“It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” — The Gang Finds a Dumpster Baby + The Gang Gets Invincible
The problem with attempting to be ‘the funniest show on television’ is that it is impossible to live up to the hype. I feared last night’s premiere episodes of It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia’s third season were going to be absolute disasters. It turned out they were pretty OK. Nothing to set aside for the record books, but still packed with enough jokes to make me (and the drunk guy sitting next to me) laugh at pretty regular clip. More after the break…
The first of the two episodes was the strongest and started in exactly the way you expect (nay, demand) the show to start. The gang is walking along arguing over something that isn’t important. Some sort of topic comes up. They discuss it which leads to an awkward encounter and then BAM, title card with the lesson of the day. Really, I defy anyone not to laugh at the way Dennis delivers the line “Oh shit. There’s a baby in this dumpster.” The words themselves are just awful, calling to mind all sorts of human travesties, and yet he says it so matter-of-fact you can’t help but think. Ha! This’ll lead to some crazy hijinx!”
If It’s Always Sunny… is suffering from anything this season, it might be ambition. For a series that won me over with its lo-fi, shoestring budget and take-no-prisoners charm, they sure seem like they’re trying to achieve something a little bigger. The problem is they aren’t exactly succeeding. A series like this doesn’t need an A, B and C storyline each week. It can barely handle just an A. Their scripting isn’t as sharp as Curb Your Enthusiasm’s (when it’s good) and thus the “bringing it altogether” payoffs aren’t quite there. Take last night’s first episode. Dennis infiltrated a group of peaceniks so he could get back at a guy by banging his girlfriend, Charlie and Frank became dumpster-divers and by-extension homeless (and Charlie learned that he survived an abortion when he was in the womb), and Dee and Mac tried to turn a baby they found in a dumpster into a child star. That’s a lot of material for one episode, especially since none of it seemed particularly laser-sighted (unlike last season’s brilliantly sharp “Mac Bangs Dennis’ Mom” which managed to take one crazy idea and expand it to the whole cast with everyone using the material to act their absolute worst).
I suppose all of this sounds like I’m really down on the show this season. I have to admit, as I was writing out the plot in the paragraph above I found myself laughing quite a bit — there were some gems in there. Most notably the end of the episode where Charlie inexplicably thinks the dumpster baby belonged to the waitress who slept with Frank and then screams out to a packed coffee house, “You threw your babies away, and you threw your swords away!” That’s brilliant — er, actually it’s pretty asinine, but Charlie Day has a way of screaming that is both the most sociopathic screech you’ve ever heard and perhaps the most genuinely funny.
Other highlights from “The Gang Finds a Dumpster Baby”:
- Charlie with a sword.
- The line, “That sweet, sweet trash.”
- The names of the hippies: Sage and Azriel
- “Hey, look at this! You can wrap stuff in this.” Basically anything involving Charlie and garbage made me laugh.
On to “The Gang Gets Invincible”!
Not all that great, this episode. First, it seems kind of hard to parody a movie no one saw, but perhaps that’s the point. Really the Philadelphia connection is about all you need. Afterall, everyone simply refers to the movie as “The New Kid on the Block Movie.”
The problem here is perhaps a little more damaging to the spirit of the series. There were a lot of call-backs (actually, the same was true for the previous episode). It’s Always Sunny… isn’t Arrested Development, nor should it be. In a way the series is probably closer to what Lucky Louie should have been: the anti-sitcom. If for no other reason than to counter the shear volume of trouble our characters get into every week, I almost prefer them to live in a universe where everything goes back to normal at the end of the 30 minutes no matter what. I don’t want season long runners, or intensive character development or anything that I usually complain most shows should have more of. Simple. Simple. Simple. A premise, some situations, a little tomfoolery, some screaming, a final punchline and then on to next week. To me, that’s the spirit of It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia. I don’t need long-running plot points about the McPoyles (”What is that a jar of? Is that a fife?”) or Artemis or even the coffee shop girl. Just get in, get out, leave me wanting more.
Regardless, here’s are a few things that cracked me up:
- “Is that Alvin from the Cosby Show?” “That’s so Raven!”
- “Greenman is saving your life right now” — the episode got a whole lot funnier when Greenman came out. “That lizard talks.” Again… not that clever, but Charlie somehow made it funny.
- Faizon Love as the coach was pretty brilliant.
So there we go, kind of a rocky start, but we’re off and running.
TWO MORE EPISODES NEXT WEEK.
