It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia

2000s tv sitcom

Group of friends are running a greasy, runned-down bar in Philadelphia, but when they try to improve themselves or the bar, they get involved in surreal adventures.

Paddy’s Pub in Philadelphia is run by three friends, who always manage to find a really weird way to solve their problems, which never really works as planned.

It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia is one of those sitcoms, in which there is no real story, each episode is completely separated from others and very rarely linked to anything that happened before. The characters are barely defined, so each time they move into completely new territory without any reason or consequences, in one episode they take on politics, in another start a band, in another start selling drugs. In one episode their bar is on a verge of bankruptcy, in next one it is the most popular bar in the area or is running successful contests. With boundaries of the stories and characters set so widely It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia was bound to find audience.

And they have, but at the same time they locked themselves in a audience segment that was bound to dry out. And it sort of did - even though they were extended for 3 more seasons, between 2012 and 2021 they lost about 80% of their audience. It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia had just one aim - to be as offensive, provocative and / or repulsive as it can. Since they were broadcast by cable network FX they were not limited by the same rules as other sitcoms on the market, so they went wild. Even in first two seasons they implemented in episodes gun rights jokes, abortion jokes, supposedly molested children, religion, cancer, underage drinking, etc. All of it drew attention to the show, but at the same time made it run out of steam in rather short time. Afterall if you start with abortion, gun rights, politics and few other touchy topics it is very hard to keep finding something new to be provocative and offensive about. After season 2 the misadventures of Mac, Charlie, Dennis, Dee and Frank unfortunately became predictably unpredictable.

Right now, after season 15, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia became the comedy series with most seasons to its credit in American TV history (not counting the animated ones obviously), but at the same time it is far from being in top 10 among series with most episodes, due to short seasons length (usually about 10 episodes per year). It is certainly not an offer for everyone’s taste, it is seldom typically funny production, but it has its style and atmosphere, something like watching Seinfeld being part of South Park kind of thing.

Rating	6.4
Funny	4 / 10
Entertaining	4 / 5
Characters	4 / 5
Nonrepetitive	4 / 5