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It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia Airs Thursdays at 10/9c on FX

Episode: “The Gang Cracks the Liberty Bell” (Season 4, Episode 11)

Synopsis: In order to get their bar put on a(n) historical tour of Philly, Mac, Dennis, and Charlie make up a story about how they cracked the Liberty Bell in 1776. Flash back to a time when Mac(Donald) and Dennis are trying to get in with the British, confident that the British will roll over the Colonials in the revolution, draft a “Declaration of Dependence” to show that they very much need the British. Frank(lin) and Charlie are street thieves. Witch-accused wench Dee gets advances by British Colonel Cricket.

Review: Sometimes an episode will do something crazy, like create an alternate universe or time for their characters to inhabit, when there’s nothing else brewing in the writer’s room. Honestly, I find the gang living in the 1700′s a cheap ploy to play with costumes and make ironic jokes. It kind of reminds me of a mixture between when the “Cosby” gang used to act out Ruby’s adventures and that episode of “Friends” when they played around with what would’ve happened if things had gone a little differently in their lives. Not to say that it’s not funny, because it is, it’s just a bit stupid and unnecessary.

That being said, there are some great moments. Dennis and Mac playing up to the Brits is a fun sight, and Mac sporting wooden teeth had me in stitches at times. Frank and Charlie don’t really get much to do as they are relegated to the role of creepy, dirty, poor dudes scraping to get by, which they unfortunately can’t shed even when the episode is supposedly playing an alternate version of their lives. Dee is also stuck in the role of pee-on again, and of course no matter how low Dee is on the food chain they always manage to make Cricket look like the real loser.

Overall, it’s a decently funny episode, but it’s a little too masturbatory to be taken seriously as an entry into what has been “Sunny”‘s best season to date. The funniest part of the episode is right at the beginning when our three heroes aren’t even in 18th Century garb, debating how they’re going to take a painting of George Washington off the wall.

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