Throughout its impressive run, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia has never been one to shy away from tackling big issues and ideas as only it can: filtered through the lens of some of the worst people on the planet. That formula has worked for the series for 14 seasons now, and as the latest season prepares for last call, the gang at Paddy’s Pub have a chance to offer their dispiriting takes on such topics as a woman’s right to choose… her own haircut, and, on a lighter note, the utter futility of life and the inevitability of death.
Since the series has boiled down its basic episodic formula to around 20 minutes a piece, the season 14 finale, comprised of ‘A Woman’s Right to Chop’ and ‘Waiting for Big Mo,’ run by in a brisk and funny 40 minutes that illustrate why the series has been around for so long, and why it likely still has enough in the tank for a few seasons more. Both episodes also demonstrate the degree to which the series can focus on a single idea, but still have plenty for its regular cast to do. It’s actually a far cry from the funny but somewhat disjointed season premiere, ‘The Gang Gets Romantic,’ which tried to do too much in its limited runtime, and often struggled to connect the character’s plots in a satisfying way.
‘A Woman’s Right to Chop’ and ‘Waiting For Big Mo’ find considerable traction in their central ideas, the first being men trying to police women’s bodies and the second being a spoof on Waiting For Godot, as told from the perspective of four middle-aged adults playing laser tag.
‘A Woman’s Right to Chop’ is the more raucous of the two episodes, as it gleefully engages in its conspicuous provocation, turning Dennis (Glenn Howerton), Charlie (Charlie Day), Mac (Rob McElhenney), and Frank (Danny DeVito) into a bunch of sad men who’re overly concerned by the extremely short haircuts women in the neighborhood are getting at a salon that recently opened up next to Paddy’s. While Dennis and Frank are handing out flyers warning women against the dangers of short hair and harassing anyone who tries to enter the salon, Mac and Charlie are dealing with the return of Mac’s dog, Poppins, who, as it turns out is pregnant (and therefore not at all a boy) and will likely die birthing the litter. Because Poppins’s unexpected pregnancy impacts Mac personally, he and Charlie go off in search of a doctor who will perform an abortion.
The episode takes pleasure in letting Mac, Charlie, and Dennis look like fools, while Dee (Kaitlin Olson) gets in on the joke by trying to get a super-short haircut to prove the point about a woman’s right to chop. The humor skates around various sensitive subjects as insensitively as it possibly can, and in doing so becomes so outlandish and over the top that it effectively neutralizes its own offensiveness. It’s not an easy line to walk, but it’s one that the show has found itself on numerous times in its 14-season run, making this farcical foray into the pro-life/pro-choice debate funny but also fairly innocuous.
In its riff on Samuel Beckett’s Waiting For Godot, ‘Waiting for Big Mo’ is a surprisingly nimble episode, and one that proves ideal to end the season on. The gang is playing a game of laser tag as they (presumably) always have — by following Dennis’s strict orders and falling for his simple mind games as a way to win worthless Fun Zone Bucks. Dennis is so preoccupied with winning and accumulating stacks of meaningless paper he’s forgotten they gang is there to have fun. The episode moves in and out of (seemingly accidental) existential discussions about the true meaning and purpose of life, as well as the certainty of death.
Writer David Hornsby shows impressively synthesizes the ideas from Godot and turns them into fodder for It’s Always Sunny in a way that doesn’t dilute their potency but also doesn’t feel out of place either. The result is a silly but satisfying remix of an influential piece of art that also makes for a fulfilling way to end the show’s fourteenth season.
It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia can be streamed on Hulu.
