It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia
I’ve been raving about this show for a couple of weeks now and there is good reason for the ranting. It’s a show that makes all other shows seem boring and not pushing the boundaries. To sum it up it’s kind of like the ethics of Family Guy and South Park mixed with the real life settings of Scrubs. So you have the over acted style but with human characters so you can’t believe some of the things they say, do or think.
The plot for the entire show is the following of a group of people made up of (from left to right) Dee (Kaitlin Olson), Dennis (Glenn Howerton), Charlie (Charlie Day) and Mac (Rob McElhenney) who are later joined by Frank (Danny DeVito at the front). They all work/own a pub in Philadelphia called Paddy’s Pub which never seems to be making cash until they play out one of their usual unbelievable schemes to make cash or get people in the bar. At the end of every episode the schemes back fire and result in them returning to the usual empty bar with the odd hobo-like customer.
The connections between the characters are rather “confusing” to say the least. Dennis and Dee are twins (obviously not identical) while Mac and Charlie are friends from school who eventually met Dennis later in life. Frank is introduced at the start of the second season and this is where it starts getting messy. Frank is originally introduced as Dennis and Dee’s father until Dennis and Dee are contacted by a man on MySpace claiming to be their real father. It is eventually revealed he is their real dad because Dennis and Dee’s mother had an affair behind Frank’s back. It then later transpires that Frank is indeed Charlie’s dad after he had an affair with Charlie’s mother, although Frank denies it due to Charlie’s mother agreeing to have an abortion when she got pregnant but it never worked and she didn’t tell Frank that it never worked.
Now we’ve covered the connections we need to get into the characters themselves as they are what make the show brilliant. We’ll start with Dennis; he’s arrogant and self-centered about himself and often claims he is shaped by the gods and uses his “good looks” many, many times throughout the show to get his way with the ladies (and men at some points).
Dee is simply a bartender at Paddy’s Pub however she considers herself as an owner when it comes to decisions about the pub. She regularly gets abuse thrown at her by the other 4 characters about how she looks whenever they are in need of a good looking woman for their schemes (which is funny as she is actually married to the guy who plays Mac in real life) and is mocked for being a “failure” of an actress.
Mac is the middle idiot of the group, he thinks of himself as the hard man and constantly talks of how he can use his karate skills to take on anyone he meets during the schemes. He is also the person who usually starts the schemes but will usually lose control of the scheme to Dennis or Frank once they get into things. There is also a running gag throughout the show as he always cuts the arms off his shirts to show off his tattoos on his arms.
Charlie is the lovable character as he can’t read or write and this is constantly his downfall but actually writes a musical at one point using pictures. He is also the “thick” one of the group and constantly gets himself into embarrassing situations where he sniffs glue or says the wrong thing at the wrong time.
Then we get to my favourite character - Frank. He is played by Danny DeVito who makes this character hilarious no matter what he is doing. He was originally a very wealthy man until he lost it all but was bailed out by the government. There is a running gag where he will recite parts of his life which are actually the plot of Rambo. Frank carries a gun with him at all times and it routinely gets the group into trouble.
Themes of the show sometimes cover the major news stories at the time it was made. For instance they have an episode covering the “North Korea Situation” however in the show it’s about a bar owned by some North Koreans causing problems for Paddy’s Pub in the pub crawl. Other themes are along the lines of them becoming celebrities, getting drunk as possible, trying to prove they’re not racist, escaping situations such as being kidnapped and trying to make money is unethical ways (for instance trying to sell a Nazi uniform to a local museum and trying to get bribes to drop out of the running in local politics). Of course it never works out and it always fails in a hilarious way.
It’s definitely worth a watch however be warned it’s not to everyone’s taste due to the risky type of comedy. Here’s a clip to show you just how far the comedy sometimes goes;
Here’s a little more light hearted clip;
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