Once again I
found myself thoroughly enjoying last Thursday’s episode of It’s Always Sunny
In Philadelphia. One of the main reasons why I found this episode so enjoyable
is because the fact that The Gang went to see Dee’s therapist so she could
decide whose job it was to clean all of the dishes from a dinner party that
they had caused this episode to really live up to the phrase “It’s Seinfeld on
Crack” in my opinion. Personally, I’m a huge fan of the TV show Seinfeld, so I
always love it when an episode really embodies that statement, and that’s
definitely the case with this episode.
Dee’s therapist had
apparently suggested to Dee that she and the rest of The Gang have a
“cooperative dinner party” because she thought it would be a way for them to
all work out their problems, but if you ask me no amount of dinner parties
would ever be enough to help The Gang even begin to work through their
problems. Personally, I thought was hilarious that Dee didn’t even tell her
therapist ahead of time that she was going to bring Dennis, Charlie, Mac and
Frank with her to her appointment, and the therapist’s reactions to The Gang’s
behavior was beyond priceless.
I really like
how the writers divided the episode into several one-on-one sessions between
the therapist and each member of The Gang. Each segment was hilarious in its
own way, but my favorite was definitely the therapist’s one-on-one session with
Charlie because it was really funny seeing how Charlie pretty completely
misunderstood the therapist’s comments and her reactions to Charlie’s behavior
was comedic gold. Upon hearing about some of the extremely bizarre aspects of
Charlie’s life (Surviving an abortion, his life with Frank, and his explanation
about what “Charlie work” is) she told him that he seemed fairly well adjusted,
which I think is just crazy. While I do think that Charlie is perhaps the
happiest member of The Gang, I couldn’t disagree with that statement more
because Charlie has always had a lot of issues. Their time together took an
even more bizarre turn when Charlie revealed that he had served a pigeon to the
others at the dinner party. Plus, Charlie also told her that he had been
carrying a dead pigeon around in his jacket. Although, he told her that the
pigeon was alive when he had put it in his jacket. I have to say that I thought
that moment was hilarious. It also reminded me of the character Lennie from
John Steinbeck’s book Of Mice and Men and the way Lennie would end up
accidentally killing the mice when he kept them in his pocket.
Frank’s session
was probably my second favorite mainly because it started out with him refusing
to talk to the therapist and then he ended up talking to her about how he had
once talked to a therapist as a kid only to be sent to a school for children
who were mentally handicapped or suffered some other kind of disability. He
apparently had his first kiss while he was there, and the girl apparently
didn’t have any lips. What made that scene so funny to me was the fact that
they played instrumental music that was very sad and dramatic as he was telling
the story of his first kiss and started breaking down in tears while he was
telling the story. Also, his lines were very fragmented, so they only gave the
audience bits and pieces of the story, but what you could make out was
hilarious. Frank’s breakdown continued in the waiting room after his time with
the therapist, and Charlie comforted him as he told Dennis and Dee that they
apparently had a brother in the womb with them that was going to be named
Donnie, which would make Dennis and Dee triplets, but according to Frank, Dee
devoured him. Frank also believes that Donnie would have been the good one out
of the three of them. I have to say I thought that part was hilarious, and I
thought it was sweet that Charlie was comforting Frank given their special
bond.
Dennis’
interactions with Dee’s therapist also deserve honorable mention, if you ask me.
We learned that the “size pills” that Mac had mentioned Dennis giving him earlier
in the episode during his session was actually Mexican ephedra. Dennis gave
them to Mac so he would lose all of the weight that he had gained last season.
We also gained some interesting insight into Dennis’ past in this episode.
First off, they once again mentioned his Ivy League education at the University
of Pennsylvania, which made Dennis feel somewhat superior to the therapist since
she got her degree from LaSalle. I can’t remember if they’ve specifically
stated in previous episodes that he studied psychology at least a little bit
when he was in college, but Dennis mentioned that he had some knowledge on
psychology in this episode.
I thought it was
kind of funny that Dennis refused to talk about his thoughts on the dinner
party during his time with the therapist given how narcissistic he is. Dennis
revealed to her that he’s been keeping psychological dossiers on Charlie, Dee,
Mac and Frank for years, and when the therapist asked him why some of the notes
in Dee’s file were written in crayon he told her that he’s been keeping his
file on her ever since he was in the second grade. Personally, I think that’s
both creepy and hilarious all at the same time. Glenn Howerton once again gave
a flawless performance in this episode. It’s a shame that he and the show as a
whole will most likely never be acknowledged at the Emmy’s or the Oscar’s.
Glenn definitely deserves an Emmy for his acting on the show.
I also liked
Mac’s time with the therapist, but at the same time I feel like the rest of the
episode outshined that part of the episode. I did like that the writers once
again mentioned Mac’s weight gain last season as well as Mac’s religious beliefs
that have periodically been mentioned throughout the show’s run though.
We learned that
Dee has been lying to her therapist the entire time that she’s been going to
her for therapy, especially when it comes to her acting career, which Dee even
admitted to. Dee apparently had told her that she was originally the first
choice for the female lead role in the movie The Notebook, and when Dee’s
therapist confronted her about that she claimed that she backed out of the role
due to a scheduling conflict. Honestly, it doesn’t surprise me that Dee had
been lying to her therapist about her acting career. After all, she lied to the
kids at her old high school when she went to talk to her former drama teacher’s
class about her acting career in episode 6x08 “The Gang Gets a New Member”.
Plus, Dee has always been very delusional when it comes to her acting career.
The therapist
brought the whole gang into her office towards the end of the episode to talk
to them. Despite the fact that she told them that they all have some serious
issues that they need to work through, and she’s definitely right about that if
you ask me, they didn’t care about that. The Gang only cared about her deciding
which one of them had to clean the dishes from the dinner party. She initially
didn’t want to be the one to make that decision, but The Gang quickly provoked
her to make a decision about the dishes by repeatedly chanting the word
“Dishes!” in unison, and out of annoyance she yelled “Dee, do the (Bleep)-ing
dishes!”. Dennis, Charlie, Mac and Frank were all happy with the decision, and
they all told her that they thought she was a good therapist as they left. Dee
on the other hand, was furious about being the one who had to do the dishes and
started smashing the dishes on the ground and yelling at her as the episode
came to an end. Personally, I love the ending of this episode, especially since
they had made it clear at the beginning of the episode that they had brought
the dishes with them when they went to see Dee’s therapist. I just think that’s
hilarious, and it definitely made the ending of the episode a lot funnier than
it probably would have been if they hadn’t brought the dishes with them.
All in all, I
thought this was a great episode. It wasn’t perfect in my opinion though, because
I feel like Mac’s material in the episode fell flat compared to the rest of the
episode. Other than that, I thought that this was a terrific episode.
That being said,
I give this episode a rating of an A-.
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