I Watched: It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia

Last year, we got a new puppy, and while she's adorable, the extra attention she's needed has lead to me spending a lot more time in our living room rather than in my office. Because of this, I've used it as an opportunity to catch up on a number of shows that either I had not watched in a long time, or never gotten around to watching. This will be the first in that series of "I Watched...".

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia is one of those shows that I had seen the memes of, heard good things about, but never got around to watching myself. However, I recently sat down to give it a shot and blew through pretty much the entire thing over several weeks.

While there's no shortage of entries in the "terrible people in funny situations" media space, there are a few things that set Sunny apart in my mind:

First, there is no "main character" in Sunny. While most similar shows center on one character and the chaos/insanity around them, like Sterling in "Archer", Michael in "Arrested Development", or even Jerry in "Seinfeld". Instead, "The Gang" takes the focus, with each character having equal importance to the show (even if not the same power, within the dynamics of the group).

What this does is allow for any one of the characters to drive the madness, and the others to join along without it feeling weird. It gives a lot of flexibility to the writers along the way, and has helped develop some of the "side characters" as they have different interactions with The Gang.

Second, The Gang are so selfish that they genuinely consider themselves "normal" even though they are all terrible people. The closest dynamic I can think of is from Seinfeld, though the degree of terribleness is several magnitudes less severe. While most of the main group on Seinfeld you'd just normally avoid hanging around with, The Gang you'd want to avoid living within 100 miles of.

Again, this is another great device for the writers, because it's what allows the characters to power through situations that are clearly objectionable. They're always trying to accomplish their goals, and everyone else be damned if they get hurt along the way.

Third, The Gang actually feel like friends. The dynamic of sometimes going out on a limb for each other, but also constantly berating each other feels like friends that have know each other since high school. Granted, it helps that most of the cast are old friends, if not married to each other, to achieve that dynamic. But even with the addition of a big name like Danny DiVito early on, that still shines through as you end up watching this love-able bunch of sycophants.

It's not perfect, but overall, Sunny is a dose of often off-putting type humor that walks a delicate of humor and offensiveness, and one that I'm sure to go back and watch.