“The Gang Beats Boggs” was a great start. Extreme amounts of drinking, even for them, some signature insanity from everyone, even a cameo by Boggs himself.
“The Gang Group Dates” is just up to par. Some funny stuff in there, but a bit too one-joke for me.
“Psycho Pete Returns” was better. The B story about Frank and the mental institution was intriguing at first, but didn’t really pay off, though it did provide me with what I found to be the episode’s biggest laugh:
Frank: One time we escaped and they chased us down with those big nets they used to catch dogs!
[long pause] Dee: Did you grow up in a cartoon?
I’m a pretty big fan of dark humor and am not easily shocked by much, but the episode with Cricket offering to suck a guy off for a six-pack (and other services) is getting pretty close to crossing the line. (for TV) I would hate to catch my kid watching stuff like that.
I think I’m still watching just to see how low they go and to see how much they can get away with.
I actually thought the dating episode was the best of the three. It’s always fun to watch Dennis go into full psychopath mode, and the repeated joke of Frank’s ring hitting the floor just killed it for me. And the scene where Frank kept vetoing Mac and Charlie’s dating topics was brilliant:
Nothing about the waitress.
Nothing about creatine shits.
No racist jokes.
Nothing about Jews.
etc.
Great episode. Charlie actually not insane, even competent, and in charge for once, and everyone else there to do his bidding to get past the crisis. Of course, literally the second the crisis is over, the gang not only goes back to treating Charlie like he’s insane, but they don’t even acknowledge his contribution or the fact that he just saved them all. And really loved how they made nearly the entire episode look like it was one take.
Fun episode indeed. (Although the continuity error in the introduction threw me off for a sec. If you were watching the sign Dennis was painting–and I would think a good number of viewers were–it’s pretty obvious.) Anyhow, apparently a third of it truly was a single take, which is pretty impressive to me. (OK, I know there have been much, much longer one-take shots, like an entire movie, for instance, but with the rapid fire banter, I’m impressed.)
Another thumbs-up for “Charlie Work” - possibly their most Fawlty Towers-esque episode to date. (Not just the health inspector plotline à la “Basil the Rat,” but also the “alarm sounds a specific note” gag à la “The Germans”…)
I love that they have an established arbitration process to fairly assign credit or blame after one of their schemes, and that no one is happy with it.
I didn’t want to start a brand new thread, because it appears threads on It’s Always Sunny aren’t that popular. But, if you haven’t checked out season 13, you should at least watch the finale. It was legitimately one of the most surprisingly emotionally moving things I’ve ever watched. I never imagined that this show could possibly move me to tears.
Wow. That’s an endorsement! I haven’t seen this season at all. Gonna have to figure out where/how I could see it, but I love It’s Always Sunny. In its heyday (for me, around seasons 3-7), the funniest comedy series out there for me. Just genius.
Seriously? I thought this season was fantastic, but that the finale was a stinker. I assumed that since Rob McElhenney created the show, they just let him run with whatever kind of experimental crap that was.
But otherwise, a great season. The only other one that fell flat was the women trying to beat Boggs by themselves.
I’m sorry to be the one to tell you this, but you might not have a soul! I have teared up at about ten things on the screen in my life, and this is one of them.
Just like Frank says, “I get it.”
On edit, I pulled up a bunch of reviews of it, which ranged from “jaw dropping” to “incredible” to “best TV moment of the year”.
I thought it was powerful and moving, not exactly what i watch Sunny for but i enjoyed it. And the problem with the women trying to beat Boggs episode is that their premise was entirely right: “let’s remake ____, but with women” is lame. So in being right they ended up with a lame episode.
The issue with the whole season 13 is the lack of Dennis in it. He’s really only in 5 episodes (well, 6 but one he’s only in it right at the end). So in effect they had to do something different for 50% of the episodes. He wasn’t in the two superbowl, the boggs and the final one at all.
Personally I thought the best was the first one. Dennis might not have been in most of it, but he was gold when he was. “Mac, have you put on a bit of weight?”, and his doll being caught “mid conversation”…
I didn’t get the finale. I assume the dance was his expression of sadness over rejection by his father and his inability to accept himself, I just didn’t get the emotional impact of it. Didn’t mac only come out of the closet due to money?
I like IASIP, but felt season 13 was one of the weaker seasons. Still worth watching, but not their prime stuff.
"There’s like this storm inside of me and it’s been raging my whole life, and I’m down on my knees, and I’m looking for answers, and then God comes down to me and it’s a very hot chick and she pulls me up and we start dancing.”
I hate watching dancing. I hate out of character moments and dream sequences (while this wasn’t a strict dream sequence, it had that same vibe.) I hate symbolism in my comedy. I hate everything that made up the finale.
But…
I loved it. It came together so well and was the most genuine, heartfelt, moving thing I’ve seen in ages. Maybe it was all the more lovely for being a rose growing in a garbage dump, but it was still lovely.
I understand the dance was about Macs pain about his rejection of himself, his rejection from religion and his rejection by his father, I just didn’t find it very moving.
Maybe at the end when the woman/god holds him and says ‘its ok’.
There have been emotional scenes in always sunny. The cartoon of Charlie and the waitress living their lives together for example.
I just didn’t find the dance scene too moving. I guess I don’t take Mac’s self acceptance seriously because he has dipped into and out of self acceptance several times in the series and its always treated as a joke.