Its Always Sunny Season 13 Last Episode Review

April 17, 2022 Post a Comment

Thanks to a passionate and totally unexpected operation in the Flavor 13 finale, Fit Mac shows how much "It's Always Sunny" has grown since Fat Mac.

When asked why he decided to end Flavor 13 of "Information technology'southward Ever Sunny in Philadelphia" with an unprecedented modernistic trip the light fantastic toe sequence, co-creator, star, and dancer Rob McElhenney said a contempo experience reframed his perspective on the long-running FX one-act.

"Something sort of extraordinary happened to me when Mac came out [last season]," McElhenney said during a TCA console earlier this year. "I had a massive response [from] our fans in the LGBTQ customs that reached out and told me how moved they were and how of import it was to them that they felt represented on a show that they loved. I was not expecting that — I mean, thousands and thousands and thousands of people."

McElhenny said he didn't expect a satiric series similar "It'due south Always Sunny" to connect on such a personal level. "I just causeless that people were laughing along with usa," he said. "I didn't think we were that kind of show, and information technology turned out that nosotros were."

The catastrophe of Flavor xiii offers a sincerity that separates it from other episodes, and an execution that elevates information technology above its peers. In "Mac Finds His Pride," written by McElhenney and Charlie Day, the gang builds a float for the Pride parade ("to rope in the gays" to Paddy'due south Pub) and wants the newly out Mac to be their "prize gay." Only Mac doesn't want to do that. "I don't know where I fit in equally a gay man, and it'due south starting to go to me," Mac tells Frank (Danny DeVito). "I'm not feeling very proud."

IT'S ALWAYS SUNNY IN PHILADELPHIA --

Rob McElhenney and Danny DeVito in "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia"

Patrick McElhenney/FXX

But Frank doesn't "get" Mac every bit a gay human — not that he'due south against it, he just doesn't understand — so the 2 get out to "find his pride." After a misguided trip to an underground S&Chiliad bar, Mac realizes he needs to come out to his father before he can be proud of who he is, and he needs to do it his fashion.

That translates into a ii-person modernistic trip the light fantastic routine where a sopping-wet Mac and an unnamed professional person dancer push and pull each other beyond a black phase as fake pelting falls down on top of them. Lasting over iv minutes, the precisely choreographed ballet (past Leo Moctezuma and Alison Faulk, who besides worked on "Magic Mike") wows the crowd of inmates, if not Mac'due south incarcerated dad who leaves halfway through. More importantly, when information technology's over, a visibly moved Frank understands who Mac is inside. "Oh my God," he says. "I get information technology."

It's the kind of self-serious artistry that "Sunny" would normally lampoon. Instead, it connects with viewers in the same fashion it connects with Frank. Whether you tin can explain the significant of each motility or not, the scene evokes change past embodying it. Yous understand why it works simply by watching it.

"Once we stumbled on the episode becoming more about Frank being more tolerant and accepting something, nosotros thought, 'Well, this is something nosotros haven't really done' — our characters rarely change or learn," Charlie Day said. "Information technology was prissy to tell a story that manner. Near of the episodes are however […] just they're there to be funny, but it was nice to try something, for lack of a better term, heartfelt."

IT'S ALWAYS SUNNY IN PHILADELPHIA --

Kaitlin Olson in "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia"

Patrick McElhenney/FXX

Aiding in that newfound purpose was McElhenney's new bod, and his dedication to the scene mimics his dedication to himself. The actor's incredibly toned physique, kickoff unveiled in the Season thirteen premiere, adds to the beauty of the dance'due south composition. The shadows capture his curves in a style that highlights the male person body, helping to convey the character's wants, desires, and sense of self. This is the guy Mac e'er talked about being without ever actually becoming. After years of "cultivating mass," he was finally able to "harvest" it once he came out to his friends.

Years ago, McElhenney took the opposite approach to "Sunny" Season 7 when he gained 50 pounds on a whim. Suddenly, Fat Mac was there, with no real explanation and no real purpose. Sure, the sharp transformation served as a commentary on the unrealistic nature of TV stars' bodies, as McElhenney explained at the time (and embodies over again every bit Fit Mac), simply it wasn't a requisite to Mac'south journeying. Fat Mac was just funny.

Fit Mac is more than that, and the finale proves how much more than. Mac's ripped bod is disquisitional to taking the modern dance as seriously as it aspires to be. If Fat Mac had done the same routine, it would have been laughable. In fact, information technology was laughable, back when Season seven finished on a sweaty, drunk, and delusional Mac screaming into his high school auditorium later on embarrassingly losing a dance-off.

No situation in Season 7 was as serious or substantial as Mac coming out to his dad in Flavor 13, so this is no swipe at the by. It goes to bear witness how far McElhenney, Day, and Glenn Howerton take come as storytellers, what the former is willing to do equally a performer, and what "Information technology's E'er Sunny" tin can do in 2018. Before, people were laughing along with the gang. Now, they tin can be inspired by them, also.