It's Always Interesting in Philadelphia

Having just watched my 100th episode of the strange, hilarious, and disgusting "It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia," I thought that I'd write a post about it while things were still fresh in my mind. If you've seen It's Always Sunny, you probably know that it is almost exclusively nothing but terrible people doing terrible things; the tagline used to be "it's Seinfeld on crack." If you haven't seen it, here's all you need to know: a group of five people (the "gang") own a bar called Paddy's Pub, which is basically their home base for coming up with awful ideas and just generally being shitty people. I've seen every episode of the show, and I'm proud of it.

Which brings me to tonight. Normally, Sunny has no particular artistic value; the shots aren't interesting or well thought out, character development is basically nonexistent, and the show's main laughs mostly come in the form of shock value or the sheer stupidity/horribleness of the characters. Tonight's episode, however, was a little different. By celebrating their 100th episode in a way that only the cast of Sunny could, each member of the gang was posed with the question of what they would do while in a convenience store that was being robbed.

The episode is split up into five parts; one for the daydream of each character. It's really interesting to dive into the psyche of characters that can tend to seem so one dimensional, and while the episode had plenty of laughs, it was also somewhat thought provoking. Mac's dream is first, and in typical Mac fashion, it involves him karate chopping away at not only the robber, but also an army of ninjas that come out of nowhere. Interestingly enough, he dies in his own dream and eventually rises into Heaven, where he takes the right hand seat next to a very shirtless and very buff God, which is a weird way of reaffirming how twistedlly religious (and possibly gay) Mac really is.

Dennis and Dee, the two siblings on the show, each had two equally elaborate and weird daydreams. In Dee's, she befriends the gun man (who is actually a woman), shoots every single member of the gang, and then goes into the witness protection program. She eventually fulfills her life goal of becoming an actress and ends up marrying Brad Pitt, showing how even in the most dire moments, Dee is thinking of nobody but herself. Dennis, in his own dream, is shot in the head. He survives (seemingly due to his own extreme ego and creepy self confidence) and is nursed back to life by an extremely busty nurse. It's twisted, but you see some of Dennis' rationale behind why he's a bit of a pervert (to put it lightly).

Skipping over Frank's dream - he runs off and eats all the hot dogs in the store while the cops catch the thief - we get to Charlie's. I knew that Sunny would save the best dream for last, and I was not disappointed whatsoever. Charlie Kelly is the oddest member of the gang, and it only makes sense for his to dream to be a cartoon. It was perfect. Charlie saves the Waitress (his longtime crush) and then ends up running off with her and starting a dream life. In a very Pixar-esque (like, very Pixar-esque) sequence of events, the two get married, have kids, and live out their lives. I kept thinking that the whole thing would end with a deranged twist, some sort of horrible turn of events, but I was wrong. The two grow old together, and eventually the waitress dies. All of this was absolutely beautifully sentimental, showing a Charlie that we rarely see; one who, at his most innocent, wants this girl to fall and love with him.  It almost made me rethink his entire character.

Of course, the episode actually ends with everyone grabbing an armful of marshmallows and running out of the store, but for one shining moment, Sunny proved that it could do more than be the show that's consistently getting snubbed for Emmy's. This show has been around for 100 episodes, and while it may be crass and extremely rude, it knows it's characters as well as any other show (in part because the show's creators and writers, Rob McElhenney and Glenn Howerston, play Mac and Dennis, respectfully). That was an eye opener for me, and I believe that this episode will earn some of the attention that It's Always Sunny really deserves.