It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia Season 17 Review: Homage-Heavy While Remaining Its True Crass Self

Thanks to the devotion of its stars and the unflagging support of FX, there’s absolutely no sign of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia ending anytime soon. Sure, the show’s literally now on Season 17 — it’s been the longest-running live-action sitcom in American TV history since 2021. Yet Mac (Rob McElhenney, now credited as Rob Mac), Charlie (Charlie Day), Dennis (Glenn Howerton), Sweet Dee (Kaitlin Olson), and Frank (Danny DeVito) show no signs of getting their shit together anytime soon, and once again it’s to television’s benefit.

The eight new episodes begin with likely the season’s most anticipated installment: The second half of the Abbott Elementary crossover, which we were warned in advance would be a lot less family-friendly than the first part. And, sure enough, the title “The Gang F***s Up Abbott Elementary” doesn’t undersell the level of crassness brought to the hallowed halls of ABC’s beloved comedy. Quinta Brunson’s Janine in particular gets some moments that make you grateful her exposure to the Gang’s corruptive influence is now over… For now.

From there, the mayhem continues, with today’s pop culture having a big impact on the season — actually, between the Abbott crossover, the Golden Bachelor parody, and two episodes that feature more than a little bit of The Bear and Succession DNA, barely half the season can be said to represent the show’s long-established house style, in all its simple stripped-down glory.

Not every big swing is a home run: The Abbott crossover actually proves to be a little awkward on an execution level, as it tries a little too hard to mimic the other show’s mockumentary format, while the Succession homage could have actually gone further in capturing the rhythms of the Emmy-winning HBO drama. However, these are all choices that go a long way towards avoiding any sense of staleness, a reminder that a big factor in this show’s longevity has been its ability to engage with the ever-changing world around us.

There’s also an episode in the proud tradition of Season 9’s “The Gang Tries Desperately to Win an Award” and Season 12’s “Old Lady House: A Situation Comedy,” bringing a meta perspective to the series as a whole as the Gang puts themselves through a focus group experience. In Season 9, the episode felt like a pointed commentary on Sunny going long neglected by the Emmys and other awards bodies, while Season 12 took aim at the lazier tropes of the sitcom format; by contrast, “The Gang Gets Ready For Prime Time” serves largely as a commentary on how these characters, and by extension the series, are incapable of being anything other than themselves.

The show is celebrating its 20th anniversary this summer, and the season’s one major nod to that longevity comes in “Overage Drinking: A National Concern,” which ends up being a direct sequel to the Season 1 classic “Underage Drinking: A National Concern” — complete with the return of several cast members from the original 2005 episode, no longer playing teenagers. It’s an episode that largely feels geared towards making everyone involved feel insanely old, including the viewer.

What’s most intriguing about Season 17 is the comfort the writers feel in letting ideas play out over the course of multiple seemingly stand-alone episodes, especially the Golden Bachelor parody featuring Frank as the new contestant. Putting Frank in that role is, as you might expect, instant comedy gold, his inherent crassness bulldozing through the Bachelor franchise’s trappings of romance — though in a real “life is stranger than fiction” twist, Frank’s attitude towards the women competing for his love isn’t too different from Mel Owens, who will theoretically be the next Golden Bachelor despite recent comments about how he doesn’t want any women over 60 on the show. (Not really relevant to this review, but that guy just sounds super.)

As in seasons past, Sunny will never go for the heartwarming choice when the selfish one is possible. However, lest one think that It’s Always Sunny is incapable of sincere emotion, the season does feature a lovely tribute to actress Lynne Marie Stewart, who passed away earlier this year after a rich career that included 18 appearances as Charlie’s mom Bonnie. That’s one of the underlying tragedies of lasting this long, of course — the people you lose along the way.

It can be hard to critique a show that’s been around for even a third of the time It’s Always Sunny has — at a certain point, even the best comedies can find a comfortable groove that remains consistently entertaining while also not offering the critic anything new to explore. So it’s a real testament to the show’s writers that this review even exists in the first place, and that their well of invention has yet to run dry. The smart money is on us not seeing new adventures with the Gang for at least another two years (since that’s the rhythm they seem to have found since the pandemic). If the past is anything to go on, it should be worth the wait.

The first two episodes of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia Season 17 premiere Wednesday, July 9 at 9pm ET/PT on FXX, and will be streaming next day on Hulu. Check out the trailer below.