Stream It Or Skip It?

If you shenan-once, the rumor on the street is that you will shenanigan. Well, for 20 years now, the gang from Paddy’s Pub and It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia has been shenanigan-ing and while it may get tired for other shows and other friend groups, the fun is full steam ahead with the newly debuted Season 17 on FX and Hulu.

Opening Shot: Abbott Elementary School in West Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Principal Ava Coleman (Janelle James) explains that several months after the Paddy’s Pub gang swung by Abbott to volunteer and made a mess of the experience, the crew discovered additional footage showing what the group got up to behind closed doors.

The Gist: In Season 17 of It’s Always Sunny, Charlie (Charlie Day), Mac (Rob Mac), Dennis (Glenn Howerton), Dee (Kaitlin Olson), and Frank (Danny DeVito) are on a mission for riches and fame, as well as forgiveness for the decades of do-badding they’ve done. This includes a crossover with Abbott Elementary — Season 17 Episode 1, “The Gang F**ks Up Abbott Elementary” — an episode devoted to Mac and Dennis becoming EMTs, and one where Frank becomes the next Golden Bachelor on ABC. They’re really leaning on the Disney brand, here.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? After 17 seasons, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia is in a league of its own, but one might compare it to shows like Workaholics and Vice Principals.

Our Take: Season 17 may not be the best season of the long-running comedy as it will always have its formative years, filled with now potentially cancelable jokes and bits, to look back on, but as far as modern Sunny seasons go, this is one of the funniest. The Abbott Elementary and Golden Bachelor episodes could feel gimmicky to true fans of IASIP, but the middle bits have plenty of meat and potatoes jokes for the people who just want to see the gang in their normal, terrible environment and glory. When it’s good, it’s really good. When it struggles, you can tell they may have hit a brick wall.

Sex and Skin: Aside from seriously suggestive language, the show keeps it pretty PG-13 with sex, nudity, and other NSFW elements in Season 17.

Parting Shot: Ava takes the camera crew into one of Abbott’s bathrooms to show them that while the teachers were down at Paddy’s Pub getting a cheap drink on the gang, Frank was ripping copper piping out of the wall to sell it. Earlier in the episode, Ava explained that sometimes she slips the camera crew cash to make footage go away, which is the last shot of the episode, as she says that she would lose her job if the district ever saw the torn-up walls.

Sleeper Star: The star of the Season 17 opener has to be Miss Quinta Brunson as her soft-spoken but fiery Abbott Elementary character Janine Teagues. No major spoilers here, but there is a stunning departure from her traditional vocabulary and an act of physical violence that truly sets her performance out among an already stellar ensemble.

Most Pilot-y Line: “A little while back, we had some volunteers at the school,” Ava says to the camera in a talking head moment at the very beginning of the episode. Exposition dump!

Our Call: STREAM IT. Even if you only tune in for the first two epsiodes of the new season, both airing on FX Wednesday and streaming the next day on Hulu, it’s a worthy way to spend your time and a laugh or two is all but guaranteed.