It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia

Our Review

The longest-running live-action sitcom in American history, and the only one where every single character is a sociopath. The Gang — Charlie the rat-stabbing illiterate, Dennis the implied serial killer, Mac the repressed zealot, Dee the punching bag, and Frank the human id in dirty cutoffs — run Paddy’s Pub and scheme their way through Philadelphia like a five-person race to the moral bottom.

Seventeen-plus seasons in, it’s still the meanest, funniest thing on TV because the writers figured out the cheat code: the Gang can never learn, never grow, never win. Episodes like The Nightman Cometh, The D.E.N.N.I.S. System, and the Mac Finds His Pride dance (an unbroken five-minute modern piece that came out of nowhere) show a show that can do anything it wants inside its own nastiness.

Verdict: Watch it. Start anywhere — it has no continuity to speak of, just an endless supply of the worst people alive.