The 16th season of It's Always Sunny In Philidelphia released a couple of days ago, and I just finished it today. I've always really liked the show, but in the last couple of seasons I noticed a bit of a change in it - while the show wasn't bad - it just felt a bit different.
Sunny Is Back
I'm delighted to say that the show is back in top form, and any doubts I had about the show in recent history are completely gone.
This season in and of itself feels a lot like the show used to feel. While I liked the last season, and the fact they came over to Ireland, I couldn't help but notice that it didn't feel the same as it had done.
I think I know what it was about the show that felt off, and I think it's the thing that made this season stand out so much compared to some of the more recent ones.
The Side Characters Are Back
While the main cast of Sunny - Mac, Dennis, Charlie, Frank, and Dee - are the main draw and reason to watch it, there have been so many great side characters introduced over the years who are essentially victims of the gang's selfishness and cruelty.
Nobody can be more of a testament to this idea than Rickety Cricket.
Here's Cricket in one of the earlier seasons as he is on his way downhill because of the gang ruining his life.
Cricket first entered the show as a priest, and he's convinced to leave the priesthood for a chance to get into a relationship with Dee, who essentially laughs in his face when he announces that he is free to pursue a relationship.
Throughout the seasons that follow he becomes a homeless drug addict who is pulled out of the gutter for numerous reasons to help the gang pursue whatever idea they come up with.
He is scarred heavily as the show goes on, even to the point of having half of his face melted off in a fire that the gang starts. When they see the damage of the inferno they don't even remember him being at their house when it happened, which is a perfect example of the little regard they have for any of these people they interact with on a regular basis.
In this season we're re-introduced to so many of the old characters, such as Uncle Jack, Gail The Snail, The McPoyles, Artimus, and we even get a reference of Maureen, who Dennis married, divorced, and then paid alimony to so she could transition into a cat, and then died.
I was delighted to have a few episodes revolving around some of these strange misfits that the show introduced over the years.
They All Pretty Much Look The Same
Another thing I noticed while watching this season is the fact that they really haven't aged all that much over the years. Of course, they do look a bit different, well, all except Charlie Day.
It's the first time noticing it really, but Charlie looks the exact same as he always has and I'm pretty sure he's still wearing the same clothes as he did during the earlier seasons of the show.
A Stand-out Episode
There was a good episode this season that revolved around the gang tracking down Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul, who were in Phily promoting some beer they created together.
The gang gets the idea to create their own one by combining a bunch of different alcohol together and potentially pitching the idea to the two of them. I thought it was cool seeing these two big actors in the show, and just found the episode entertaining.
Another one that stood out to me was the America vs Russia episode, where Frank is in a chess tournament with a Russian grandmaster.
The A-plot of the episode is the chess match in which they're cheating by using a buzzer to tell Frank to right move, but the B-plot of this episode sees Dennis school Mac and Dee in dating and gives them tips using the S.I.N.N.E.D system, which is a call back to one of my favourite episodes, The D.E.N.N.I.S system, where he lets the gang in on his own method of finding and hooking up with women.
It was a good breath of fresh air as far as I'm concerned, and I'm delighted that they have been able to stay fresh without having to change up their formula.
There are a lot of shows out there that try to mix things up so much that their fanbase ends up falling off, but that's not the case here and I have a feeling that the future seasons will be just as good, so long as they don't get bored of making the show.