It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia Review: "The Gang Gets a New Member"

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After last week's clever mystery episode, It's Always Sunny treated us to yet another fantastic episode in part one of a very hilarious pair of episodes.   This week's star-studded (if we dare call them that) adventure included both Jason Sudeikis and Dave Foley in the respective A and B stories.

Jason Sudeikis on Always Sunny

Both story lines were kicked off from a ten year old time capsule and like any properly written Always Sunny episode, came together in the end.  But how were the individual stories?

The primary adventure from which the episode gets its title, "The Gang Gets a New Member," follows Dennis, Mac, and the slightly out-of-place Frank as they went to re-initiate  an old member of their gang, Schmitty (Sudeikis).

As big fans of Sudeikis, mostly notably from his recent 30 Rock performances, we thought he did a great job bringing both humor and sanity to this group of rejects.  His character really shined by making the gang seem that much crazier. 

The most poignant moment?   When they tried to kick the guy out of a moving car and he got out and just calmly delivered the sarcastic line that it was nice seeing them and meeting Frank.  Sometimes, it's easy to get lost in our weekly adventures with this gang to forget just how insane they are without a straight guy to remind us.

I know it may sound weird as long time Always Sunny fans, but we normally dislike the Dee-centric storylines.  However, six seasons in, the very pregnant Kaitlin Olson may have finally won us over the way she seems to have won over every other fan.  Hey chastise me in the comments, but this is a tough gang for any actress to stick out in.

This week, we re-explored her character's failed attempt at being an actress as she went back to thank her old drama teacher and ended up subbing.  Dee can definitely entertain us, but we have to admit we were glad when Charlie showed up at her school looking for a job.

Charlie stole the episode with his unbelievable scene with the Principal, played by Dave Foley, or by what looked like a guy that ate Foley.  Don't worry, we captured nearly the entire scene in our Always Sunny quotes collection.  Sure the eating the eraser bit wasn't original and kind of reminded us of Peter Griffin asking to split a stapler, but it had us nearly pissing our pants.  Yes, we found it that funny.

Overall, we thought it was a great episode that served as a lead in for next week's episode that follows up Dee and Charlie's new jobs.  Oh and did we mentioned we finally get our much-requested Lethal Weapon 5 screening?  Yeah, it's nothing short of amazing.

The Gang Gets a New Member Review

Editor Rating: 4.0 / 5.0
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User Rating:

Rating: 4.4 / 5.0 (15 Votes)

Eric Hochberger is the programmer of TV Fanatic, so please forgive his mediocre writing. His programming is far better. Follow him on Twitter and/or email him. Just don't request threaded comments. They're coming.

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It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia Season 6 Episode 8 Quotes

Dee: So I shouldn't give up on my dream?
Teacher: You must give up on your dream, it's far too late for you.

Charlie: You pushed him out of a moving car and yelled, "You're out of the gang!"
Mac: Now, in hindsight, that does seem kind of rash.
Dennis: It was kind of a snap decision.