Media Blog Project 1 (TV Show)

It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia


Description

FXX
Advertisement for Season 12 of
"It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia"

• It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia airs Wednesdays at 10 p.m on the FXX network and is currently on its 12th season. 
• It is a sitcom that can be classified more specifically as black comedy. It follows a group of five morally corrupt under-achievers and their ridiculous exploits as they run a bar in South Philadelphia.
• The episode I watched was called "Making Dennis Reynolds a Murderer." It was an untraditional episode of the show in the sense that it's format was more of a play on the true crime genre. It was a spoof of the Netflix hit "Making a Murderer." The episode chronicles the investigation of the death of Maureen Ponderosa, a woman transitioning into a cat and the former wife of one of the shows main characters, Dennis Reynolds. Dennis is the primary suspect of the case and the rest of the gang makes appearances in the episode in the form of mock interviews.
• The show is the brain child of Rob McElhenney who also plays Mac on the show. Charlie Day, who plays Charlie, and Glenn Howerton, who plays Dennis, also helped with the inception of the show. The three friends filmed a Pilot with a camcorder and then pitched it to FX, who loved it and then picked up the show for seven episodes, the first of which aired on August 4, 2005.

• Some of the Ads I encountered were: Legion (FX Show), John Wick 2 (Movie), Heineken Light, Chevy, Taco Bell, Baskets (FX Show), Fist Fight (Movie), Sprint, Coors, Sonic Drive In, Pizza Hut, 24: Legacy (Fox Show), Shari's Berries, Man Seeking Woman (FXX Show), Masterminds (Movie), Zales, AT&T, Jim Beam, Subway, Feud (FX Show). There were a lot of advertisements for shows that are owned by 21st Century Fox and a multitude of fast food restaurants and beer commercials. 

Analysis

• The show is a sitcom/black comedy that considers no subject off limits. The characters of the show are written to be some of the most unlikable individuals possible, demonstrating self centered attitudes and sometimes sociopathic tendencies. The comedy of the show stems from the interactions these characters have with one another juxtaposed with the normal world they live in. They do some of the most ridiculous things just to get the most petty advantages, showing no shame in the process. Despite their lack of achievement, they still maintain high opinions of themselves. The show is filmed both on set and on location in Los Angeles California and Philadelphia Pennsylvania.
• The show is similar to other shows on FX because it is an original concept and the writing and subject matter is almost entirely dictated by the creators of the show. Other shows like this include Archer, Louie, and The League. FX's goal is to create original content that contends with HBO and Showtime.
• The show is unique because not only are the characters written to be as appalling as possible, but the scenarios are always really well thought out and the line delivery is some of the best on television. Nothing is off limits and the writers always seem to find a clever and brilliant way to explore even some of the most taboo of topics. There aren't many shows today that can pull that off.

Interpretation

Before and after picture of
McElhenney's Season 7 weight gain

• The show has always tried to shatter conventional sitcom tropes, for example, series creator Rob McElhenney actually gained 50lbs for season seven. Saying he was inspired to do this when watching a sitcom and noticed that the characters were more handsome, beautiful and generally in better shape then they were at the beginning of the series. He thought it would be funny to make it so the characters in his show ended up in worse shape since no show had really done that.
• The target audience of the show is men ages 18-34, the commercials mostly reflect that. The ads were mostly comprised of commercials featuring beer and fast food restaurants with a hefty helping of the same John Wick 2 ad. This is appropriate advertising and all the ads seemed like they were created to appeal to people in that demographic. 
• If I was visiting the U.S. from another country and I saw It's Always Sunny in Phladelphia I would probably think Americans were a little bit crazy. I imagine seeing this show might be the equivalent of me watching a strange Japanese television show. Humor is different from culture to culture so it would really depend where I come from. If I was from a more western country like the U.K. or Canada, I would probably get it, but if I was from a more Eastern nation like Japan or South Korea I'm not sure I would get it. The show is already a pretty niche program as it is, so having a cultural gap might make the show even more hard to watch. It's interesting to note that there is a Russian version of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

Evaluation

• The show to me is constantly trying to break ground and do things that haven't been done before on television and that deserves to be celebrated. It has really brilliant writing and well fleshed out characters and doesn't rely too heavily on old ideas. That being said, it's not for everyone. I can see why people dislike the show because the characters can be a little over the top on the awfulness scale at times and that's definitely not everyone's cup of tea. It is intentional though and the important thing to note is that the viewer is not so much rooting for the characters as they are just enjoying the character's interactions, antics and inevitable failures of whatever absolutely ridiculous schemes they cooked up that week. 

• It's Always Sunny has received critical acclaim, Emily Nussbaum of the New Yorker stated: "In a fairer universe, it would be heralded as not merely the best sitcom on television but one of the most arresting and ambitious current TV series, period." Very few critics have reacted negatively to the show but Gillian Flynn of Entertainment weekly criticized the first season writing, "It is smug enough to think it’s breaking ground, but not smart enough to know it isn’t."

Engagement

• I watch the show on a regular basis and I try to watch the whole series at least once a year on Netflix. I also watch the new episodes on TV as they come out at my friends house on Wednesday nights.

FXX
From Left: Day, Olson, Howerton, McElhenney,
and Devito make up the main cast of the show.

• It's always sunny has a multitude of social media accounts, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Youtube, etc. I used to follow the Twitter account for a while but it spammed my feed with tweets that didn't interest me and it just wasn't worth the follow. If you watch the show you get all you need out of that, there isn't really a need to follow any of the Alway's Sunny accounts.
• The reason I don't think there's a need to follow any of the social media accounts is because most of the content the social media accounts produce is either ads for the show or self congratulatory posts about how funny the current episode was. Though I may agree that it's funny, I don't need to be told that over and over again. The charm of It's Always Sunny is not present in the accounts making it feel kind of forced. Basically they have have a social media account just to have a social media account. 

Conclusion

• However brilliant and hilarious I find the show I think the coolest part about It's Always Sunny isn't the show itself. It's the fact that the guys that created it had an idea they thought was funny, rolled with it, shot essentially a home movie, pitched it to a major network and then it spawned one of the best sitcoms of the last decade. It shows that with talent, creativity, and hard work anyone can make their vision come true. If you love something, do it, pursue your dream, always try your best and never second guess yourself. As series creator Rob McElhenney said, "Believe in what you're doing and jump every hurdle and get to the end by any means necessary."