It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia recently aired its fourteenth season, and after all these years, it’s still going strong. The writers are still managing to find fresh takes on these characters, and new corners of this curious world to explore. And It’s Always Sunny won’t be stopping any time soon. In fact, a few days ago, when series creator Rob McElhenney was asked about the show’s future, he said, “We’re going to keep doing it forever if people keep watching.”
In the meantime, we can reflect on the 10 episodes of season 14. So, here is Every Always Sunny Season 14 Episode, Ranked.
Thunder Gun 4: Maximum Cool
In “Thunder Gun 4: Maximum Cool,” the Gang is randomly chosen as a focus group to watch the new Thunder Gun sequel and provide the producers with feedback. With this being the Gang, they all have very strong opinions about the film.
This episode didn’t have much of a plot, but there was still a lot to enjoy, since the plotlessness paved the way for some hilarious character moments. The scenes we see from the movie are a hilarious parody of dreadful action movie sequels, and casting Dolph Lundgren as John Thundergun was a nice callback to season 5’s “Mac and Charlie Write a Movie.”
Dee Day
In a sort of sequel episode to season 9’s “Mac Day,” the Gang celebrates “Dee Day,” the one day where they have to do everything Dee wants to do. Just like “Mac Day” forced the Gang to do things Mac is interested in – praying, making Project Badass videos, oiling up bodybuilders etc. – “Dee Day” forced them to indulge in Dee’s interests, from playing racist characters to bird-watching.
The guys spend the whole day trying to pull off an elaborate scheme, without letting Dee know that they’re breaking the rules to ditch her. The episode’s good, not great, but it does have a classic Frank moment: “It’s not the clams!!”
A Woman’s Right to Chop
In the season’s penultimate episode, “A Woman’s Right to Chop,” Dennis and Frank get into a heated debate with Dee over whether or not women should be allowed to get a short haircut, which the show uses as an absurdist prism through which to discuss men controlling women’s bodies.
It was fun to see Poppins again (or so it seemed), in a B-plot that seemingly revealed she’s a female dog who’s pregnant with puppies before it turned out that the dog wasn’t actually Poppins. After 14 years of adamantly defending his pro-life views, it was funny to see Mac immediately reverse his opinion on abortion when a pregnancy affected his life. Frank’s relationship with his hair was delightfully wacky, too.
Paddy’s Has a Jumper
In “Paddy’s Has a Jumper,” just like it says on the tin, there’s a suicidal man threatening to jump off the roof of Paddy’s. As always, this leads to a fervent discussion of the subject at hand: in this case, suicide. In keeping with It’s Always Sunny’s distinctively dark tone, the episode takes a very blunt approach to a delicate topic.
Frank’s B-plot, in which he recklessly spreads rumors about the jumper in an attempt to be let in the building, is funnier than the A-plot, which drags on at times. There’s a hilariously ominous callback to “Making Dennis Reynolds a Murderer” that heavily insinuates that Dennis pushed Maureen to her death, although he refuses to confirm it.
The Gang Chokes
In the cold opening of “The Gang Chokes,” Frank starts choking on an amuse-bouche and the rest of the Gang just sit still and watch him. Some of them even have a look of joy in their eyes (particularly Dee). So, after the waiter saves Frank’s life, he’s naturally outraged at his friends.
Everyone has a different response to Frank’s near-death experience: Dee starts chasing the thrill of death; Dennis goes on a health kick; Mac starts poisoning Dennis to force him to depend on him; and Charlie starts living a more normal life after Frank moves out. It’s a fun episode focused on the characters.
The Gang Texts
There’s not a lot going on in the season’s fifth episode, “The Gang Texts,” as the Gang goes to the zoo and they get into a group text conversation as they attempt to find each other. The text chain gave us a chance to see the characters from a different perspective, like Charlie misspelling everything, or Dennis getting frustrated with Mac’s failure to understand abbreviations and sarcasm, or Dee being late with all of her emojis.
The Gang’s reasons for wanting to go to the zoo – like Dennis wanting to watch a lion eat a live creature, and Frank wanting to slowly eat a banana in front of a gorilla – are all hilarious.
The Gang Gets Romantic
The latest season of It’s Always Sunny got off to a great start with the premiere episode, “The Gang Gets Romantic,” in which Mac and Dennis use Airbnb in an ill-fated attempt to orchestrate a real-life romantic comedy. They accidentally rent their apartment out to a married couple, and Mac brings in Dee to seduce the husband while Dennis attempts to seduce the wife. Naturally, it goes horribly, and Mac’s insistence that they stick to a romcom’s traditional three-act structure only makes things worse.
Charlie and Frank’s B-plot is equally hysterical, as they fall in love with two older European men who share their unusual interests. It’s an outrageous premise, and the show’s undying commitment to it makes it work.
The Gang Solves Global Warming
Although the Gang accepts that climate change is a serious issue, they also see an opportunity to make some money. Since climate change has created a heatwave in Philadelphia, the Gang cranks up the air conditioning in Paddy’s and jacks up the price of beer.
Like South Park’s ManBearPig, It’s Always Sunny’s take on climate change is very much in line with the show’s tone: for example, Dee has become an environmentalist just to make people feel bad on her Instagram stories. The episode does a great job of satirically pointing out both the urgent need to be more eco-friendly and the crushing inconvenience of being eco-friendly.
Waiting for Big Mo
At the end of a season filled with experimental episodes that more-or-less landed, the finale episode “Waiting for Big Mo” pushed the boat out with a parody of Samuel Beckett’s seminal play Waiting for Godot set during a game of laser tag. The use of The Shining’s iconic musical score was a neat touch. Throughout the episode, Charlie and Dennis discuss the purpose of playing laser tag while they wait to ambush their enemy, Big Mo.
The episode had a ton of great moments, like Frank realizing he’s been making his own laser sound effects (and then going right back to doing it, blissfully unaware again), and it seemed to end on a surprisingly poignant note…until the Gang came back to annihilate Big Mo.
The Janitor Always Mops Twice
With the sumptuous black-and-white visuals and musical score of a 1940s-style film noir, Charlie narrates the story of his investigation into Frank’s declining health in “The Janitor Always Mops Twice.”
Director Heath Cullens did an incredible job of replicating the camera angles, editing tricks, and stark lighting effects of old film noirs (keeping the reds in color, a la Sin City, was a nice touch), while the cast slipped effortlessly into old-timey gangster voices (Charlie Day, in particular, nails the Double Indemnity-esque voiceover narration). And on top of all the hilarious genre parodies, the mystery plot surrounding Frank’s cherry-related scheme is actually pretty engaging.
