It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, the longest-running live-action comedy on TV, is back for Season 18 on FXX and Hulu. And based on the eight episodes provided for critics (the season will run a longer-than-usual 10 episodes), the show is as funny as ever, the most reliably hilarious comedy on the small screen.
…Oh, I’m sorry, would you like me to say more about this show? It’s been 18 seasons, I feel like maybe you either know what this is all about and decided it’s for you – or not – long ago. But just in case you’ve decided to pop in and check it out after 178 episodes have already aired, here’s the deal.
Set in – where else – Philadelphia, Charlie (Charlie Day), Dennis (Glenn Howerton), Dee (Kaitlin Olsen), and Mac (Rob Mac) all hang out in a rundown bar called Paddy’s Pub, which they also own with Dee and Dennis’s disgusting dad, Frank (Danny DeVito). They’re all horrible people, they learn no lessons, and they make their own lives – and the lives of everyone around them – way, way worse. That’s it! No sitcom-style hugs or growth, though there have been glimpses of forward movement throughout the years. These are caustic, terrible people who should probably die in a fire in their own bar rather than be allowed to interact with society.
While Season 17 relied a bit more on parodies, from a Succession episode to putting Frank on The Golden Bachelor, to one episode where they got obsessed with Is It Cake? and made a full-size Danny DeVito cake, Season 18 eschews pop culture almost entirely. Or at least, current pop culture, thanks to an episode partially inspired by Rodney Dangerfield’s Back to School.
There’s also a mild gesture to serialized storytelling, in that the premiere picks up with Frank getting ready to marry chicken billionaire Sam (Carol Kane), who he met on The Golden Bachelor; and the season’s second episode picks up off the absolutely horrifying end of that particular adventure. To give you a hint, the premiere is titled “Frank Marries a Corpse,” while Episode 2 goes by “Dennis & Dee Don’t Get Rich.” But other than the shared history between the characters and their supporting cast, including a hilarious moment during the season’s fourth episode when the broken, homeless drug addict Rickety Cricket (David Hornsby) is stunned when the gang says they’d love to hear how he ended up this way when they are the entire reason, after the initial pair of twenty-ish minute episodes, every week there’s a new batch of terrible behavior coming your way.
A trip to a Jamiroquai concert that goes horribly wrong, a trip to the Ren Faire that goes horribly wrong, and a trip back to college that goes horribly wrong… It’s Always Sunny is generally like a Universal Studios ride but for comedy bits as the Gang tears their way through Philadelphia and the surroundings. Not everything works, mind you. An episode focused on Gilligan’s Island does continue the show’s tribute to its sitcom roots complete with a laugh track and reproduced set, but doesn’t quite come together. And one episode where they accidentally drink non-alcoholic beer has the potential for some sharp commentary, but mostly devolves into the umpteenth round of self-aware gay jokes at Mac’s expense.
On that note, while It’s Always Sunny is always raunchy and pushes the envelope farther than it’s been pushed before on TV, there’s no question about who the joke is on: the terrible fivesome at the center of the show. Guest stars like Nate Corddry as a mortician have their own hilarious horribleness about them (there are no good characters on this show), but the main stars make sure that ultimately their raw brand of epically disgusting bile spews out the hardest.
Everyone gets their moment to shine, but Day delights this season when he gets to do a speed-run on Charlie-isms in an episode where the gang gets tested for ADHD only for it to turn out Charlie is some sort of medical discovery level genius/idiot. And Howerton and Olsen are always funnier when the brother/sister duo are forcing each other to get progressively worse, which is exactly what happens multiple times here… The two of them taking their own paths to academic stardom is funny, but merely seeing them seethe at everyone else while trying to inherit billions of dollars is much, much funnier.
And that’s how it goes! How’d this review do? Did it change your mind in some way about It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia? Have you decided to give it a second chance, or hearing what goes down this season decided to nope out? Or were you going to watch it anyway, and instead I threw 800ish words on a page for no reason? In short: yep, it’s still funny. And yep, they can go for 18 seasons more, if they want to. It may always be sunny in Philadelphia, but It’s Always Sunny always delivers.
It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia Season 18 premieres Monday, August 17 at 9:00pm ET / 6:00pm PT on FXX, FX and Hulu.
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