Review-It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia-”Dennis Gets Divorced”

(Note: If you missed the season premiere of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, check out my review of it here so that you’re aware of the episode’s plot, which is continued in this episode.)


Forget flowery, verbose introductions: As ambivalent as I was about the season premiere of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, the season’s second episode, “Dennis Gets Divorced,” is the best piece of comedy I have seen in months. Just had to get that out of the way before I began the episode summary.


I knew I was going to love this episode almost immediately because its opening encapsulates my dealings with women like nothing since Auto Focus (sadly, that wasn’t said for comedic effect). Dennis (Glenn Howerton) is awake, his wife snoring in the bed beside him. He gingerly takes his keys off the nightstand, then cuts too quick a turn, causing them to jingle. A look of “fuck, that’ll wake her,” crosses his face, but he continues to make a break for it. She does indeed awaken, a smile in her voice as she yawns “Hiiiii. Come back to bed and snuggle with me” to her new husband. Howerton’s expression as her words ring out from behind him, crushing his dreams of an easy escape, is priceless, containing within it every excruciating moment I’ve ever been in a woman’s bedroom the morning after where I’d rather be, well, anywhere else.

The meat of the episode lies in three stories that overlap flawlessly: Dennis’ marriage quickly descending into dysfunction then culminating in divorce, the equally doomed civil union of Charlie to his father and roommate Frank (let me state again that some of the lines that summarizing this show leads me to type on my site are just awesome) and Dee coping with a man moving in with her after their dalliance leads to the end of his marriage. Seeing Charlie (Charlie Day) and Frank (Danny DeVito), two men (with a 30 year age difference, no less) going at each other like Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, is as deliriously funny as it sounds. Dee’s story also has its amusing moments, most notably a scene where she parries the advances of the fat married guy she slept with as he attempts to seduce her while wearing her blouse, his chubby legs spread akimbo, whitey tighties barely peeking through the concealing heft of his inner thighs (why did it move as I typed those last few words?).

Notice I didn’t mention Mac having a story because he didn’t have one. Maybe that’s why I enjoyed the episode so much! Actually, it rubbed a few folks the wrong way when I said last week I viewed Mac as a “goddamn cancer,” and, given the perspective a week’s distance brings, I’d like to revise my statement: Mac is a fine character when used as garnish in a scene. He’s the comedic equivalent of Baco’s: In small amounts a delicious addiction to anything from salad to baklava, in large amounts able to make you to vomit like you just deduced Einhorn was a man. He’s a perfect accoutrement for the episode’s other top shelf scene, a confrontation between a drunken Dennis and his wife, Maureen, which includes (and I say this without hyperbole) the greatest line ever written in the English language.



DENNIS: (slurring heavily) I will divorce you, Maureen. I’ll do it!


MAUREEN: Okay, you’re drunk. Why don’t we just go to bed…


DENNIS: (interrupting) I’m not drunk! I’m more sober than I’ve ever been in my entire life. Okay, I’m a little bit…I’m totally drunk, but my mind is sober.

“I’m totally drunk, but my mind is sober.” I just want to apologize to anyone I spend a shred of this weekend with in advance, because you’re going to be hearing that one a lot. Thumbs up to the Always Sunny crew on a job well done. You guys should be especially proud about this one.

Tagged as: It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, review.