By Andrew Pelechaty
In a pop-culture environment where TV shows are acclimatising to modern viewers’ attention spans, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia finishing its 18th season is a fantastic achievement. It’s now one of the longest-running live-action sitcoms.
The show has always sat outside the radar of mainstream popularity (it was almost impossible to find it in Australia before it came to Disney+ in 2023), which means it’s avoided the scrutiny that more popular sitcoms have faced, aside from a handful of episodes that were banned due to racism issues.
The strength of Sunny is its consistency: the Gang have remained as narcissistic, selfish, greedy, power-hungry, and cruel as ever, and they rarely get a happy ending as their various schemes fall apart. Season 18’s “Frank’s Team: A Dark Day for Baseball” was a fine example: the Gang take over a local little league team, exploiting a tenuous loophole in the rules so Dee can win games with her fast pitching, and then replacing the entire team with better players. Of course, the plan falls apart and – without showing the aftermath – the implication is the Gang loses control of the team, and everything returns to normal.
The biggest change in the show was Mac coming out in the season 13 finale “Mac Finds His Pride” after years of denying his sexuality: it’s one of Sunny’s genuinely emotional moments and is played completely seriously. For a show that thrives on unlikeable characters, Mac’s sexuality demonstrated a positive and mature LGBTQ representation, as he never became an over-the-top stereotype for cheap laughs.
While some shows fall off a cliff when the main characters partner up, Sunny will never have that problem as none of the characters have been in long-term relationships, and Frank’s time on the Golden Bachelor (the Season 17/18 cliffhanger) was quickly resolved. Even Charlie’s persistent pursuit of the Waitress (played by Charlie Day’s real-life wife Mary Elizabeth Ellis) eventually stopped.
While the show can become predictable as the ‘Gang gets up to shenanigans’ formula grows stale, special episodes like the Season 17 Abbot Elementary crossover, the Golden Bachelor arc, and season 18’s “Gilligan’s Island: A Conspiracy Theorist’s Paradise” (which was a homage to Gilligan’s Island and a parody of classic laugh-track sitcoms) keeps the formula fresh. Sunny has also embraced nostalgia, bringing back popular side characters for cameos. Artemis, Gail the Snail, the Waitress, the McPoyle’s, and Cricket all appeared in Season 18.
My interactions with the Sunny online community briefly soured my love for the show. While Season 16 was shown in America in the middle of the year, fans in Australia had to wait three months to watch on Disney+. And the majority-American fanbase had zero sympathy for international fans, to the point I started leaving groups to avoid spoilers. When the show returned in 2025 (Season 17), I was still affected by the toxic online community (though I had left all the groups by then) and struggled to enjoy the show like I used to. It was a chore getting through Season 17 until the Golden Bachelor arc. If you love a certain TV show and want to keep loving it, please avoid the social media fandom groups for your own good.
Fortunately, Season 18 helped me fall back in love with Sunny, and I’ll now keep watching it for as long as it stays on air.
