There are two camps of people: those who have seen more than one episode of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and those who think of it as that weird dumb show with Danny DeVito. If you're in the latter camp, then I pity you; over the past nine years, IASIP has consistently been the funniest, most gleefully transgressive sitcom on television.
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Battlestar GalacticaOn its surface, it's the story of four friends who own a dive bar in the City of Brotherly Love: siblings Dennis and "Sweet" Dee Reynolds, Charlie Kelly, and Mac (yes, he has a full name, but I'd never rob you of the delight of learning it seven seasons into the show). There's also Dennis and Dee's stepdad Frank Reynolds (DeVito), and a huge revolving cast of dysfunctionals and deviants—along with a few upstanding citizens who share the distinct misfortune of stumbling into our protagonists' path. That's because The Gang, as they think of themselves, is the most singularly self-absorbed, permadrunk, delusionally idiotic group of people ever to grace the small screen (and that includes Keeping Up With the Kardashians). And we love them for it.
Here are a few things The Gang has done over time: Donned a dead guy's Nazi outfit; turned a priest into a homeless meth addict; pretended to have cancer; thrown a beer bottle at a cyclist and knocked him off his car and into a bike; pointed a gun at a baby; dated (and proposed to) a literal crack whore; worn blackface.
That's not a greatest-hits collection; that's just the first seven things I thought of. There are no sacred cows here, and any that happen to shuffle into the vicinity are immediately turned into quarter-pounders and devoured with abandon.
Number of Seasons: 9 (103 episodes)
Time Requirements: At four episodes a night (c'mon, that's only two hours!), it'll take less than a lunar cycle to catch up on all of The Gang's exploits. Turn your Sunday afternoons into 10-episode orgies of narcissism and pettiness, and it's down to three weeks. What are you, some kind of a quitter?
Where to Get Your Fix: Netflix, Amazon Instant, Google Play. More like It's Always Streaming In, Uh, Internetelphia, amirite?
Best Character to Follow: The fact that this question has so many answers is testament to the fact that it's easily one of the best comedy ensembles in television today. The easy choice is hyperkinetic moron Charlie: he's a failed abortion, he's functionally illiterate, and he huffs more glue than this entire archive of Cops arrestees. He's also a marvel of physical comedy, thanks to actor Charlie Day's insane commitment: whether dancing, screaming, or singing, he's almost pathologically invested in the act.
That's not to say that there isn't a distinct genius in each core performance. Rob McElhinney's Mac is a closed-minded xenophobe with reverse body dysmorphia: At one point, he becomes so consumed with "packing on slabs of mass" that in his utter nutritional ignorance he carries around a garbage bag full of chimichangas, and eventually balloons to 300 pounds. Glenn Howerton is Dennis, a self-proclaimed "golden god" who is seriously one of the slimiest characters comedy has ever seen (his predatory sexual tastes evolve so hideously over the show's run that even his friends arch an eyebrow). And we can't forget Dee Reynolds, at once the smartest and most selfish person in the whole damn bunch; why Kaitlin Olson doesn't get more movie work is a mystery for the ages. (Also, Olson and McElhinney are married in real life, which makes their toxic repartee on the show even better.)
Seasons/Episodes You Can Skip: Comedies with self-contained episodes are generally immune to the season-long taint that can affect a long-arc drama, and that works strongly in Always Sunny's favor: there's not a single season that's flawed at its core. Some people think that Season 4 is the show's worst, but with glorious episodes like"Mac and Charlie Die," "Dennis Reynolds, An Erotic Life" (which is notable for the finest of all of Sweet Dee's many comic dry heaves) and "The Nightman Cometh," that's impossible. Season 7 has some bloat, but it's not confined to any particular block of episodes.
That being said, there are certainly a few episodes you can pass right by—especially Season 7's fifth episode, "Frank's Brother," which is a standalone flashback episode about a younger Frank and his brother that never really transcends its gimmick. A few others that let you save 22 minutes:
Season 3: Episode 6, "The Gang Solves the North Korea Situation"
Season 4: Episode 11, "The Gang Cracks the Liberty Bell"
Season 8: Episode 1, "Pop-Pop: The Final Solution"
Season 7: Episode 4, "Sweet Dee Gets Audited"
Season 4: Episode 7, "Who Pooped The Bed?" (Yes, that's the title.)
The Episode You Would Think You Can't Skip, But You Can—Season 9: Episode 8, "Flowers For Charlie"
When it was announced that D.B. Weiss and David Benioff, showrunners of Game of Thrones, were IASIP superfans and would be writing an episode, people got very, very excited. The only problem was, the resulting episode wasn't that great: nearly every joke felt like it was the first one that had popped into Weiss and Benioff's mind, and it added up to a thoroughly color-by-numbers experience.
Seasons/Episodes You Can't Skip:
Every season has its standouts, and it's only right that you know them all.
Season 1: Episode 1, "The Gang Gets Racist" Like any good pilot, it establishes the people and relationships that will be playing out for years to come.
Season 2: Episode 5, "Hundred Dollar Baby" Competing amphetamine habits, an underground fight club, and this GIF, which really says it all. (It's also a star turn for Sweet Dee, who matches Charlie's mania blow for blow.)
Season 2: Episode 7, "The Gang Exploits a Miracle" The introduction of Rickety Cricket (the aforementioned defrocked priest), along with Charlie's first musical number—and it's a doozy.
Season 3: Episode 14, "Bums: Making A Mess All Over the City" Law enforcement for everyone! Mac and Dee become Guardian Angels, Frank and Dennis impersonate cops, and Charlie basically transforms into Serpico, which is 137% as incredible as it sounds.
Season 3: Episode 15, "The Gang Dances Their Asses Off" The show is often at its best when internecine plotting takes center stage, and this episode is a prime example. When a charity dance marathon comes to the bar, everyone's got their own motives, and there's no end to the machinations.
Season 4: Episode 10, "Sweet Dee Has A Heart Attack" A tour de force for everyone. Charlie and Mac scam their way into mailroom jobs, and Dennis and Dee become gym rats as only they can: armed with a Steve Winwood CD and a whole lot of hateability.
Season 4: Episode 13, "The Nightman Cometh" This is quite possibly the most unanimously loved episode of the whole series—so much so that the cast toured the country, performing it live. The Season 4 finale is the sublime realization of everything the show stands for: Charlie's musical (and costuming) genius, Mac's self-delusion, Dee's exhibitionism, Dennis' ego, and above all, the utter futility of Charlie's series-long quest for The Waitress' heart. Plus, it's a musical.
Season 5: Episode 7, "The Gang Wrestles For the Troops" By Season 5, the writing has really found its stride, especially with regards to The Gang's absolutely insane hyperbolic view of masculinity, which devolves into homoeroticism again and again. This time, it happens when Mac, Charlie, and Dennis want to put on a pro-wrestling show to help the troops—and turn themselves into The Birds of War, with a theme song that's matched in ridiculousness only by their painted-on abs and feather-boa costumes ("yes we have feathers/but the muscles are MEN").
Season 5: Episode 10, "The D.E.N.N.I.S. System" While Dennis still has plenty of skeeve-earth yet to dig up in later seasons, this episode finds him at the apex of his predatorial outlook on romance—and it's as insane as the acronym he uses. Some choice lines from Frank, who for some reason has started calling himself Dr. Mantis Toboggan.
Season 6: Episodes 8 and 9, "The Gang Gets a New Member" and "Dee Reynolds: Shaping America's Youth" While it's not an official two-part episode, this pair is linked by Charlie and Dee's getting jobs in a high school (Charlie as janitor, Dee as kinda drama-class teacher/kinda guidance counselor, neither capacity official). Both times, though, the real comedy action is with Dennis and Mac; in the first episode, they welcome an old friend (Jason Sudeikis, the most affable man alive) back into the fold and try to initiate him into The Gang; in the second, they film and (thankfully) screen their cinematic classic Lethal Weapon 5.
Season 7: Episode 7, "Chardee MacDennis: The Game of Games" Game Night mixed with Survivor mixed with hatred and alcohol. One of the best bottle episodes in the history of television. Also Season 7 is the year of Fat Mac, so prepare yourself accordingly.
Season 7: Episodes 13 and 14, "The High School Reunion" While IASIP has aired two-parters to great effect—especially Season 4's "Mac and Charlie Die"—this one is just about peerless. We learn Mac's real name (but not The Waitress'!), Sweet Dee sinks from Cool Kid back into her Aluminum Monster outcast persona, Charlie gets the mother of all wedgies (though the sound effect used in the promo ads FX aired back in 2011 was apaprently too disgusting to be used in the final cut), and The Gang whips up a song and dance routine that's just about impossible to believe.
Season 8: Episode 5, "The Gang Gets Analyzed" One by one, the principals find themselves on the therapist's couch. Half Rashomon, half The Usual Suspects, 100 percent Danny DeVito's best/weirdest acting moment on the entire series. (Note: the episode is not at all like either Rashomon or The Usual Suspects, but that was a lot of fun to write.)
Season 8: Episode 9, "The Gang Dines Out" It's a return to Gugino's, the fancy restaurant so loved by The Gang (and where Charlie once so famously ordered "a milk steak, boiled over hard"). Mac and Dennis are there for a dinner, as are Charlie and Frank. Jealousy! Shenanigans! Dinner rolls!
Season 9: Episode 1, "The Gang Broke Dee" Dee's finally hit rock bottom. That's it. OK, maybe one more open-mic night at the comedy club. CUE THE ACCIDENTAL CATCHPHRASE AND METEORIC RISE TO STARDOM. Oh, the joy.
Season 9: Episode 5, "Mac Day" It's like "Treat Yo' Self" from Parks and Recreation, but all Mac all the time! Mac wants to do something? The Gang's gotta do it, whether that means wearing sleeveless T-shirts or oiling down dudes at a bodybuilding competition. Also, a pretty fantastic guest appearance from Seann William Scott (yes, Stifler) as Mac's cousin "Country Mac"—who's every bit as badass as Mac so desperately wishes he was himself.
Why You Should Binge:
Because "antihero" doesn't even begin to describe it. Because unapologetic dickishness has never been captured so perfectly. Because the creators of the show (Rob McElhinney, Glenn Howerton, and Charlie Day) are three of its five stars, and they know exactly how to walk the line that separates lovable asshole from irredeemable asshole. Because the rhythms of their relationship not only remain consistent, but evolve over the years, resulting in a sitcom with characters as organically real as the best drama you've ever watched.
Best Scene—The Gang's Musical:
Without a doubt, it's The Gang's musical, "The Nightman Cometh." You already read about it, now watch it:
The Takeaway:
According to Yelp, there are 239 dive bars in Philadelphia proper. Any of them would be a better choice than Paddy's Pub.
If You Liked It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia You'll Love:
The League—which also began on FX—surpasses IASIP in bodily fluids, but certainly takes its dysfunctional, codependent cues from The Gang. For a millennial version (less thirtysomething angst, more emoji), you could do a lot worse than Comedy Central's Workaholics—or, for a gender-swapped version, the fantastic Broad City.
