This summer marks 20 years on the air for It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, making the show the longest-running sitcom ever, Alan Sepinwall writes at Rolling Stone. In his view, it might also be the "funniest." From showrunner and star Rob McElhenney, the FX dark comedy follows "five of TV's all-time-worst human beings"—McElhenney as Mac, Charlie Day as Charlie, Glenn Howerton as Dennis, Kaitlin Olson as Dee, and Danny DeVito as Dee and Dennis' dad Frank, together known as "the Gang"—who burn down homes and businesses, torture a little person believing he's a leprechaun, and turn a priest into a crack addict, among other horrifying behaviors, while operating Philly's Paddy's Pub.
"Most classic comedies were running on fumes by the time they'd produced half as many installments as Sunny has," Sepinwall writes, referring to 170 episodes across 16 seasons. But Sunny "still demonstrates a level of ingenuity, insightfulness, and perseverance that would feel completely foreign to the Gang. The older they get, the worse the Gang is. For Sunny itself, it's the opposite," he notes. The "endlessly memeable" show succeeds "in part by embracing the awfulness of the Gang." But "the magic trick is that Sunny gradually learned how to distinguish its POV from the characters', showing empathy not only for the Gang's victims, but also the Gang itself." Season 17 premieres July 9. (More TV shows stories.)
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