It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia - The Gang Broke Dee

When you look at the production values and the premise of this show - horrible cretins doing horrible things - it's remarkable that this TV series has enjoyed as long a run as it has. This is the first episode of the 9th season, and part of me finds it humorous that the gang is only breaking Dee now. As cruel as they are to each other, no one takes punishment from the group worse than Sweet Dee.

I found this episode enormously enjoyable. The episode begins with a laconic and broken Dee eating "trash cake" (a term that Dennis offhandedly used to describe old cake that Dee pulled out of the trash) and finishing off her friends' insults being hurled at her. They poke and prod at her looking for a reaction but she just walks away saying that she might as well throw herself in front of a bus. (Because, according to Dee, not even a bus would hit on her. )

The gang decides they need Dee back because a despondent Dee isn't nearly as fun to pick on as a wildly thrashing, tantrum-throwing Dee. They come up with two plans to pull her out of her funk. The first plan, offered by the group sans Dennis, is that Dee tries her hand at stand-up. The second plan, Dennis' plan, is to hook Dee up with someone that is average-to-below-average looking. Dee agrees to both plans.

What follows is a barrage of spectacularly awful stand-up consisting of machine gun noises and other sound effects accompanied by audience laughter. This is a rather amusing parody of the same type of bad stand-up comedy that actually has a legitimate following in the real world.

Soon, Dee gets so big that she's going to be on Conan. She shuns the group, her hubris getting to her head, and hops on a jet with her agent. By the time she arrives for the guest spot, she's drunk, nervous and fighting back the reflex to puke. She walks beyond the curtain and...

She's back in the bar. Turns out the whole thing was a hoax - the gang just wanted to teach her a lesson. She said she couldn't go any lower. Here's proof that she could. Also, it's not cool to talk about suicide.

Lecture over. Lesson learned.  Dee destroyed all over again.


9/10

Breaking Bad - Rabig Dog

LOTS of purple in the episode!

I'm still mulling over how I feel about Skyler telling Walt to kill Jesse. I understand her desire to protect herself and her family. But I would expect her to want to make a run for it or try anything else before attempting murder.

It's a small gripe, however, because the scene served a larger purpose. Before it, Walt was completely against hurting Jesse. The conversation with his wife made him more open to the idea and I think we needed to see that progression to make the phone call at the end of the episode possible.

Speaking of the phone call, the Walt/Jesse story here was nothing short of exceptional. We spent a lot of time with Jesse in the episode and we got to see what Walt has become to him. Once, Jesse thought of him as a friend and mentor. Now, after going through what he has with Walt and after all the lies and manipulations, Jesse thinks of him less as a person but more as a force of evil. He even calls him the devil when talking to Hank.

We know that Walt cares about Jesse and just wants to placate him and explain himself. So how ironic is it that Jesse spots a big man on his way to the meeting and instantly assumes the worst? I don't blame him but I felt surprisingly sad for Walt at the end of the episode. He accomplished the exact opposite of what he had intended even though he went about it the right way. He's in a crowded public place. Why should Jesse be afraid?

But we know exactly why. We've seen what Walt is capable of...


9/10