I have to say that it’s hard
to believe that season eight of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia is already over,
but that’s partially because this season only consisted of ten episodes. While
I would have loved for this season to have at least two, maybe three more
episodes since I love the show so much, I think it’s important to remember the
idea that quality is more important than quantity when it comes to certain
things in life. I think that’s especially important when it comes to the
quality of TV shows, and if you ask me season eight was amazing for the most
part. That being said, I thought this was a great episode, and I’m thrilled
that both the writers and the cast ended the season on a good note. Although, as
much as I loved this episode, I’m not sure that it was the right episode to end
the season with. Personally, a part of me thinks that perhaps episode 8x05 “The
Gang Gets Analyzed” or episode 8x09 “The Gang Dines Out” would have been a
better episode to end the season with.
One of the things that I
loved the most about this episode is that it really showcased how prone The
Gang is to getting sidetracked from one of their plans. The episode started
with Frank driving somewhere using an audio cassette tape of Charlie giving him
directions, while Dennis was also driving somewhere in his car. As Dennis was
driving, he was eating a bowl of cereal, and Frank ended up crashing into his
car while he was sitting at a traffic light, eating cereal as he waited for the
light to turn green. The outside of Dennis’ car wasn’t damaged when Frank crashed
into him, but the inside of his car was damaged from cereal and milk spilling
everywhere. Dennis insisted that Frank pay to have the damages sustained to the
inside of his car repaired, but Frank refused to take responsibility for the
accident. Because each member of The Gang has had their fair share of run-ins
with the law over the years and Frank has numerous unlicensed guns, they
decided to have their own trial at Paddy’s Pub and resolve the matter on their
own. Charlie served as Frank’s lawyer for the trial, and Dee served as Dennis’
lawyer, with Mac serving as both the bailiff and the judge.
This episode featured a lot
of great moments for Mac, in my personal opinion. While I’ve often considered
Glenn Howerton to be the one cast member who stands out the most in each
episode since season seven, I feel like Rob McElhenney was the true standout in
this episode. One of the things that made this episode so great is that in true
It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia fashion The Gang got completely sidetracked
from trying to decide who was at fault for the car accident after Mac turned
the whole trial into a creation vs. evolution debate. I love that they took the
episode in that direction, because it really showcased Mac’s religious side and
how he can be very self-serving at times when it comes to expressing his own
religious beliefs. This episode also once again demonstrated how talented the
writers are at addressing various social and political issues in a very
interesting and extremely funny way.
If you ask me, it was a brilliant
move on the writers’ part to use the same kind textual screens that they
feature at the beginning of every episode to indicate what day and time the
episode is starting on throughout the episode in order to indicate what stage
of the trial they were in and how much time had passed between several of the
scenes. Doing that really added a lot of humor to Mac telling the rest of The
Gang that he just needed fifteen minutes in order to work on the poster board
they used to indicate whose side everybody was on, but it ended up taking Mac
three hours to make it. It apparently also took Mac another three hours to make
a poster board to show where they all stood on the creation versus evolution
debate once the trial went off in that direction. During those three hours, he
also made another poster titled “Science is a liar sometimes” with pictures of
Aristotle, Galileo, and Sir Isaac Newton on it. Out of the three poster boards
that Mac made for the trial, my favorite was definitely his “Science is a liar
sometimes” poster.
What made it so funny to me
was how Mac slapped a sign with the word “Bitch” printed on it onto the picture
of each scientist as he pointed out how each one of scientists’ theories were
proven to be incorrect. I personally couldn’t stop laughing hysterically during
that whole sequence. Plus, I thought it was great how the writers illustrated
that it took Mac several hours to make each one of his posters, especially
since they were all relatively simple in design, and even the others pointed
out to Mac that it seemed ridiculous that it took him several hours to make
each of his signs when they were all very simple. I can kind of understand how
the “Science is a liar sometimes” poster might have taken Mac several hours to
make, but when it comes to his other two posters the fact that it took him
several hours to make them just once again reiterates the fact that The Gang
devotes way too much of their time to the stupidest things. However, at the
same time that’s also one of the many things that makes It’s Always Sunny in
Philadelphia such an amazing TV show.
As I mentioned earlier, a
part of me thinks that episode 8x05 “The Gang Gets Analyzed” could have possibly
served as a better choice of an episode to air as the season eight finale.
However, one thing about that episode that would have made it a bad episode to
end the season with is the fact that they established that Frank spent some
time in a mental institution in that episode, so to air this episode before
that one would have only created confusion for the viewers during the part of
the trial where Charlie is questioning Frank about his time in a mental
institution. In this episode, Frank talked about how he was given a certificate
from the doctors declaring him not “donkey brained” after other kids made fun
of him for spending time in a mental institution and said that he was “donkey
brained”. The only other episode that I think would have been a better choice
to end the season with and wouldn’t have created continuity issues would be episode
8x09 “The Gang Dines Out” like I mentioned earlier. Don’t get me wrong, I think
this is a great episode, but I’m not sure that it was the best episode to end
the season with when I compare it to all of the other season eight episodes.
I feel like the writers
missed an opportunity to incorporate the fact that Charlie is frequently
professing himself to be a lawyer who specializes in bird law into this
episode, especially considering the fact that Charlie was serving as Frank’s attorney
in The Gang’s trial. I’d be interested in knowing whether or not that was
something Charlie Day, Glenn Howerton and Rob McElhenney had even thought about
as they were writing this episode. The fact that they didn’t mention anything
about Charlie thinking of himself as a lawyer didn’t really take away any
enjoyment that I got from watching this episode, it simply surprised me given
the fact that this would have been the perfect episode for the writers to
mention that aspect of Charlie’s character.
The ending of this episode
felt very true to the nature and the history of the show when they all decided
to essentially recreate the circumstances of the car accident by having Dennis
driving in his car with Mac, while Frank drove his car with Charlie trying to
give Frank directions like he had been on the audio cassette tape at the
beginning of the episode, and Dee who was also in the car with them. Frank once
again crashed into Dennis’ car because he got mixed up when both Charlie and
Dee were giving him conflicting directions. The Gang quickly started arguing
with each other once again about who was at fault for the accident. Dennis,
Mac, Charlie and Frank all decided that Dee was to blame for the accident and
that she would pay to have Dennis’ car repaired, much to Dee’s disappointment.
One thing that I really liked
about Dee’s whole take on the trial is how she explained that the reason she
was on Dennis’ side at the beginning of the trial was because of how they’ve
been responsible for every car she’s had throughout the show’s run being
destroyed, or in the case of the new car she got in the season five episode
“The Gang Hits the Road”, it was stolen. Although, I have to say that given the
fact that Dennis, Charlie, Mac and Frank have always been very mean to Dee and
are constantly giving her a hard time, it would be great to see Dee get revenge
on Dennis, Charlie, Mac and Frank for how they’ve treated her over the years at
some point in the future. Sure, Dee lied to them about one of them being the
father of the baby she was carrying in season six because they told her that
she was fat and she knew it would really freak them out if they thought one of
them was the father, but that was just one time. I think she should do
something even bigger to get revenge on them for the way they’ve treated her
throughout the show’s run.
All things considered, this
was a really great episode, and while I’m not completely sure that this was the
best episode to end the season with, it was still a great episode. This episode
is definitely worthy of being considered a classic episode of It’s Always Sunny
in Philadelphia, in my personal opinion.
This episode did a truly
excellent job of illustrating a lot of the things that I love about the show,
mainly how The Gang is very prone to spending an entire episode devoting so
much of their time to the stupidest and most mundane things. I feel like that
idea was conveyed very well through the use of the title cards indicating how
much time had passed as Mac worked on each of his poster boards. The writers
also did a great job of illustrating how common it is for The Gang to spend
their days doing the most idiotic, yet extremely hilarious things from the
standpoint of the show’s viewers when they had a customer say goodbye to them towards
the end of the episode like nothing unusual was going on as they left the bar
after not being shown having any other interactions with The Gang earlier in
the episode. To me, the insanity that The Gang gets themselves into happens so
frequently that it must seem almost normal to the customers at Paddy’s Pub at
this point. As I mentioned earlier, while I’ve been declaring Glenn Howerton as
the standout cast member in my reviews for most of the previous season eight
episodes, I really feel like Rob McElhenney was the true standout star in this
episode and deserves major kudos for his acting in this episode.
That being said, I give this
episode a rating of an A-.
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