Mountain rules!
By Matt Fowler
Warning: Full spoilers for the episode below.
From the same batch of bubbling broth that brought us Always Sunny’s love of 80s action movies (famously, the Lethal Weapon franchise) comes their very funny take on ’80s raunch-house comedies. Specifically here, for “The Gang Hits the Slopes,” ski-based films like Hot Dog…The Movie, Better Off Dead, and Ski School (with a little Porky’s thrown in for good measure). Okay, Ski School was in 1990, but you get the idea. There’s skiing. And drinking. And boobies. And Ski School’s Dean Cameron guested here as an old ski bum, Drisko, far removed from his ’80s movie-life heyday.
And I wrote “’80s move-life” just now because, essentially, for this episode, The Gang stepped through a portal and into an ’80s movie. With “Mountain Rules” fully in effect, as Dennis would explain to Charlie numerous times. No bodily consequences. A party mountain vs. stuffy yuppie dynamic. A P.A. system that narrates the highlights of the plot. Giggling girls willing to be sexually objectified. The works.
So this being the case, and alternate-dimension laws in play, the episode itself was also allowed to stretch a bit format-wise. Different title card. Van Halen, Huey Lewis, and Rick Springfield songs galore. Even Denis, Dee, and Mac were allowed to be – in a very funny opening bit – expert skiers. And because this is Always Sunny, these bizarre rules were allowed to get filtered through a modern PC lens in which even The Gang became uncomfortable with most everything that was going on. As crazed and demented as they are, even Charlie, Mac, and Dee knew what would land them in jail and/or get them labeled a sexual predator.
So there was an embracing of, and a deconstructing of, these old movies, with Mac and Dee realizing just how pathetic and wrong the antics of Team Party truly were. And Drisko and his old roomies in “Babe Manor” (Kevin Farley and Children of the Corn’s Courtney Gains) living out back half/dark side of their irresponsible alcoholic lives. Psychotic breaks (“Did you c** in my burrito!?”). Custody hearings. Partying did not pay off for these fellows.
Frank and Dennis, however, embraced the ’80s madness. As the villains of the piece, they relished turning Alpine Ridge into “Snow Palace” – an exclusive resort for humorless elites. Which meant that Dennis got to be the ’80s movie bully he was born to play. Complete with arm candy, goon squad, and cocky laugh. And the reveal at the end that the entire showdown between him and Drisko was a ruse to distract everyone while he fracked the mountain was pretty good, as it brought everything crashing back to reality. The veneer melted away. The girls weren’t actually enabling bimbos, Dennis broke his ankles, and Drisko got arrested.
So, lot’s of funny stuff here. It was a big swing and a wild premise, but – hey – it’s Season 11. This is what happens. Charlie wanting to know why the resort announcer kept specifically talking about them when there were hundreds of other people around. Everyone objecting to Drisko’s penis-through-the-hole “prank.” And – of course – Charlie’s non-stop sex-a-thon with Tatiana (True Blood’s Natasha Alam). Set to “Jesse’s Girl.” A hilarious moment and the absolute peak of “Mountain Rules” craziness.
“The Gang Hits the Slopes” was wildly and refreshingly off-brand for Always Sunny. This many seasons in, I’m glad they’re pushing the corners the envelope a little bit and trying new things. Busting everyone out of the norm can be great, like last year’s “Charlie Work.”
