Always Sunny in the Nexus

For many fans, the series finale of Seinfeld left much to be desired. It took the four main characters out of their familiar surroundings of New York City, to a small town where they end up on trial for doing nothing to stop a mugging. The whole thing was an absurd vehicle to bring back nearly every guest star from the series' nine year run, and it mainly illustrated how self-centered the quartet was, in that they not only didn't help the victim, but made fun of his plight. The show was probably strongest in its third and fourth seasons, but the finale did capture one important aspect of the show. A sitcom character doesn't always have to be likable or right. In fact, humor can be derived from watching losers make mistakes, especially when they don't even realize their idiocy.

For a while now, one of my friends has been raving about It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, but with my endless list of unseen movies and television shows, it took me a while to get to it. If the current writer's strike isn't resolved and television dissolves into a festering pit of reality shows and reruns by January, I might have more time to catch up on everything I've missed. That's a topic for another day, though.

A few years ago, Rob McElhenney put together a pilot called “It's Always Sunny On TV”, filming himself and his pals Glenn Howerton and Charlie Day with a digital camcorder. Varying sources put the cost of this pilot at $200 or possibly less, but the end result was that the trio succeeded in finding a home on FX. They cast Kaitlin Olson, fresh off the final season of The Drew Carey Show, and a new television quartet was born. The four ran a bar, a location common to sitcoms.

The similarities to Seinfeld end with the structure of three guys and a girl who are very self-centered, as the freedom of a Cable network allows them to push the envelope. With each episode I watched, I asked myself “how are they getting away with this?” as much as I was laughing. I realized all the stupid, ignorant things these people did, from creating a fake terrorist video to scare off a Jewish real estate developer to trying to bribe a salon to tan a baby so they could pass it off as Latino and get it a commercial gig, were not glorified. The show wasn't making fun of different cultures and beliefs; it made fun of these four idiots. No one complained about Archie Bunker, because it was the stereotype of a bigot that we were laughing at, not the stereotypes he was spouting.

Of course, the gang isn't necessarily malicious, nor do they always set out to be. Charlie, the crazy loser of the group, is quoting a new African American friend and inadvertently drops the n-word, just as the waitress he loves walks up to his table. There are times when the others say or do things with intent, but Charlie for the most part is innocent in his level of stupidity. He's an extreme, and while I certainly wouldn't say or do a lot of the things he does, I do empathize where he always says or does the wrong thing at the wrong time. His real life wife portrays the waitress, but it's a running joke on the show that she's completely creeped out by him, no matter what he tries to do.

In the second season, they added Danny DeVito to the mix. A DVD featurette explained that with his schedule, he was only available for twenty days of filming. With 10 episodes to put together for season two, they filmed them all simultaneously, focusing on all the scenes involving DeVito's character. His initial insertion as the father of the twins played by Howerton and Olson worked perfectly, and his demented schemes as he gained partial control of the bar fit well with the rest. Adding a legendary figure could have been a risky move, but somehow the show's strength is in its ensemble, and each person gets time to shine equally. “Shine” is probably the wrong word with this bunch, though. In one episode, McElhenny's Mac tries to woo a pro-life activist by joining her cause, but when she tests him and lies that she's pregnant, he immediately tells her to get an abortion. These are horrible, horrible people. They have great comic timing and interactions, though.

I've just about caught up after a marathon viewing this past weekend, and I'm nearly through the first half of season three. As with many sitcoms, I'm sure the shock value will wear off after a while. I can't imagine how much more outrageous they can get, and as they try to top themselves they run the risk of crossing the line between hysterical and absurd, just as Seinfeld did. Still, it's nice to sit back and see that as bad as we think we have it or as bad as we think we are, there can always be someone worse off, or simply someone worse. Cheers!