It'due south Always Sunny In Philadelphia Finale Epitomize: Livin' in the Rain

Lucky number 13 was a season of growth and maturation for It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and surprisingly, information technology'due south been an organic, unobtrusive procedure for a show with a formula rooted in stasis and immaturity.

To the naked eye, the freedom to be hateful, stupid, and insensitive looked awfully integral to the bear witness'southward comic modus operandi, simply the writing staff under executive producer Megan Ganz has steered the Paddy's gang toward their idiotic version of enlightenment. They reckoned with their lack of diversity in the season premiere, took two episodes to focus on feminist concerns, and fifty-fifty managed an intelligent, respectful perspective on the ludicrous debate over transphobic bathroom bills. Satire has e'er formed the key colonnade of this show. It'due south but that the writers have begun to exist more purposeful, thoughtful, and merciful almost who they make the butt of their jokes, and how.

On a hot streak of tolerance, the bear witness has gear up its sights on its white whale of tricky fabric: Mac's ever-present, roiling homosexuality. What began as a running gag in the basest register — heh, heh, Mac'south big and strong simply he also likes boys, heh — gradually blossomed into something that demanded to be taken seriously. Last twelvemonth'south "Hero or Detest Crime" finally acknowledged the elephant in the room in the most Paddy'south fashion conceivable, forcing a announcement of gay identity out of Mac as a means of laying claim to a hotly contested scratch-off lottery ticket. Lest nosotros call up the writers would sort that out and file the matter abroad, they've returned to requite Mac his twenty-four hours in earnest.

To paraphrase the ad re-create from the Queer Center reboot, the fight for tolerance has been succeeded by the fight for acceptance. More than than mere visibility, "Mac Finds His Pride" argues for beauty, that the majesty of a man embracing his love for men can motility fifty-fifty the most calloused bigot. The terminal scene, which I feel secure in describing every bit Phoenix-level captivating, arrives at the cold realization that some people simply cannot be swayed from their prejudices by any appeals to reason or emotion.

Just the corollary to this thought encouragingly suggests that other people tin. All year long, critic-types take bickered most art's efficacy in irresolute real minds in the real world, and this half-60 minutes tacitly takes a measured heart ground. In the episode's breathtaking conclusion, Mac makes an impassioned plea to his father that ultimately falls on deaf ears. But Frank, the show'due south locus of un-PC-ness, hears him and finds himself changed. Someone who withal uses the give-and-take "fairies" tin can recognize humanity when it'southward placed on a pedestal in front of him. So while it's not a catholicon, maybe art could still exist a cure-some. That Sundance indie motion-picture show about one marginalized person's struggle against such-and-such isn't going to inspire a change of heart in Donald Trump, but it might dislodge something in someone out there, so at the very least, it's worth a shot.

True to grade, the Paddy's crew get-go adopts a new open-mindedness with opportunistic intentions. The bar has landed a clutch spot in Philadelphia's Pride parade, and for their centerpiece, they want Mac to dance his hunky self around in an on-float shower. But without whatsoever semblance of customs or even selfhood as a gay human, Mac doesn't feel a whole lot of pride to celebrate. Having drawn the curt straw, it falls to Frank to whisk him away on an odyssey of discovery that'south at first reminiscent of the search for the ever-elusive meaning of Christmas, except with BDSM and drag queens. As It's Ever Sunny has gradually evolved, it'due south taken great pains to remain in touch with its cynical streak, and that manifests here with the early on scenes portraying homosexuality in the same light equally the show does heterosexuality: every bit something strange, embarrassing, and kind of terrifying. Ill-blighted stops at a bondage club and a drag brunch don't cower earlier either culture as cocky-obviously freakish, though the sight of Cricket in a leather daddy outfit could linger for years to come. Everybody else appears to exist having a fine time, which only amplifies Mac'south loneliness.

He achieves inner solace only during the last sequence, an interpretive trip the light fantastic scored to Sigur Rós and drenched in rain. When watching It's E'er Sunny, the viewer is by default anticipating a joke at every plow, and then we spend the kickoff few minutes of this elaborate routine waiting for the punch line. For a moment, it seems like the fact that his partner'southward a adult female might be the punch line. But the scene doesn't interruption. At that place's no plow making calorie-free of Mac's performance. It is solely what it is, far and away the series's most open brandish of earnestness.

Mac concludes the episode triumphant, soaked, and proud. As in concluding season's finale, the tone slides away from comedy toward a register with more dramatic gravitas. Parts of Mac tin still be laughed at, and nosotros can rest assured that his vanity, his insecurity, and his unsavory dildo-bike will be fodder for plenty of ridicule in the impending 14th season. For the duration of his trip the light fantastic, however, Mac earns an irony-free respect. Those attached to the blanket nihilism of the serial'southward early seasons may blanch at such a sentimental display, but in a season increasingly willing to shed its sense of sense of humour to make a point, this scene fits as a wordless coda.

Mac and Dee accept gotten near of the play time in this flavour, each of their storylines reestablishing humanity once in danger of existence erased by caricature. They're yet put through the wringer on a regular basis, but equally more three-dimensional people, making the humiliation that much more than potent. It'south hardly a revelation that humanism makes for a winning strategy in TV writers' rooms, but to run into this principle put into practice around Paddy'due south has been unpredictable and satisfying. In flavour 14, the prove's progress ought to proceed not but onward, but inward.

• Frank and Mac each get one lacerating one-liner against the other. Mac, telling it as it is: "Frank, you're a 75-year-old man with a confront that looks like hamburger meat." Frank, appraising Mac's fraught relationship to his own organized religion and sexual orientation: "You lot're dancing, and it'due south with a hot chick who's God? The Catholics really fucked y'all upwardly."

• Taking a pace back to consider the last ten weeks equally a whole, number 13 has been the show's best season in a long while, and covering information technology from week to week has been a real treat. It'southward bracing to encounter living proof that a show getting long in the tooth can notwithstanding revive itself and try something new. Adapting to Dennis's absence (he's nowhere to exist seen in this episode) forced innovation, both in label and storytelling. Information technology's Always Sunny deserves to be praised specifically considering it is not a late-phase season of The Simpsons; it maps out and executes arc-based progress to establish urgent stakes. In brusque, it showed us that the Gang is yet worth caring nearly. Accept a lovely hiatus, I promise to encounter y'all all dorsum here next yr, and here's hoping another Philadelphia sports franchise wins its championship.

Information technology'due south Always Sunny In Philadelphia Epitomize: Livin' in the Rain