12 Favorite Comedies of 2011: ‘Happy Endings’ and ‘It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia’
These two comedies are rooted in blockbuster ’90s sitcom franchises, but each has its own approach to the urban travails of today’s young white adult.
Happy Endings
I have to thank ABC Family for marathoning the entire first season of Happy Endings on a random Friday this summer. That binge opportunity gave me the chance to devour episodes and get to know the characters while ignoring the show’s early hiccups. Comparisons to Friends are valid, but they’re not necessarily the ones that lie on the surface.
Granted, they’re six young people in the big city, and two are siblings. And Alex’s decision in the pilot to leave Dave at the altar is similar to Rachel’s cold feet back in the ’90s. But the real Friends corollary at play in Happy Endings is that the cast members have chemistry as a group and in any constellation of pairs the writers can devise.
At least half the cast has bounced around other projects without managing to find a good fit. If the show’s fall run is any indication, they’ve also found a hit here. And that makes me smile, because while the show’s million jokes a minute style relies too heavily on pop culture references for it to age especially well, it’s loads of fun in the now.
It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia
Kaitlin Olson steals the show in another episode of "Sunny." (Patrick McElhenney / FX)
This show managed to fly under my radar for six seasons on FX. But this summer, I shotgunned almost every episode thanks to its increased exposure in syndication on Comedy Central. I tend to find the Seinfeld comparisons lacking, though Sunny surely follows the selfish tradition set forth by Larry David and company.
Your appetite for this show can be gauged by a single defining episode, which I happened to catch in the first week I was sampling repeats. That episode, “Dennis and Dee Go On Welfare,” tells you not only everything you need to know about these misanthropes, but also whether your sense of humor aligns with their desperate antics. From the opportunistic plot to scam the welfare system to the siblings’ harrowing descent into full blown crack addiction, that half hour may still reign as the series’ best.
I have to give the show some serious credit for its deft use of ’80s music over the years, and stunts like Fat Mac or Mac and Charlie crashing Dee’s car to fake their deaths balance out the less palatable bottle episodes. My favorite episode this fall was “Sweet Dee Gets Audited,” and as far as I can tell, no one on television has better delivery than Kaitlin Olson saying, “Goddammit.”
