in Review

Have Your Self a Sunny Little Christmas


It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia: A Very Sunny Christmas

It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia has had a fairly strong fifth season. Following a season that had it’s highlights but faltered when going too over the top, I wasn’t sure if this show was running out of steam or just having a few “Off” episodes. Either way it’s been a good year for Sunny, notably marked by the gang’s first christmas special recently released straight to dvd. Unrated and an hour long A Very Sunny Christmas is an unrated, hour long extravaganza of violence, Christmas lessons and all out raunchiness. It may not be worth spending 20 smackeroos but for Sunny fans it’s a nice little Holiday treat.

Set on Christmas Eve, the story is split between the gang as they each engage in their own holiday hi-jinks. Mac and Charlie take a stroll down memory lane as they each recall christmas memories. Mac remembering how his family use to break into neighbors homes on christmas to open their neighbors’ presents and Charlie recalling a series of Santas that would come over on Christmas to “Cheer up his mom”, if you know what I mean. Meanwhile Dee and Dennis try to teach Frank a lesson after year’s of ruined Christmases, this of course having disastrous results.

It’s basically the same old dark Sunny format with the added bonus of no censorship resulting in some great sequences. Overall I think it struggled to fully utilize the longer runtime, there’s definitely some jokes and bits that misfire but it’s still a solid episode. I don’t know why they released it straight to dvd with so little bonus features and if this is on the fifth season dvd I’ll be pissed, though I doubt it. You can probably watch it somewhere on the web, so I’d recommend that over whipping out the dough to buy one episode, unless your a big fan. It’s alone worth seeing for Charlie’s brawl with a certain jolly fellow.