{"id":266917,"date":"2026-08-17T15:32:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-17T15:32:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/266917\/"},"modified":"2026-08-17T15:32:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-17T15:32:11","slug":"its-always-sunny-in-philadelphia-season-18-review-for-the-sickos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/266917\/","title":{"rendered":"‘It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’ Season 18 Review: For the Sickos!"},"content":{"rendered":"

In Season 18 of \u201cIt\u2019s Always Sunny in Philadelphia,\u201d<\/a> one episode stands out from the rest. It takes place late in the run and splits the gang into two groups: Dennis (Glenn Howerton<\/a>) and Mac (Rob Mac<\/a>) are laid up in their apartment, with only Charlie (Charlie Day<\/a>) available to assist, while Frank (Danny DeVito<\/a>) and Dee<\/a> (Kaitlin Olson<\/a>) try to figure out what their friends were plotting before they got hurt. Somehow, it all ties into a Christmas card competition, but like so many \u201cSunny\u201d adventures, whatever initially provokes our merry band of ne\u2019er do wells is soon forgotten in a sea of peculiar and petty disputes. <\/p>\n

\u201cMac and Dennis Tear Their ACLs\u201d isn\u2019t quite a bottle episode<\/a>. (There are a couple of new sets, including one that requires a bit of CGI trickery.) But it\u2019s got the same vibe: It\u2019s hyper-focused on the main cast, including a hilarious scene built around their insular dynamics (aka the rules for watching a movie with Dennis & Mac). It\u2019s dialogue-heavy, with lots of bickering between our two bedridden protagonists (plus a solid runner about verbally announcing sarcasm whenever it\u2019s deployed). And it\u2019s filled with familiar settings (the guys\u2019 apartment, Paddy\u2019s Pub), faces (the main cast + two guest stars, one of which is the episode\u2019s writer, David Hornsby, aka Cricket), and storylines (harebrained schemes carried out with outsized passion that amount to no material consequence). <\/p>\n

\"'Lanterns'<\/a> \"TEENAGE<\/a> <\/p>\n

It\u2019s a very good episode, but that\u2019s not the reason it stands out. \u201cMac and Dennis Tear Their ACLs\u201d distinguishes itself almost by default, as the only episode in Season 18 that isn\u2019t designed to elicit maximum disgust. Every other entry either dwells in its characters\u2019 filth throughout or reveals a new level of depravity as the climactic joke. To call certain gags unholy would be too kind, and I mean that as a sincere compliment. <\/p>\n

The new batch of episodes is for the sickos \u2014 and they will feast.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t get me wrong: \u201cIt\u2019s Always Sunny\u201d has always catered to the crowd who likes to watch while leering through a neighbor\u2019s window pane. That\u2019ll happen with a satiric sitcom about a group of depraved narcissists whose worldviews are so warped, there\u2019s seemingly nothing they won\u2019t do. Fake a cancer diagnosis? Child\u2019s play. Eat shit? Not just figuratively. Cannibalism? Which time? And lest we forget\u2026 the D.E.N.N.I.S. system. I shudder at the thought.<\/p>\n

\"IT'SKaitlin Olson, Glenn Howerton, and Andrew Friedman in \u2018It\u2019s Always Sunny in Philadelphia\u2019Courtesy of Patrick McElhenney \/ FX<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no need to list the grossest moments from \u201cIt\u2019s Always Sunny\u201d (that\u2019s what Reddit boards are for). Everyone who\u2019s seen even a handful of episodes has a favorite (or least favorite) gag; one that springs to mind whenever the series leans away from social commentary or character-driven tomfoolery \u2014 and instead chooses violence. My 77-year-old father, who\u2019s seen some shit in his day and never misses an episode, still talks about Frank crawling out of the couch with the same sense of awe others reserve for describing actual births. <\/p>\n

Perhaps Season 18 can displace that memory for a while. Far be it from me to spoil the debauchery ahead, but the premiere lives up to the nauseating promise of its title \u2014 \u201cFrank Marries a Corpse\u201d \u2014 before the follow-up surpasses it. There\u2019s another road trip episode that fails to escape the Philadelphia city limits, but succeeds in topping Dennis\u2019 Jamiroquai hat in terms of bad taste. A pair of otherwise unrelated episodes pay homage to generations-old I.P., while still finding time to out-maim their inspirations. And then there\u2019s the Ren Faire episode, where a McPoyle brothers\u2019 cameo portends a closing joke so distressing my innocent little brain rejected all the warnings of its arrival.<\/p>\n

After seven episodes guided by disquieting hijinks, \u201cMac and Dennis Tear Their ACLs\u201d almost feels like a gift \u2014 a balm for the scars inflicted by so many shocking attacks. But for those of you who cherish peering into \u201cSunny\u2019s\u201d darkest corners, the stand-out episode may be an exception to a stand-out season. Maybe the gang should\u2019ve finished at the same level of degradation at which they began. It a thematic fit, and after nearly 200 episodes<\/a>, there\u2019s no doubting this team\u2019s ability to deliver fresh, new abominations. But no matter how you feel in the end \u2014 ready for a more sundry stretch of \u201cSunny\u201d or ready for more unrelenting raunch \u2014\u00a0it\u2019s reassuring to know Howerton, Mac, and Day can still distinguish themselves.<\/p>\n

Grade: B<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s Always Sunny in Philadelphia\u201d premieres with two episodes Monday, August 17 at 9 p.m. ET on FX<\/a>, FXX, and Hulu. New episodes will be released weekly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In Season 18 of \u201cIt\u2019s Always Sunny in Philadelphia,\u201d one episode stands out from the rest. It takes…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":266918,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[63513,54276,69,71,70,9749,3549],"class_list":["post-266917","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-fx","tag-its-always-sunny-in-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-reviews","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266917","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=266917"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266917\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/266918"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=266917"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=266917"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=266917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}