The fact that someone had the idea to make an episode based on Waiting for Godot, let alone to actually write and produce it, is hilarious on its own.
What a send-off this episode would've been if the show had ended here. But I think we can all agree… thank kitten mittens it didn't.
"You wanna be a ghost? Like the Fart of Meals Past?"
the whistle of Frank's pack (plus Dennis' & Charlie's eye communication while it was making the whistle...) got me laughing so hard lmaoo
Looking back at the scene, I'd say it looks like Danny was laughing there, that didn't sound very Frank Reynolds
also the allegory of the laser tag game being this series, even with the lack of recognition but all the FUN ZONE DOLLA DOLLA BILLS the gang earned with it... wow I loved this episode fr
Listed as Season 14, Episode 9 on Disney+.
For an episode to be liked it has to be good at what the series is liked for. I disliked the episode for an It's Always episode, but I enjoyed it for something else outside the Philly universe. Maybe the world of the series grows bigger going into the next season, but I don't expect that to be a pleasant process.
Meh season finale for an ok season.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParentSpoilers2019-11-21T23:40:03Z
[7.5/10] I love the concept here. Doing an Always Sunny-sized version of Waiting for Godot is softly brilliant. Having Dennis and Charlie as Didi and Gogo is a nice way to go, and setting it in a laser tag base is the sort of high concept absurdity I appreciate from the show.
And at the same time, I felt like this one didn’t quite hit its potential. It’s a big swing, and I admire that, but there were more moments that made me go “that’s neat!” than ones that made me laugh or left me lost and engrossed in what the show was doing.
Still, I like IASIP following Beckett’s tack and using a mundane situation as a metaphor for life. The notion of Dennis striving to achieve, in service of some nebulous reward, whereas Charlie (and to a lesser extent everyone else) wants to just do what makes them happy makes for a nice in-universe conflict. It also works as a broader representation of the tension between living a life in pursuit of instrumental goods vs. a life of intrinsic ones.
There’s plenty of neat touches in that regard. Dennis’s admiration for “Rutheford B. Crazy”, the mascot of this particular laser tag franchise, and his pursuit of success, only for him to realize that the real life equivalent committed suicide and declared it meant nothing, is a nice shock to the system. And the metaphor of following a prescribed goal and formula to stay on top in a fruitless competition versus the basic pursuit of happiness in the life we’re given finds a surprising amount of purchase as a basic existentialist concept wrapped in a laser tag strategy session.
I also enjoy the nuts and bolts aspects of the episode. Dennis keeping Mac and Dee angry and thus effective by denying and offering praise is in line with his scheming sociopathy. The same goes for him keeping Frank’s laser tag kit off, so that he doesn't sink their team. And all three deciding to just have fun instead is a nice rebuttal. At the same time, there’s some amusing, basic comedy in Charlie’s fascination with his “five-finger shoes” and inability to understand riddles (something that lines up nicely with the homage).
I also appreciate the subversion in the end, where it feels like the group has reached an epiphany and breakthrough, only to turn the whole thing on its ears and waste “Big Mo” with their laser tag guns. It’s a nicely fingers-crossed ending for this pack of degenerates.
There’s also a sense in which, beyond the whole thing being a metaphor for life, the episode is a metaphor for the group’s feelings about continuing with this show for fourteen seasons. That may be a stretch on my part, but I think there’s a bit of the subtext baked in there as well.
Overall, I like what the show was trying to do here, and the Becket pastiche mixed with It’s Always Sunny’s particular sense of humor and sensibility makes for a surprisingly harmonious mix. But it never quite reached that second level of greatness that the show’s best creative leaps often do. Still a good season and a nice way to cap it off.