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‘It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’ Review: Razor Sharp Season 12 Premiere is Just the Start of a Bold, Brilliant Year

The "Sunny" gang follows up "The Nightman Cometh" with a dark musical parable that's closer to "Dear White People" than "Quantum Leap."

By Ben Travers

Ben Travers

TV Critic

BenTTravers

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If that’s the metric, then Season 12 is already one of the greats. In fact, Season 12 seems more determined than usual to throw that metric under the bus for good.

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia "The Gang Turns Black" Danny DeVito as Frank, Kaitlin Olson as Dee, Chad Coleman as Z.

Take the premiere episode, “The Gang Turns Black.” [Editor’s Note: Spoilers ahead for the “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” Season 12 premiere.] Utilizing the Season 11 addition of “Old Man/Black Man/Old Black Man,” the gang gathers to watch a movie of his choosing — “The Wiz” — and thus the conversation inevitably turns from whether a “black version” of “The Wizard of Oz” was really necessary to whether there’s still a difference between white and black citizens among America’s lower class.

Then zap! A lightning strike magically switches the gang’s bodies with African Americans of a similar class. Notably, Dennis is much larger, Frank is much younger and Charlie is much, much younger — a child, in fact — but otherwise they’re close in age to their white selves. A debate then emerges as to whether or not they’re living out “The Wiz,” “Freaky Friday,” or “Quantum Leap,” and the gang splits off into groups to investigate.

Wait. Did I mention they were singing? They’ve been singing the whole time! Well, not the whole time, but the gang uncontrollably bursts into song in order to progress the narrative (making the episode already a step up from other musicals, like, say, “Chicago”), providing a light, easy-going tone for the gang’s adventure as African-Americans.

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia Season 12 premiere AJ Hudson as Black Charlie, Farley Jackson as Black Frank, Leslie Miller as Black Dee, Anthony Hill as Black Mac

A series of entertaining and illuminating events follows, including Mac, Dennis, and Charlie getting arrested for breaking into Dennis’ car and Dee and Frank running into a “leaping” Scott Blacula– er, Bacula. But the episode — as so many often do — peaks with Charlie: first, during his arrest, when he tries to explain what happened. Keep in mind, as Charlie did not, that the cops see him as a young boy hanging out with two middle-aged men. So when he sings, “He’s just some guy who banged my mother, like my friend and the other,” it’s not exactly easy for the cops to release him back into their custody. (His final line in the scene deserves special mention: “I guess I’m just another black kid who doesn’t know his dad. Guess we got that in common, huh kid? …unless he knows his dad. Oh shit, that was racist.”)

More shocking, though, is Charlie’s final act; an act that reveals the true lesson of this haunting parable. Showing off the train the detectives gave him during their interview, Charlie is brutally shot by trigger-happy beat cops who saw a black kid holding something shiny and immediately thought, “Gun!” As he lies in a pool of his own blood, the stark difference between black and white becomes as clear as night and day to the gang.

But the true heartbreak isn’t Charlie’s gory death: It’s what comes next. Like so many body switching tales, it turns out everything we just saw was a dream; a dream had by the “Old Black Man.” So, chronologically, the Old Black Man fell asleep listening to a bunch of white people argue there was no difference between poor white people and poor black people, dreamt of them learning their lesson, and awoke to a world in which they never did — and likely never will. It’s a fitting analogy for the modern plight of perspective, where too many angry white people refuse or are unable to put themselves in the shoes of those less fortunate, and an excellent capper for “Sunny” considering the show’s long-running satiric attack on its subjects.

IT'S ALWAYS SUNNY IN PHILADELPHIA Season 12 "The Gang Turns Black" Charlie Day as Charlie, Glenn Howerton as Dennis, Rob McElhenney as Mac

Yet the exquisite ending is just the beginning of what’s shaping up to be a notable season for all the right reasons. We won’t spoil the upcoming episodes here, but here’s a small sample of what’s on the way.

“Old Lady House: A Situation Comedy” (Episode 3) – an evisceration of multi-cam comedies like “Fuller House,” breaking down the manipulative manner in which laugh tracks and sitcom production tricks can be used to fool an audience into laughing, no matter what.
“Making Dennis Reynolds a Murderer” (Episode 5) – a full-on parody of true crime docu-series like “Making a Murderer” and “The Jinx,” with the most diabolical “Sunny” character of them all at its center.
“Hero or Hate Crime?” (Episode 6) – a legal battle presented as a mystery that features one of the series’ biggest (and most anticipated) twists yet.

And these are just the episodes that a) we’ve seen (through Episode 6), and b) break from classic “Sunny” set-ups. “The Gang Goes to a Water Park” (Episode 2) and “Wolf Cola: A Public Relations Nightmare” (Episode 4) are no less for working within the series’ tried-and-true formula.

Hopefully the above tease (in addition to the premiere episode) dissuades you from setting Season 12 aside. Rarely do comedies last as long as this one has, and rarer still do they continue to challenge themselves as well as their viewers. Judge it however you like, but the gang has made it impossible to ignore “Sunny” in 2017.