Season finale review: ‘It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’

“It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” wrapped up its seventh season in style tonight, with the gang trying desperately to show up their tormentors at their high school reunion. The switch in perspective in the final scene was one of the biggest laughs the show gave me all year, and that’s saying something, considering how strong this seventh season was. There was only one outright bad episode, “Frank’s Brother,” and even there I can respect that they were at least trying something different that didn’t work. (That, or I can again note that Frank tends to be much more useful for generating stories than generating laughs.) 

In fact, this may have been the best “Sunny” season since the second, which is a very tough accomplishment. You don’t often see comedies get better this late into the run, particularly ones that are built around youthful stupidity and/or characters who behave horribly. But “Sunny” managed to incorporate the gang’s advancing age very deftly this year, with various references to them being too old for this s–t, or to their moronic lifestyles taking a much heavier toll than it used to. (Dennis’ diet and exercise regimen, for instance.) The reunion seemed the culmination of that: it was bad enough that they were freaks and weirdos as teenagers, but to be essentially unchanged in their mid-30s? That’s sad, and yet somehow the show keeps mining comedy rather than pathos out of that.

What did everybody else think of the season? Favorite episodes or moments? Does this year fill you with confidence for the additional seasons we’ll be getting after it?

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