As was with the first few episodes of season 11, “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” brings back old jokes in its fourth episode, “Dee Made a Smut Film.” While the episode has its moments, overall it is a weak point for the season thus far.
The cold-open is decent — Dee shows off her role as an extra in what she thinks is an artsy foreign film. The film, however, is actually a “Skinemax porno,” setting up one of the show’s signature title gags. The episode quickly launches into different directions and never quite pulls it back together.
Following in the footsteps of a previous episode from season four “Dennis Reynolds: An Erotic Life,” Dennis seeks to convert his sexual memoirs into film and recruits Dee to direct it, hoping she can mask the work’s overtly sexist language. While this leads to the episode’s best moment — when Dennis tries to pitch the film to a potential financier — the overall plotline is not particularly engaging or funny and fails to live up to the premise.
On the other side of the equation, Mac, Charlie and Frank try to market Charlie’s disturbed doodles as modern art, playing on the question of what creates million-dollar value for abstract modern art. While this interesting premise could potentially fill a whole episode focused on Charlie’s established artistic nature, the story never really materializes. It only has a tenuous connection to the other storyline, but Charlie’s potential situation is wasted as he takes on a “bro” role for no apparent reason throughout the episode.
Frank likewise pretends to be an eccentric art collector, and while this is mildly successful, it still fails to carry the episode.
“It’s Always Sunny” has long relied on running jokes. However, this season hasn’t just played on past ideas, but rather has relied on them to carry episodes. While the initial episodes were enjoyable — if unoriginal — season 11 is not off to a fantastic start.
Despite the high quality episodes of the past few seasons, there is some question as to whether the show can continue to be as fresh and hilarious as it has been in the past.
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