"It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia Season 18" A Relatively Fine Season with Some Bright Spots

 

  I do have a weird relationship with It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, on one hand some of it's earliest seasons are some of the best seasons of television I've ever experienced, especially comedy-wise. But nowadays? It mostly just hovers are the fine-enough stage, and I watch with half-enthusiasm, hoping to get some laughs if I'm lucky. Oddly enough, Season 17 ended off on quite a large cliffhanger. Frank was getting married, so I expected some nice big changes, but nope. They nipped it as quickly as it came, and they wrapped it up in about two episodes, both of which had their moments but were kind of eh. Let's talk about it.

    I will say, I thought this season ended much stronger than they began. There were some real standout episodes this season. "The Gang Goes to the Ren Faire" was quite fun. I loved that gag where Dennis forces Charlie to watch him having sex with a random women who hates it, and then Charlie comes out of the shadows and chastises him for being a bad person. Or whatever Frank's doing, I do love some McPoyle cameos in my show. 

    Or what about "Frank's Team: A Dark Day for Baseball?" It's been a while since I've watched a Sunny episode that is that good. I really do love when shows do those team-sport oriented episodes and they're pretending to play each other like it's super serious. I just loved all of the gags they did. Dee's noodle arm, Dennis becoming a broadcaster, Mac and Charlie leading the team. It was just so funny watching the random hispanic people Frank hired, or Dennis admiring the kid who was commentating on the entire game.

    There are some real duds though. I could not care about "Gilligan's Island: A Conspiracy Theorist's Paradise." I think part of the issue is that I never watched Gilligan's Island, nor do I care about it in any capacity. Like I was mostly just waiting for those bits to be over while they advanced the plot that wasn't taking place entirely in their heads. Or "2026: A Virtual Insanity," which had it's moments but was basically just an excuse for the gang to interact with homeless people. I do love me some Cricket, especially in the episode "Mac and Dennis Tear Their ACLs," but he was the only bright spot for this Jamiroquai episode. I wonder which writer was obssessed with that band.

    Even still, there were plenty of solid episodes and gags throughout. I wouldn't call it a bad or boring season, but there were some dull moments. Like I enjoyed that random dude they hired for "The War on Alcohol," and even "The Guys Have a Sleepover" made me chuckle a couple times. Frankly, a part of me is kind of glad they got rid of the marriage thing fairly quickly. I mean it took two decent episodes, but I guess they didn't really know what to do with it.

Final Score: 65/100

    How much longer can this show go? I feel kind of bad because you really can't do too much with Danny Devito. I mean the poor guy is 82. I remember when my grandparents were in their 80's so it's quite admirable that he seems so eager to participate in this show. I wonder what they'd do for the final season since apparently the ending is already planned out. I kind of hope they reach season 20 for the sole reason of me saying that I've watched all 20 seasons of a show. I do wonder just how much the show has left to give though. The actors all feel a little old man it kind of just makes you go like "damn." Either way it was a pretty fun time tuning in to watch an episode every night.