In it’s always sunny in Philadelphia, Almost nothing good happens to “The Gang” (the self-created name for the alcoholic, cruel, socially incompetent, and borderline sociopathic group of five friends who run a grotesque dive bar in Philly). So when two members – Charlie (Charlie Day) and Dee (Kaitlin Olson) – are inexplicably drunk and eaten by two wealthy, attractive siblings in “Charlie and Dee Find Love,” the group is cautious. Dennis (Glenn Howerton) is particularly suspicious of this burgeoning romance, until he eventually brings her into a trope befitting her selfish, wretched ideals. “That is … Dangerous romances“, Dennis concludes bitterly as he spies on the date. When Mac (Rob McElhenney) fails to follow suit, Dennis spits out a litany of films with the same plot of sadistic manipulations by wealthy people for the sport that seemingly fell out of his head:Cruel intentions? She is all of that? Can’t buy me love? “
Dennis’ effortless listing at this moment is one of many Cases where The Gang turns to films for clarity or advice (albeit often in extremely misguided ways). They have a reverence for movies – often they borrow cinematic structures and tropes for their various nasty and ill-planned actions, citing or referencing movies to understand a situation they can’t handle, or even occasionally paying for a highly questionable cinematic Tribute, as controversial by their Recreations from Deadly weapon complete with blackface. While we drink them most of the time, plan them out, and are generally terrible, The Gang’s frequent cinematic references suggest that a lot of off-screen time is spent watching movies.
Usually a strong understanding of cinema is a wonderful opportunity to expand our empathy. The cinema offers us a space to reflect on the experiences of others, to distance ourselves from our own perspective and to look at the world around us a little differently for at least a few hours. But for The Gang, with their general lack of human empathy or sincerity, cinema is simply offering new scripts for even stranger, more convoluted debauchery than usual.
Her understanding of narrative tropes does not outweigh her general selfishness and social ineptitude, which prevents her from ever properly staging any kind of cinematic act. In “The Gang Gets Romantic”, Mac is obsessed with creating a romantic comedy style “meet-cute” apparently only because he wants to meddle in other people’s affairs. But his friends are almost completely unable to process this idea of romance and connectedness.
The food-focused, slightly confusing duo of Charlie and Frank think Mac is offering them an imaginary snack called “Cubes of Meat,” while the predatory Dennis repeatedly refers to the women involved in Mac’s planning as “sweet meat.” And despite Mac’s best intentions, his general inability to understand how to turn real romance into action means his plans are to clog toilets and overhear conversations from the couple they’ve got into his tangled plot, who turn out to be appalling highlight grieving parents. At the end of Mac’s attempted “meet cute” tale, nobody is in love, but everyone is made incredible uncomfortable and upset.
Such failed attempts to steal cinematic ideals are everywhere being carried out on a smaller scale Always sunny Episodes. Sweet Dee dreams of a. to create Sex and the City-Style group of female besties, but instead of glamorous shopping and sipping cosmos, Dee forces a woman out of sobriety back into alcoholism and finally shakes herself on a car door while stumbling around in stolen high heels. Trying the gang to one Pretty Woman-Style arc for Frank’s sex worker Roxy in “Frank’s Pretty Woman” does not lead to a classic whirlwind romance and a marriage proposal, but to the group who hid Roxy’s body in a hallway after they allowed her to overdose on crack cocaine. Over and over again, The Gang simply applies the cinematic tactics they’ve picked up in the worst, most destructive, and misunderstood ways over time.
Both their infatuation and total misunderstanding / inability to translate what they love about movies are perhaps most succinctly summed up in their love of the fictional action franchise Thunder Gun Express (A movie they especially love because the protagonist, John Thundergun, “hangs” once per movie. While the group tries to get to the movie’s opening day on Thunder Gun Express, they keep trying to do that what they suspect their beloved fictional action hero would do, but utterly unprofessional. The gang gets stuck on ferries, in traffic, or even in sewer bars to play action heroes. And while constantly quoting the catchphrase of thundergun in which no man is left behind, they constantly indulge in selfish attempts to get to the theater on time.
The conceited Thunder Gun Express Also gives The Gang the opportunity to share their cinematic beliefs when they are selected as the focus group for the latest film in Thunder Gun 4: Maximum Cool. As the franchise works to keep up with the times, The Gang mourns everything that was out of date on the original Thunder Gun Express (the tragic one, Thundergun no longer hangs on the dong). The group gives the moderator terrible feedback (“Write this down – women hate women,” Mac offers as a comment at one point), and the often confused Charlie seems absolutely clueless about what is going on as his only post is perplexing is, he literally has obvious questions about the film only
Even if The Gang doesn’t literally steal from the movies they see, the structure and aesthetic of many is from Always sunny‘S Episodes borrow from a rich cinematic canon in ridiculous referential tributes. In “Maureen Ponderosa’s Wedding Massacre” we open handheld footage of The Gang racing through the forest in panic while overexposed light washes their faces in a found footage-like moment. In the artistically designed “Being Frank” we follow a day in Frank’s life completely through his visual POV, á la Spike Jonzes As John Malkovich. The show plays with the noir aesthetic in the black and white film “The Janitor Always Mops Twice”, with the intertwined, biopic-like, drug-filled 1970s in “Frank’s Brother” and with the aesthetics of true crime-documentary madness in “Making Dennis “. Reynolds a murderer. ”
But these cinematic tributes just add to the point just how ridiculous and delusional The Gang looks all along. If you place them in these cinematic worlds, it becomes clear that these protagonists, regardless of their personal megalomania, are indescribably far from being gentle film stars or masterminds, or even remotely sympathetic. In these formats, they stick out like sore thumbs, all the more strange and disgusting, although they are placed in cinematic stylizations that are supposed to make people more relatable, interesting or appealing.
Where we would normally expect a rich cinematic background to offer depth, a new perspective, or at least a fleeting moment of sincerity, Always sunny‘s relationship with the films is one that confirms again and again how far these characters are from a basic understanding of the universal human experiences of empathy, connection and love. The gang steals from iconic films in failed attempts to better lie, cheat, manipulate, plan and “win” self-made mental games. In It’s always sunny in Philadelphia everything we love about cinema is used, abused and misunderstood, but in the most delightful and absurd way possible.
it’s always sunny in Philadelphia Season 15 premieres on December 1st on FXX.