REVIEW- "It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia" by Maynard

Hmmm... It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia. Curious, curious. There was a time when I considered it one of the funniest t.v. shows ever. And it's still funnier than almost everything on t.v. it's just... different now. And not in a good way.

But let's start with the good stuff. A few weeks ago the first and second season were released on DVD and everyone was happy. The first season is a complete good. Not a bad episode on the list. It's my favorite season because it was when they held back the most. At the time it seemed way too bizarre to be true, and it was. But when the second season came along, things changed ever so slightly. Danny DeVito was added to the cast for one thing. A lot of people didn't like this. I was fine with it, because he was a funny character. Some of the funniest moments of season two were because of him. My main problem is that things got a little too "wacky". Now, there's nothing wrong with being wacky every now and then. And that's what the second season did. It was over the top, but not too often. Season two has my all time favorite episode "The Gang Gives Back", but it also had one or two that were just mediocre. It was a small decline, but it was one I could live with.

Now, after like a year of waiting, season three has arrived. And it's a pretty harsh disappointment. It's just too different for me. During the first two seasons, they used a handheld camera and it had a dark, grimy look to it. Now it's a steady-cam and it's all bright. I don't like that. They've recycled jokes they used every now and then in the first season so that now I can't even enjoy the jokes anymore. How many times do we have to be reminded that Charlie can't read or spell? How many times in an episode does the gang need to break down into bitter fighting? The character growth has stopped 100%. This is kind of tricky. I like the way the characters were in the first two seasons, and there was no growth there either. But these characters almost seem like parody's of themselves. It's painful, my friends.

I'm not saying these episodes completely suck. I can find at least one thing to laugh at in every episode so far. But it used to be much more than one laugh per episode. It's like when a musician suddenly becomes famous. He thinks to himself "ok, people liked my last album, so how am I going to follow it up? I got it!! I'll do the same thing, except bigger and louder!!" That's what seems to have become of this show. But we're only four episodes in. Things can turn around really quickly. And if they don't, at least we have the first two seasons.