We live in a time when friends can get together and make videos without squandering their life savings, and while some have taken that opportunity to film their cats, others have decided to make It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.
It’s Always Sunny is a sitcom that started as a no-budget project between three friends, Charlie Day, Rob McElhenney and Glenn Howerton, armed with a cheap camera and willing family members. And like its inception, the series is very down to earth.
This is a show that feels organic: there are no polished backdrops, no obvious will they/won’t they scenarios, and, luckily, no canned laughter. It’s simply about a few friends working at a bar and barely making any money.
But while other sitcoms might take this opportunity to tell a heartwarming story about friendship, It’s Always Sunny does the opposite. In the first season alone, the show’s plotlines include the gang selling alcohol to minors for extra cash and pawning off Nazi memorabilia stolen from questionable family members. Yet, it never feels like they try to be offensive for the sake of being offensive.
This is a genuinely hilarious show that just happens to have no scruples about writing about anything and everything they can imagine.
It has been likened to all sorts, from Seinfeld on crack to a latter day Friends, except all the characters are largely unsympathetic and the pushing-thirty desperation and fear is much more tangible.
It may be at times, offensive, at times ridiculous, but always it is hilariously irreverent, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia is eight seasons of reminders that your life and your friends could be much, much worse (although probably nowhere near as funny).