It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, for the last few years, has started to be running on fumes in terms of its quality. There are the occasional great episodes like “Time’s Up for the Gang” or “The Gang Texts”, but they have been few and far between since 2018. However, I am pleased to say that in season 16, the show is back up to the usual standard that we expect from it. I’m aware people enjoyed the more serialized elements of season 15, but I honestly love the show most when it’s just the gang going on weird adventures and getting up to strange hijinks. Similar to a show like Rick and Morty, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia works best when it tells episodic stories. 

The main cast continues to all be incredible as they bring their A-game to every bit of material they have. Glenn Howerton is an incredible talent and he gets a lot of moments to shine throughout this whole season, including an episode that is entirely focused on Dennis. Howerton carries the whole episode on his shoulders with his magnificent performance, which actually wound up being my favourite episode of the season. Charlie Day also has a lot of great moments throughout, but I do think his character is becoming somewhat Flanderized. In fact, each of the main characters is beginning to reach the point of self-parody. This doesn’t inherently bother me as I still greatly enjoy every character, but it is becoming noticeable. What’s become less noticeable, however, is Rob McElhenney’s status as the weak link of the main cast. I’ve rarely been as impressed with his work as I have with that of his castmates, but he is quite great this season and gets solid moments to shine. Kaitlin Olson, on the other hand, has always been fantastic in this show and brings so much to every scene. Beyond her excellent line delivery, she’s an incredible physical performer who has perfect facial expressions for every scene and can sell even the silliest of punchlines with a gesture. Danny DeVito is a national treasure, and while he’s more or less doing the same thing he does in everything, it’s fine because he’s excellent at it. It’s similarly been nice to see recurring characters we haven’t seen in a while slip back into the roles like they never left. The skillful utilization of the show’s talented cast members results in a season with renewed energy. 

This season is also the first one in a while that was incredibly consistent with its laughs. The last few seasons have felt significantly more hit or miss in terms of landing jokes despite usually having great concepts at play. However, every episode this year executed its jokes excellently, including a handful that I would put up there as some of the show’s best. This season in general had some of the biggest laughs of any TV I’ve seen this year, especially from the season finale “Dennis Takes a Mental Health Day”. This episode absolutely felt like the creators were airing personal frustrations with certain parts of the world, and it had me howling.

This season also had a surprisingly new spin on certain elements from prior seasons, like blessing us with a classic vs. episode that was a delight from start to finish. My main issue with this season is genuinely that we didn’t get more of it. I’m not sure if It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia has too many more seasons left in it, so only getting 8 episodes from its most recent season makes me feel like we’re just not getting the most out of it. That being said, this was still a wonderful season that has left me deeply excited for the next one.

8/10