Thursday, September 13, 2007

It's Always Funny In Philadelphia

Tonight marks the return of one of TV's most innovative sitcoms, "It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia" (FX, 10 p.m.)

In the past, I've previously compared this show to "Seinfeld," with Gen-Y performers in the traditional roles. Because what makes these people so funny is the awful things they do and awful way they act. We've seen the guys check out simultaneous pro- and anti-abortion rallies cruising for women; siblings Dennis and Sweet Dee get addicted to methadone in order to collect checks from the government; Charlie and Mac trying to sell the war memorabilia of Dennis' grandad — a Nazi; and so forth.

I was worried that when Danny Devito joined the cast last year as Dennis and Dee's dad, it might throw off the balance of the show, but the writers (also the male members of the cast) never missed a beat.

"Sunny" isn't going to be for everyone, but once you get hooked, you'll stay that way.

THURSDAY'S BEST BETS: Of course, the downside of "Sunny's" return to TV is that it's on at the same time as new installments of two of the summer's best shows, "Mad Men" (AMC, 10 p.m.) and "Burn Notice" (USA, 10 p.m.)

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sorry, no interest in "Sunny".

Tonight, only "Mad Men" has me excited.

Last night's was "Rescue Me" was OK, but you're once again, being overly dismissive of how overall down the show was this year. The last month was better, yes, but I saw nothing from this show that makes me think it was comparable to it's first 3 seasons.

Toby O'B said...

"Sunny" repeats immediately after, so it's possible to catch it as well as "Burn Notice" and "Mad Men".

Phillip Ramati said...

Toby, the great thing about cable shows is that they all repeat at some point. Mad Men also repeats immediately after the first broadcast. If only the network shows were like that...