Friends and acquaintances have been recommending It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia to me for years, and I'm notoriously bad at acting on recommendations, so here I am: twelve years after it premiered, I sat down to watch the pilot. I'm well aware that one of the central ideas of the show is four misanthropic, inept friends get themselves into uncomfortable situations often involving social taboos. I don't generally subscribe to the school of thought that anything and everything is acceptable to joke about; for example, Dave Chapelle's recent return to stand-up comedy was shot through with transphobia that served little other than to make him seem like someone who wanted to take advantage of what is still an oppressed group in society for cheap and, in my case, non-existent laughs. With that in mind, I was a little wary of the jokes that centred around gay people or POC; I worried that the show would come across as a vehicle for four white, straight characters to make a mockery of others. For the most part, thankfully, I didn't feel that was the case: these characters are clearly so reprehensible that it's usually clear in this episode that the joke is on them. In a diverse world, they're the ones who should be pitied and mocked. I'm still not entirely convinced by the show's rush to involve them in situations that are deliberately offensive, but I'm also reliably informed that as it progresses, the show does get more nuanced and clever in terms of the situations the characters find themselves in.
With that said, is it funny? I laughed a few times, and this was largely to do with the characters' belief that despite their bad behaviour throughout the episode, they seem to operate in a world where they don't learn from their mistakes at all. Charlie's obsession with a waitress at a local café, along with an ill-timed remark regarding racism, leads on to him humiliating himself repeatedly. Dennis' storyline for the episode was probably the most 'problematic', with its final joke involving him having a sexual encounter with someone of the same sex, and it was easily the most tired and unfunny of the various plots. Dee and Mac don't have as much to do in this episode, but it's abundantly clear that they're both terrible people whose selfish desires trump anything resembling reasonable behaviour. I appreciated Terrell's character coming across as one of the few reasonable, level-headed people around which helped to emphasise how contemptible the Gang are.
The sitcom format is by its very nature brief and lends itself well to short, sharp bursts of comedy. I felt the show did a good job in table-setting in that time: we have a clear idea of who the characters are, what they do and what we can expect going forward. I'd except any show to take some time to find its feet and I doubt It's Always Sunny is any exception. For now, I'm along for the ride.
Review by DeletedBlockedParent2017-08-26T08:42:28Z
Friends and acquaintances have been recommending It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia to me for years, and I'm notoriously bad at acting on recommendations, so here I am: twelve years after it premiered, I sat down to watch the pilot. I'm well aware that one of the central ideas of the show is four misanthropic, inept friends get themselves into uncomfortable situations often involving social taboos. I don't generally subscribe to the school of thought that anything and everything is acceptable to joke about; for example, Dave Chapelle's recent return to stand-up comedy was shot through with transphobia that served little other than to make him seem like someone who wanted to take advantage of what is still an oppressed group in society for cheap and, in my case, non-existent laughs. With that in mind, I was a little wary of the jokes that centred around gay people or POC; I worried that the show would come across as a vehicle for four white, straight characters to make a mockery of others. For the most part, thankfully, I didn't feel that was the case: these characters are clearly so reprehensible that it's usually clear in this episode that the joke is on them. In a diverse world, they're the ones who should be pitied and mocked. I'm still not entirely convinced by the show's rush to involve them in situations that are deliberately offensive, but I'm also reliably informed that as it progresses, the show does get more nuanced and clever in terms of the situations the characters find themselves in.
With that said, is it funny? I laughed a few times, and this was largely to do with the characters' belief that despite their bad behaviour throughout the episode, they seem to operate in a world where they don't learn from their mistakes at all. Charlie's obsession with a waitress at a local café, along with an ill-timed remark regarding racism, leads on to him humiliating himself repeatedly. Dennis' storyline for the episode was probably the most 'problematic', with its final joke involving him having a sexual encounter with someone of the same sex, and it was easily the most tired and unfunny of the various plots. Dee and Mac don't have as much to do in this episode, but it's abundantly clear that they're both terrible people whose selfish desires trump anything resembling reasonable behaviour. I appreciated Terrell's character coming across as one of the few reasonable, level-headed people around which helped to emphasise how contemptible the Gang are.
The sitcom format is by its very nature brief and lends itself well to short, sharp bursts of comedy. I felt the show did a good job in table-setting in that time: we have a clear idea of who the characters are, what they do and what we can expect going forward. I'd except any show to take some time to find its feet and I doubt It's Always Sunny is any exception. For now, I'm along for the ride.