Club. Comedy on It’s Alway Sunny In Philadelphia is filtered through so many layers that adding one more for an episode is exponentially more challenging, for the creators and for us viewers. A hangout comedy where the people hanging out are collectively and individually the worst people in the world makes for humor that, from the outside, can seem like an endorsement of the very thing it’s satirizing. For one thing, the cast and writers of this series—now beginning their 1. The Gang, as ever comprised of Sweet Dee, Dennis, Mac, Charlie, and Frank, and played by Kaitlin Olson, Glenn Howerton, Rob Mc. Elhenney, Charlie Day, and Danny De. Vito, have a Globetrotters level of mastery of shenanigans, crudity, comic violence, and all- around awfulness. Glenn Howerton, Charlie Day, Rob Mc. Elhenney, Kaitlin Olson, Danny De. Vito (Photo: Patrick Mc. Elhenney/FXX)But there’s a reason why Sunny’s stuck around so long, and at such a high level. Firmly rooted in character, the show’s lowbrow antics simultaneously are and are more than the sum of each profanity, egregious personal insult, act of dangerous lunacy, or poorly intentioned scheme. The series, at its best, looks deep into the heart of the worst of us and finds—us. And “The Gang Turns Black” is It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia coming out swinging for the fences, an almost profligate high- concept fantasy about race in America, the Gang’s variable degrees of racism, and their seemingly boundless capacity for self- obsessed self- delusion that’s as funny as it is ambitious. Oh, and it’s also a musical. The setup sees the Gang gathered for a movie night viewing of The Wiz alongside the Old Black Man. That’s how they refer to the wizened, mostly silent homeless guy (Wil Garret) who sleeps in Dee’s bed every night because she lost a bet to Frank last season. That nickname’s a problematic bit of offhand racism once a lightning storm and some malfunctioning electric blankets turn every member of the Gang black. Seeing that their houseguest has disappeared, Dennis says, “Go find Old Black Man. I mean Old Man.” As everyone suddenly breaks into expository musical- style song, Dennis reasonably asks, “What are the rules when you’ve just turned black and you can’t switch back.”If the fact that the Gang can only see African American versions of themselves (played by A. J. Hudson, Farley Jackson, Leslie Miller, and Anthony Hill) in mirrors isn’t clue enough that season 1. Charlie Day’s slyly catchy musical numbers seal the case. Although here, freed from the show’s reality, the songs are less about plumbing the depths of poor Charlie’s tortured psyche (not a troll rape in sight) and more about episode writers Day, Howerton, and Mc. Elhenney examining how the Gang’s racial attitudes are a product of their inherent, but slightly different, prejudices. Danny De. Vito, Kaitlin Olson (Photo: Patrick Mc. Elhenney/FXX)As usual, Charlie is what passes for the Gang’s heart (it’s both appropriate and sort of heartbreaking that his reflection is of a little boy, especially considering the show’s payoff). As Dennis and Mac—pre- electrocution—airily debate whether black Americans really have it so bad (Mac concedes, “We did have a black president before the orange one.”), it’s Charlie who pipes up with a defense of “them” having their own version of The Wizard Of Oz, stating, “I mean, it’s very difficult being a black man in America.” Dennis, as ever, frames himself as the Gang’s moral center, but that just means mansplaining Black Lives Matter (“I don’t know why it took them so long to realize that their lives matter—but, then again, don’t all lives matter?”) before pronouncing, “It’s kind of tough out there right now for everybody.” Then—ZAP. Sunny has done blackfacebefore, and I think just about as well as such a thing can be done, so I was glad to see they weren’t just going to the same provocation well here. The alternate Gang only shows up intermittently, in reflections or when we see them through the eyes of other people. After a genuinely hilarious introductory musical number where everyone attempts to suss out whether they’re in a body- swap or Quantum Leap situation (Frank, not clear on the concept, thinks Face/Off), the gang splits up. On the Quantum Leap team, Dee and Frank set out in search of Old Black Man under the bridge where Frank found him (and where he and Charlie hang out), thinking that a good deed will allow them to leap back into their own bodies. Meanwhile, Mac, Dennis, and Charlie, on team body- swap, start hunting for clues as to just which black people they need to swap back with, before being immediately arrested for trying to break into Dennis’ car. Charlie Day, Glenn Howerton, Rob Mc. Elhenny (Photo: Patrick Mc. Elhenney/FXX)Each team’s quest provides plenty of opportunities for Day, Howerton, and Mc. Elhenney to both raise questions about the state of race relations, and to use each character’s blind spots, biases, and, in Frank’s case, just old- fashioned racism (Frank is just really excited to use the n- word) to illuminate the various ways white Americans contort themselves to deny that racism actually exists. When the cops show up just because three guys are desperately clawing their way into Dennis’ Land Rover, Dennis’ assurance that “We get out of this stuff all the time” cuts to the three of them in the back of the squad car. Finding Old Black Man (who finally reveals that his name is Carl), they bring him to an old age home (Frank reassures Dee he’ll stop paying once they get their old bodies back), where he’s unexpectedly reunited with his long- lost wife. Spotting Bakula (who initially and ineffectually claims to be researching a role and not working there as an orderly), they’re pissed when he can’t get them to quantum leap and storm out, leaving Bakula (who did not get a piece of Quantum Leap, as it turns out) to wistfully sing about when he used to be a star with a Camaro who hung out with Nash Bridges and The Fall Guy. Bakula has pipes, and the whole thing just works itself up to a state of loopy bliss. It’s when the Gang—all falling into The Wiz- esque choreography—meet back up that the episode pulls off its most audacious, and shocking, twist. Singing and dancing their way to an electronics store called The Wiz because Mac thinks that getting Dee’s shorted- out VCR fixed there will fix them as well, the Gang make a heartfelt, impassioned plea to the white owner to help them out. I mean, it’s as heartfelt as the Gang gets, Mac’s song ending with the epically tone- deaf, “If you look look inside our souls sir, you’ll see that we’re white men.” When the owner calls the cops, Charlie sings his assurance that—thanks to his recent experience talking to child welfare services at the police station—“they’re my friends.” And then the policemen mistake the toy train Charlie got earlier for a gun, and shoot him. Rob Mc. Elhenney, Danny De. Vito, Kaitlin Olson, Glenn Howerton (Photo: Patrick Mc. Elhenney/FXX)It’s shocking for a lot of reasons. While the episode walked the signature Sunny line of offensive and meta- offensive, the sunny (if you will) musical conceit—tunefully continuing while Charlie writhes bleeding out on the ground—doesn’t prepare us for it. But it’s the one, brief flash from the cops’ point of view right before they pull the triggers that really does it. We’re used to seeing Charlie (and the rest of the Gang) take often bloody comic abuse and laughing at both the moral comeuppance and the exquisite execution of the gag. Here, we get just a glimpse of young Charlie (AJ Hudson looks about 1. It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia is an American television black comedy sitcom that premiered on FX on August 4, 2005. It moved to FXX beginning with the ninth. After years of getting shut out of the Emmys, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia took the hot air out of awards season with season nine standout “The Gang Tries. Frank, Season 11, Danny DeVito Almost Drowned Filming Season 11 of Always Sunny I would assume he’d just float to the top, but apparently I was wrong! It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia: Cancelled or Renewed for Season 13 on FXX? FOLLOW @alwayssunny; The Gang is back when FXX’s original comedy series It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia returns for a 12 th season! Mac (Rob McElhenney), Dennis. Charlie on the sidewalk, still keeping up the harmony in his screams as the rest of the Gang sing, desperately, “We’ve learned our lesson and we want to go home.” (“Our white home!” “Just say home!”) People who look to It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia to reinforce their point of view on social issues are doing it wrong. If an episode sees the Gang faced with, say, abortion, gun control, homophobia, sexism, or the like, the comedy is filtered through the characters’ monstrously blinkered, self- involved perspectives. Here, that means that Mac, as ever trying to catch up, leaps to a number of equally racist conclusions when trying to make sense of the contents of black Dennis’ wallet. Apart from Frank (here revved up to say the n- word because “It’s probably the only chance I’ll get to say it.”), the Gang traditionally tries to assure themselves that they are not bad people, usually by calling out the others’ bad behavior right before doing something terrible as soon as self- interest demands it. If there’s an exception to that, it’s Charlie, whose more childlike (or feral, if you will) morality often stands him outside the Gang’s more tortured moral hypocrisy. Questioned by the social worker tonight, Charlie (who they see as young Charlie) sings about his life of squalor, neglect, and abuse in such a matter- of- fact way that the adults listening are even more horrified than if they were just hearing about killing rats, sleeping with Frank (unless he brings a hooker home), and not knowing his father from the adult Charlie. It’s the Sunny balancing act at its highest difficulty when Charlie, speculating that young Charlie probably doesn’t know his father either, finds desperately desired common ground with his imaginary young, black self before realizing, “Unless he knows his father. It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia is an American comedy television series that began airing on August 4, 2005 on FX. The series follows "The Gang", a group of five. TV show description: An offbeat sitcom that follows the misadventures of four wild friends as they run Paddy’s Pub in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Charlie thinks Mac's mom is holding his mom hostage so the gang installs spy cameras in their house to monitor what's going on. What they end up discovering is the. Show synopsis, cast details, episode list, episode videos, user reviews, quotes, message board, and production information. Oh shoot, that was racist.” Then young Charlie gets shot—blood exploding graphically from his chest—before adult Charlie dies. It’s Trayvon Martin, it’s Tamir Rice, and it’s a soul- numbing number of other black men (and children) dead at the hands of police in America. It’s a punchline that’s a punch in the stomach and, in this, yet another instance where Sunny dives into the darkest comedy and comes up with gems, it’s earned. Watch It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia Season 0. Episode 0. 1. Watch TV shows and movies free online. Stream episodes of Family Guy, Grey's Anatomy, SNL, Modern Family and many more hit shows.
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