Slopes, suburbs, and smut.
By Matt Fowler
Warning: Full spoilers for the season below.
To review Always Sunny in its eleventh season is to also sort of ask oneself what one might want from a show like this after a decade. Are you looking for more ground-breaking, controversial comedy? Do you just require the basic creature comforts and enjoy spending time (quality or not) with The Gang? Because after this many seasons on the air, the verdict is…well, a mix.
Sunny was hit or miss this year. Giving us a solid episode ever other week (or other other week). Though, and this is important, they tried a few things they’d never done before. “The Gang Hits the Slopes” for example was an expertly enjoyable skewering (and ironic worship) of the ski resort sub-genre of ’80s sex comedies, while “Being Frank” took us into the mind of the most brain-damaged, debaucherous member of the group with somewhat ungratifying results.
But still, the show was doing what it should be doing this late in the game. Getting a little more nuts and loose with the formats, locations, themes, etc. So even when the show wasn’t at it’s best, I felt the effort. Though as standard episodes go, “Dee Made a Smut Film” – featuring cliche “what makes this art?” commentary and Charlie acting like Richard Grieco – was the weakest of the non-adventurous batch.
On the flip side, “Charlie Catches a Leprechaun” was a fierce and funny St. Patrick’s Day episode that stuck to the basics. Providing us with Dennis’ best failed scheme of the season as he inadvertently started kidnapping and robbing uncooperative “customers” who were lured into his mobile Paddy’s Wagon. Also, while I’m bringing up high points, “Mac & Dennis Move to the Suburbs” was stellar. And the season premiere, which brought back Chardee MacDennis, was also great.
I’d say that each season is allowed to give us one big callback episode. And Season 11 basically opened with it. Making the second episode, “Frank Falls Out the Window,” feel a bit empty since it too was huge jog down memory lane. And one that felt a bit more forced.
The two-part season finale started off well – giving us a very heightened premise involving The Gang possibly having to explain their horrendous actions to the Almighty – but then the follow up sort of disappointingly brought everything back to reality with a “had its moments” bottle episode.
The eleventh season of Always Sunny took a few noble risks. Some paid off, some didn’t. And likewise for the more “basic” episodes. Some really landed well and some kind of fizzled. Nothing overtly bad, but there were a few that felt half-cooked.
