Written by Amanda Clark
It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia Season 16 is another short season containing only eight episodes that will make you hurt from laughter. The show once again manages to create each episode in an immature way, where it’s hilarious and somehow makes complete sense for each character to be doing exactly what someone would expect these grown adults to do — creating absolute chaos.
Episode 1, “The Gang Inflates,” tackles how each person in the group handles inflation, and, of course, it’s in their own wild way. The title of the episode acts to represent two things: the economy’s inflation along with Dennis Reynolds (Glenn Howerton, The Strangers) and Ronald MacDonald, a.k.a. Mac (Rob McElhenney, Mythic Quest) trying to sell inflatable furniture. This episode immediately kicks off the season by showing how each member of the gang truly thinks they’re a reasonably logical person and that their way of dealing with things is “normal” compared to the rest of the world.
Episode 2, “Frank Shoots Every Member of the Gang,” is somehow a fresh episode even though it revisits Frank Reynolds’ (Danny DeVito, Matilda) love for his gun in daily use that one usually wouldn’t use a gun for. Frank’s two kids, Dennis and Deandra Reynolds, a.k.a. Dee (Kaitlin Olson, Finding Dory), treat him like it’s a dying dog’s last day in order to take the gun away from him since it’s dangerous, and they come in having an alternative motive to also get in Frank’s will. Episode 2 is filled with nonsense for the audience, but it’s something each character actually cares about.
If a viewer couldn’t tell already that the gang never actually runs their bar, then episode 3, “The Gang Gets Cursed,” cements that fact. It doesn’t mean they don’t care about the bar because Mac tries getting them on Bar Rescue, but that inevitably doesn’t work, so they can only blame bad omens happening to them — not actually accepting their ignorant actions can catch up to them.
Episode 4, “Frank vs. Russia,” is by far the most similar to the early seasons of the show. It has callbacks from previous episodes, including the D.E.N.N.I.S. system for men to pick up women, and this episode is that but backward: the S.I.N.N.E.D. system for Mac and Dee to pick up men. The episode also has Charlie Kelly (Charlie Day, The LEGO Movie) and Frank on another excursion of insanity of getting Frank to beat a Russian in a chess tournament, which ends up colliding with Dennis’ motives — possibly the best episode of the season.
“Celebrity Booze: The Ultimate Cash Grab,” episode 5, really shows how much the gang thinks of themselves to be just as good and famous compared to celebrities, which brings in Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul playing themselves.
Episode 6, “Risk E. Rat’s Pizza Amusement Center,” features a Chuck E. Cheese rip-off child’s amusement center where the gang was feeling nostalgic and had to revert the center back to how it was when they were younger. And this, of course, ends with the perversion of the gang’s attempt turning into mayhem, something that should always be expected to come from them.
Episode 7, “The Gang Goes Bowling,” reignites the feud between Dee and Dennis, drawing in everyone else and bringing back some of the supporting characters who just don’t get along with the gang that well for a bowling tournament. Although this might not have been the funniest episode, it had the most laugh-out-loud few seconds with Liam McPoyle (Jimmi Simpson, Westworld) subbing in for Dennis accidentally throwing a bowling ball at Dee’s sub Ryan McPoyle (Nate Mooney, Push).
The last episode, “Dennis Takes a Mental Health Day,” proves how self-absorbed Dennis is, and with good reason. Dennis somehow manages to create an entire episode’s worth of action in just a few moments to get his blood pressure down.
It’s incredible how little character growth there is in the show to have them still act foolishly, which only makes it better. The writers, including three prominent cast members, can still get the audience to want to root for each character while still having them be terrible people who are inevitably cruel and selfish.
Dennis keeps up with that easily irritated narcissistic behavior while his sister, Dee, is still getting ignored and is just there to act as the guy’s punching bag. Mac hasn’t lost any of his demeaning qualities, while Frank still acts like he’s going through a midlife crisis with no morality. Charlie might be the one with the slightest bit of personality growth, but only for the first episode of the season. He still acts immature in each episode, but in the first one, Charlie also proves himself to be a good businessman by listening to Frank about inflation and what to do; then, the audience sees the Charlie they’re used to for the entire season: a man-child.
It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia Season 16 never lets the audience down by providing approximately 20 minutes of enjoyment with each episode. The latest season just reminds people how happy they must be to not be these characters but relish in watching them.
