The folks who populate It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia may be pals, but they sure aren’t Friends. They may be a gang, but they’re not Our Gang--heck, these cretins make Spanky, Alfalfa, and company look like members of the Good Sam Club by contrast. Consider, if you can bear it, the first of the 15 episodes (presented, with bonus features, on three discs) from this, the show’s third season: Mac (Rob McElhenney) and Dee (Caitlin Olson) discover a baby in a dumpster. Do they report it to the police? To Child Services, maybe? Of course not! They take it to a commercial agent, hoping to cash in by putting the kid in TV ads; and when the agent says that Latino babies are all the rage, they take him to a tanning salon so he’ll appear darker and more “ethnic looking.” Meanwhile, Dennis (Glenn Howerton) pretends to be join a tree-hugging group of hippies, merely so he can steal the group leader’s girlfriend, while Charlie (Charlie Day) and Frank (Danny DeVito) spend the day rummaging around at the trash dump. It’s tough to go downhill from there, but that doesn’t stop them from trying. In the course of the following episodes, members of the quacked quintet reveal themselves to be not only rude, devious, unscrupulous, amoral, and dishonest, but also racist, xenophobic, homophobic, and dumb (their endless arguments about nothing are riotously ridiculous). Not that this will surprise anyone who’s seen the show before. Dee, Mac, and Dennis try out for the Philadelphia Eagles while Charlie and Frank drop acid. Dee sleeps with the old, toothless janitor at a competing bar in order to steal their microbrew recipe. They mock a deaf mute. They fart in each other’s faces. When they think Paddy’s Pub, where they work, is going to be sold, three of them quickly land gigs at a nearby restaurant, where they get drunk on the job and steal from the customers. They even get held hostage by the hillbilly McPoyle family, possibly the only people in the known universe who can make our “heroes” look good. And it’s all pretty hilarious, including the bonus features. Those include humorous commentary on two episodes by McElhenney, Day, and Howerton (the show’s executive producers and occasional writers), two featurettes (a season overview and a look at the McPoyles) that are as whack as the show itself, a gag reel, and a “Dancing Guy” sequence so strange as to beggar description. --Sam Graham



Beyond It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia – Season 3 on DVD
It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia – Seasons 1 & 2 on DVD
Arrested Development – Season One on DVD
Arrested Development – Season Two on DVD


Stills from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia – Season Three (Click for larger image)