The Gang Gets Cursed - by Brianna Zigler
My coverage of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia season 16 continues with episode 3.
Season 16 episode 3 of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia continues to chart the Gang steady on their course of old-school hijinks and schemes as laid by the foundation of the first two episodes. As I wrote about in my review of the premiere(s) last week, these two episodes marked a welcome return to form for the Always Sunny writers (which includes lead actors Glenn Howerton, Charlie Day, and Rob McElhenney). Though I didn’t initially make the connection — beyond the fact that they brought back Charlie’s once-mentioned sisters after talking about it on the pod — a Twitter mutual posited that it seems as if The Always Sunny Podcast may have influenced this latest season. They rightly noted that the episodes felt as if they were “from a decade ago.”
Indeed, season 16 is the first season of Sunny to have been written and filmed during their podcast tenure (which started in November 2021, one month before season 15 premiered) which primarily involves hosts Day/Howerton/McElhenney going through their catalogue of episodes starting with season 1 back in 2005. The three men reminisce on how the show was made, reveal any behind-the-scenes info, and embark on wildly off-topic diatribes (which are great, of course). Ultimately, I think beyond the entertainment value and genuinely motivational and insightful discussions on writing, filmmaking, and the creative process in general, I do think the podcast has helped the guys get back to their roots. While still funny, Sunny was getting a bit too big for its britches in newer seasons. It seemed more interested in utilizing a bigger budget to far lesser effect than when the show was made on a shoe-string.
Ultimately, “The Gang Gets Cursed” is not quite on par with “The Gang Inflates” and “Frank Shoots Every Member of the Gang.” Definitely the lesser thus far of the new season, it’s still a charming, entertaining episode with plenty of the weird narrative and character minutiae that makes the series so unique, and has defined its off-beat sense of humor for almost 20 years. Mac announces to the gang that, after too many years of his nagging, relentless emails, the people behind Bar Rescue have finally chosen Paddy’s Pub as their next watering hole fixer-upper. The gang objects to this — Charlie doesn’t want the show to make him look stupid; Dennis wishes he had had more notice to get in shape first (“For God’s sake, man, what if my shirt walls off!?”). No one other than Mac seems thrilled about a prospect that actually could turn their lives around, but nevertheless he is convinced that their luck has finally changed for the better (cue title card drop, obviously).
The next day, the gang notices something weird is going on. First, Dennis keeps losing his train of thought, then Dee enters the bar with her face half-paralyzed; then Frank cracks open an egg with a bloody yolk. Charlie sees all of these bizarre occurrences as proof that the gang has been cursed, and it’s revealed that each member has done something to someone recently to provoke it. After her neighbor politely asked her to play video games quieter the night before, Dee, instead, gifted the old woman a “Cunt of the Year” trophy that the guys had made personally for Dee (more on that later). Frank recently killed a seagull that had made it’s way into the bar (for some reason, both Charlie and his mom have in-depth knowledge on this seagull curse), and Mac was actually fully cursed by Cricket after he and Charlie were their usual cruel and dismissive of him. Also, Glenn still has Maureen Ponderosa’s ashes, betraying the cat-woman’s dying wish to be buried in a pet cemetery. Charlie feels that this is all perfect breeding ground for bad karmic mojo.
Each member of the gang has paved the way for a curse, but perhaps none more so than Mac. Mac got his hands on a literal monkey’s paw recently, after which he coincidentally managed to get his answer from Bar Rescue. Unaware of the meaning behind the monkey’s paw and emboldened by what he believes is a newfound lucky streak — in spite of outward hypocrisy with his religious beliefs — he feels the moment is finally right to pursue his biggest, long-term dream. Mac asks Cricket to help him get in contact with his hero, former Phillies player Chase Utley, whom Mac has always wanted to have a catch with. Of course, now being a middle-aged man, Mac can’t reasonably request this of Chase — so, he needs to devise a fake, cancer-stricken son, and he’s asked Cricket to procure a boy to play that part for Mac. What could go wrong, etc etc.
There are less instances worthy of all-out hysteria in this episode compared to the last two, but it’s just nice to see Sunny sticking with the small stuff. I was delighted to see Rhea Perlman finally make a cameo appearance on the show as Dee’s scorned next-door neighbor. It’s kind of surprising that it took so long to get her on, what with her being Danny DeVito’s wife until they separated six years ago (even then, they remain close friends).
“The Gang Gets Cursed” also sees the return of Uncle Jack, Charlie’s rapey uncle who is probably the basis for the Night Man and one of the show’s best characters. At one point, the guys had expressed on The Always Sunny Podcast how much they love Jack’s actor — Andrew Friedman — and how they needed to bring him back for a new episode. It’s true that, along with Brian Unger as The Lawyer, Friedman is one of Sunny’s best recurring actors. It’s just a shame we don’t get more time with him in the episode they brought him back for; only one scene at the Old Lady House where Charlie and Frank come to learn more about the seagull curse from Charlie’s mom. Mrs. Kelly and Mrs. Mac are throwing a party for Jack’s birthday, and Jack, of course, wants to sit closer to Charlie so he can touch him. But the funniest moment Jack gets is probably when he says to Charlie “You and I hold hands” and then starts singing “Happy Birthday” for himself along with Mrs. Kelly.
The best scene in the whole episode, however, is when Mac accosts Chase Utley outside Chase’s apartment complex. At some point while nervously trying to persuade Chase to “play catch with his dying son,” Rob McElhenney shifts into his own version of what sounds like a Mid-Atlantic accent, for seemingly no reason at all. Again, what’s refreshing about this episode, like the first two, is that the humor is so embedded into the absurdity of the little things that each character says and does: Mac’s Mid-Atlantic accent, the fact that the gang personally crafted a “Cunt of the Year” trophy for Dee (let’s be honest, kind of sweet?), Cricket is a pimp now; Charlie’s mom letting out a blood-curdling scream for the second episode in a row. I would just say that, in the end, those little things weren’t quite as laugh-a-minute as in the two-episode premiere.
Season 12’s “Making Dennis Reynolds a Murderer” is one of the series’ late period, ambitious endeavors. It satirizes the Netflix documentary series Making a Murderer and the true crime fad in general by fashioning itself in the same style. It’s not a very good or memorable episode, though I do like how, since then, the gang will continue to bring up the idea that Dennis did murder Maureen (he is exonerated fully in the original episode).
The gang seems to lowkey believe that Dennis killed his ex-wife, and it’s very possible that he did: “I was murdered to a woman named Maureen” he slips at one point in this episode, and the gang keeps referring to his urn of Maureen’s ashes as his “trophy”. I like that there’s this extra layer to Dennis’s character of “possible actual murderer” but we still love that silly little guy no matter what.
“I call old ladies cunts all the time.”
In the end, Mac can’t get a suitable boy to play his son for Chase, so he makes up that his son died — I guess so that he can play the game of catch with Chase himself in the fake son’s honor? Anyway, he brings Chase to the pet cemetery that the rest of the gang is using to bury their curse beefs, and he shows Chase a grave that just says “Mac 2013-2023”with little paw prints on it. I laughed and then realized I’m not sure whether I’m supposed to believe whether Mac himself had that grave made and put there, or if he happened to find a suitable dog grave for his lie. Either way, it’s a funny image. I’m not precious about plot holes.
Another Dee-squandered episode! Kailtin Olson with a half-paralyzed face just isn’t very funny, and it limits the physical comedy she can do. Can we get some good Dee content this season? I know we’re only three episodes in, but this is only an eight-episode season so we are burning daylight here.
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