Watched it or not, "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" had its season finale last night. A bittersweet one, I must say. While I was enthralled to see a musical made out the Dayman and Nightman songs in last night's episode, no more "Sunny" for who knows how long. Nothing at 10 PM every thursday to follow "The Office" and "30 Rock". But, I'm sure none of you care about my suffering. You want to hear about this season. And what a great season it was. Blessed with a bigger budget and a certified following (which grows bigger by the day), creator/star Rob McElhenney was able to create new stories a bring the gang to new places that could never have been done with the budget of the show's pilot (which was between $85-$200). In this season, the gang sunk to new, strange levels of depravity. They ate and hunted people, waterboarded each other, faked their own deaths, kidnapped multiple people, took advantage of the homeless and worldwide crisis, and even managed to go back in time. These, amongst many other events this season, while tending a bar.
Season four didn't exactly reach the perfection of season three, but that's not to say this season was a new step up for the show, despite some flaws. Some things that bothered me this season was an absence of the McPoyles and an absence of jokes about Charlie's blatant illiteracy (however, Charlie's idiocy was not totally forgotten, thanks to some cat food and a mail conspiracy). As this season progressed, we saw the once successful Frank (Danny DeVito) sink lower and lower). He went from a once successful businessman opening sweatshops in Vietnam to a man disguising himself as Rambo not long before he began pooping everywhere and landing in a mental hospital (a fantastic inside joke on "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest", which DeVito starred in). Nothing however will ever reach his lowest level of depravity in season three when he married his own daughter to get his hands on his wife's will.
Of the cast, I believe this season truly belonged to Kaitlin Olson. As Dee, the only woman of the gang, she managed to stand out and really bring both the character's craziness and vulnerability into full swing. I cringed in painful laughter (yet felt a little bad for Dee) as she dry-heaved her way through a pathetic attempt at standup. If the Emmys ever decide to lighten up a little and consider "Sunny", I think Olson should be a true contender for best actress. Seriously.
So season five, please come soon. If I have any advice for the show, it's that they bring back Charlie illiteracy jokes along with the McPoyles and Bruce Mathis, hit political/social themes even harder, keep bringing the Waitress back, and please bring "Nightman Cometh" to Broadway. But most importantly, please come back soon.
It's difficult to choose the best clip from this season, but here are three scenes that nearly brought me to tears:
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