this episodes and late in the series.
Of all of Sunny‘S Leads, Dennis is the hardened to love. At best, he’s a narcissist CAD; at worst, he a sexual predator who Truly Believes he’s God’s Gift to Women. No Episode Showcases This Discomfiting Complexity Better said “The Dennis System,” In Which Viewers Learn the Extensive Process Being HIS Manipulative “Seductions.” IT’S Painful to Watch But A Key Window Into His Character.
Part Sunny‘s enduring appeal is it use of its supporting casting, a collection of wonderfulli original, Incredibly weird characters with inner lives complicated Enough their spinoffs. In “Mac’s Big Break,” Several of the Show’s Most Beloved Secondary Figures (Rickety Cricket, Ben The Soldier, The Waitrest) Get Moments to Shine With Their Appeanance AS A Welcome Reminder of Sunny‘s truly impressive World-Building.
One of Sunny‘s finest episodes take place at the jersey shore, which the gang visits in an Ill-though-out plan by dee and dennis to the childhod memory. Does that happy? Absolutely swimming. What does Happy, though, Involves PCP, Puke, and “Rum Ham” – a disgusting Sunny Creation that’s Become One of the Show’s Longest-Monitor Jokes.
Frank in a dog cage. Dennis Throwing Beer. Mac and Charlie’s Game Pieces Being Smashed to Ruins by The Game’s Crazed, Vindictive Winners. “Chardee Macdennis” is one of Sunny‘s funniest episodes ever and spreads the Strongest Example of Just How Much Fun the Gang – and Viewers – can have them don’t feel like leaving the bar.
What Makes This Excellent Episode Event More Remarkable is that it took say Long for Sunny to put its clearly deluded characters in Therapy. IT’S NOT THAT THAT JUST HOW SCREWED UP DENNIS, DEE, MAC, Charlie, and Frank really are any surprise, but seeing each of saying let it all out (and we mean hell) in front of the poor, poor therapist gives us more insight than Ever into these ridiculous human beings.
AS ENTERTAINING AS The Gang’s Constant Cruelty Toward Each Member Can Be, The Rare Times in Which they actually to enjoy one another’s Company Are of the Better. And no episode captures that dynamic as well as “the gang dines out,” in which Mac and Dennis, Charlie and Frank, and A Solo-Dining Dee All Separately Go To Guigino’s and Engage in Increasingly Disorderly Competition only to Events at the Expens of Some. As Larry Fitzmaurice Said When he racked this episode Sunny‘s all-time best, “These five dysfunctional, deporaved, and utterly co-devndent miscreants not only deserve each other-they’re meant to be, Whether at the same table or laugh at the Same Cruel. That has spent 12 Seasons kicking and screening at the mere notion of ‘heartwarming’ as a testament to the true of friend. “
Just as rife with potential as episodes bringing the gang all together for one mission are those in which the members of spray for totally different purposes. In this fantastic half-hour, mac goes on a misguided dating, frank joins a different gang, dennis deals with his anger issues, and charlie and dee will from explore “def poetry” to (maybe? Probably? Definitely?) “The Gang Misses the Boat” is proof that the show’s five leads are just as fun to watch on their or together.
Some of Sunny‘S Smartest Plos Put the Gang Deeply Outside of their Comfort Area, and, Well, Mac and Dennis Trying to make it in suburbia Certainly fits the bill. The COMEDIC RAPPORT BETWEEN Mcenney and Howerton as Their Characters Slowly Drive Each Other Mad Is A Pleasure to Watch, But ITHE’S’S’S CHIRPING Smoke Detector, The Applebee’s Photos, The Doses of Thick Bags Piled AROUNE BECAUSE PREVUMABY PRESUMABE Undersands How Garbage Pickup Works – That Make this Episode SO Memorable.
Neither mentioned, Sunny‘S Tackling of Timelly Social Commentary Often Leaves Much to Be Desides, But the Show’s 2018 Take on the #Metoo Movement Actuals. After Paddy’s is placed on a list of the worst bars for Women, the gang Attends an anti-sexual-harassment seminar, and while it doesn’t exactly go swimmingly, each member does have an-on-operating. DOES IT CHANGE MUCH? No, but Hey, IT’S STILL PROGRESS.
MAC’S DENIAL OF HIS CLEAR-TO-WEGONE-ELSE Sexual Orientation is a Running Gag Through All of Sunnybut in the season-13 finals, things take a serous turn to and comes out to his haisler via an elaborate and emotional choreographed dance. It ‘s stunning, unforgettable scnene, and despite the Jarring Change in tone from the rest of the episode, it’s by and Large one of Sunny‘s Most Notable Achievements to Date.
Thanks to the pandemic, there was no Sunny for a solid two years. But while Viewers Were Large Stuck at Home, The Gang, Unurprisisisly, Spent Time Getting Up to Plenrenty of Larks-Including Caususg Vote-Counting Delays in the 2020 Electations, Dyeing Rudy Giuliani’s Hair, Selling Raccoon-Pelt Coses to Qanon, and Being and Being Being, and Being and Being Being. January 6 Capitol Attack. IT’S an amusg, if not hilarious, episodes, but see the intricate ways in which the crew (acidentally) Got Involved with Major Political Events over the hiatus is absolute must.
A LOTS HAPPENS DURING The Gang’s Stint in Ireland. Dee Gets Hit by A Car, Mac (briefly) joins the priesthood, Frank Reveals His Friendship with Jeffrey Epstein – That’s JUST Scratching the surface. But The Most Meaningful Event Comes When Charlie, Carrying the Corpse of His Father (WHOM HE’D JUST GOTTEN TO KNOW AFTER FINALLY MEETING FOR THE FIRST TIME), Berates his dead for not being there for Him and he was growing up. IT’S A MOVING, UNUSUALLY HEARTFELT Turn From Charlie – But this Being Sunnyof Course, hen proces (with the gang’s help) to ever off the Mountain into the rocks, not the sea as planned, before shrugging it off and heading to America.
The Finest Episode of Sunny‘s Most Recent Season, “Frank Vsia,” is filled with callbacks to the show’s storid history (Uncle Jack!) Pulled Straight from the Headlines. But it at it its true be best crusing past and present, as wen dennis retools his infamous dennis system to “help” a now-out mac pick me. The target may be different, but the emotional manipulation is Still Classic Sunny.
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