It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia Season 18 Episode 8 Review: Mac and Dennis Tear Their ACLs
It’s shenanigans-palooza as the gang attempts an epic Christmas card. It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia Season 18 Episode 8, “Mac & Dennis Tear Their ACLS” highlights different variations of crazy.
We have the classic Mac and Dennis pairing, but with new lore. The buddies have an ongoing feud over who copies whom. We all know the answer is Mac copies Dennis. However, we don’t mind indulging this petty squabble.
“Mac & Dennis Tear Their ACLs” also gives us the less common pairing of Dee and Frank. Their insecurities about where they place in the group make so much sense, so it’s nice to see them bond over it.
It also highlights that Frank is no longer an expert schemer. Dee never was one. The episode further confirms Charlie’s increasing annoyance with the group.
If the It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia Season 18 finale doesn’t end with a temporary separation of the gang, the writers missed a perfect opportunity. It’s been a consistent theme this season that could lead somewhere fun for an episode or two.
“Mac & Dennis Tear Their ACLs” feels very true to these characters, especially Dennis and Mac. Some of the best episodes of the series have involved their domestic issues. This one probably won’t rank as one of the best of the best, but it’s very entertaining.
It keeps you laughing throughout.
We also get our third Cricket appearance of the season. We haven’t seen the beloved character this frequently in a season since some of the earlier seasons. His streetwise bum role isn’t as funny as in the past, but we enjoy some the callbacks to previous episodes.
The mention of lemons as payment is a nice touch.
“Mac & Dennis Tear Their ACLs” has a lot of fun tributes and references to early episodes, but doesn’t feel like a repeat of any of them. The gang has had several episodes involving trials.
This isn’t the same as those, but it makes us immediately nostalgic for some of those episodes.
As previously stated, the additional Mac and Dennis lore really makes this a memorable episode. Knowing the men watch JAG regularly, to the point of memorizing episodes, is not something we expect. Additionally, the men thinking NCIS is a poor man’s JAG is such a funny take that we must get more opinions on these two shows.
In fact, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia should do an episode where they’re like Statler and Waldorf giving their TV and film critiques. We bet they’re very loud and wrong about their takes.
Well, we kind of already have had this confirmed on previous episodes and attempts to recreate movies, famously and infamously.
Overall, “Mac & Dennis Tear Their ACLs” is another strong episode of Season 18. We don’t expect it to become most fans’ favorite episode, but it’s quite funny, adds lore, and gives us a classic and rare pairing.
We hope the show makes a Christmas episode this season, so that we can come back to the holiday card ideas.
Stray Thoughts
- I briefly thought we would get a Taylor Swift cameo.
- I also wanted to see if Jason Sudeikis would actually appear. I now need to see if he has made an appearance since Ted Lasso became so big.
- Cricket really needs to charge more. Embarrassingly low prices.
What did you think of this episode of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia? Share your thoughts in the comments below, and don’t forget to leave your own rating!
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It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia airs Monday at 9/8C on FXX.
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Jerrica Tisdale
Jerrica Tisdale is your favorite neighborhood pop culture junkie. She will annoy you with random TV and film facts, while complaining about whatever is the hottest new book. She has been a TV fan all her life but writing about it for over a decade. You may find her work all over the internet especially reality TV rants. She is a senior writer at Tell-Tale TV.