"It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia Season 1" What The Hell is This?

     Look, Danny Devito was the only reason this show had any sort of foothold in my mind. I kept on repeating I'm the trash man through many of my younger years, and frankly, after looking at the absurd number of seasons, I've always been wary of starting this sitcom. In fact, I had even given it a shot before this, but no Devito, oddly low quality and format for the time period, and just general wariness had kept me from going past the pilot. Not to mention, you watch the first episode and just ask yourself, is this kind of racist? Is it bad that I might be laughing at how completely racist these characters are? Anyways, I did manage to get past the first episode, and even managed to complete a season, and I can safely say that I now understand what people mean when they point to this show to prove that "cancel culture has not ruined comedy". I mean in only seven episodes, the show decides to deal with racism, gay people, abortion, cancer, underage drinking, a little bit about transgender people, guns, dead people and being molested as a child? This show does not really hold punches when it comes to creating humourous situations out of such contentious topics, and I mean that in the best way possible.

    Let's get my main complaints out of the way, first of which is that you're going to be watching this through a pretty weird visual format, at least if you're on Disney+ like me. There are these weird black boxes, and for some reason for a show released in 2005, it kind of looks like it was released 10 years earlier in visual fidelity. This is not a dealbreaker for me, but it is noticeable enough compared to "modern" sitcoms that it can look a bit grainy on a modern screen. Don't let that deceive you though because this season has aged moderately well. I'd say moderately because there are definitely parts I don't think they'd be able to get away with today, like Charlie saying the N-Word with a Hard R, and some of the discourse surrounding transgender/gay/Jewish/Arabic people has certainly come a long way since this show has been released. That's not to say that this show is offensive by any means, it fully knows that what it's doing is offensive, and it showcases it through the cast which is pretty much full of shitty people, in the best way possible of course.

    And when it comes to this show, like many shows the cast is one of the most important aspects. Now, while it might not be the solidified core that everyone now knows and loves, the gang and their chemistry are vital in making sure these jokes land, especially considering the volatile material they're handling. I mean who else are you really going to have handling a box of nazi memorabilia for an entire episode? I don't think you're supposed to have favourite characters, but in my opinion I'd say Dennis is probably one of the lesser evils, either him or Dee because Charlie and Mac's general stupidity make it hard for me to root for them. At least I know Dee and Dennis are just doing it out of lust for other people, which is still bad, but at the very least they know what they're doing is bad.

    To me at least, the appeal of this show is just them really pushing the envelope into what is acceptable comedy or not, because there are so many time I'll watch this show and ask how did they let this air onto TV? It's a miracle really, and I wouldn't have this show any other way, I think it's a strength, it's what makes this show stand out and be so interesting to me. I can see why this show might make someone uncomfortable, but frankly I don't think it really tows the line into actually being offensive to anyone. Sure, it can come off as a little insensitive, but usually it's just poking fun at the expense o the main dumb characters anyways, not any sort of minority group.

Final Score: 76/100

    I'd write more but this show is significantly shorter than you'd think it be, especially for a Sitcom, as there are only seven 20 minute long episodes. As such don't be too intimidated by the length of everything, it's not like Either way, if you're a bit bullish on the show I'd say give it a shot, at the very least the first season because it's good/short enough to give it a shot, it's not like the Simpsons or whatever. And hey, if you're still a little bullish at least Danny Devito comes on in the second season, though I'd say so far I like his character less than I thought I would. Perhaps that's because I had envisioned him as this weird funny little short guy, but mostly right now he's just a weird short deadbeat guy, I'm sure he'll grow on me eventually. Either way, give it a shot, because even if you'll hate it, I think this show is worth giving a shot just for the shock value alone, and I suppose that's the point.