David Kronke was appointed Mayor of Television after a bloodless coup in 2000. Since then, he has improved infrastructure, championed greater educational opportunities and fought for reforms that have utterly erased corruption and incompetence from the television industry. Since Mr. Kronke has ascended to power, Television is a far better place. A short comedy film online? Are you kidding me?
“It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia,” maybe the funniest sitcom currently in production (certainly, the most gleefully offensive), won’t return for its third season until next month (an extremely problematic scheduling decision on FX’s behalf – even were it not on Thursday, the week’s most hyper-competitive evening, it’d still risk getting buried under the avalanche of the broadcast networks’ new fall launches), but they’re offering a sneak-preview episode today through Aug. 23 at the show’s MySpace site.
Here’s how good this show is: The offering in question, “Mac is a Serial Killer,” probably doesn’t rate in the top 50% of episodes in “Sunny/Phillie’s” oeuvre, and yet it’s still very funny. It’s kind of sloppily plotted, relying on a fairly rote communications misunderstanding and even foggier thinking than the characters usually manage. But the scenes that save it are so deliriously funny that those shortcomings almost don’t matter.
For the uninitiated: “Sunny/Phillie” concerns four abjectly self-centered and epically imbecilic cretins, Mac (series creator Rob McElhenney), Charlie (Charlie Day, who also writes), Dennis (Glenn Howerton, who also also writes) and Dee (Kaitlin Olsen) and the last two’s demented dad Frank (Danny DeVito). When they’re not stabbing one another in the back or doing something spectacularly dubious, they run a crap bar that somehow manages to stay open.
So, in this sneak peak, a serial killer is dismembering attractive blondes in the town, prompting the guys into a debate as to whether Dee qualifies as a potential victim (she’s the only one who seems – adamantly and, even, hopefully – to think so). Somehow, this segues into Frank’s theory that Mac’s recent behavior pegs him as the serial killer, and he’s gonna get the chainsaw to prove it. Mac’s real secret, however, almost proves even more revolting to the group: “It’s not that I’m ashamed of you,” he tells the person he’s dating; “I’m ashamed of me.” (You can imagine how well that goes over.)
Throw in a clever “To Catch a Predator” parody and you have another winsome slice of anarchy from the most demented brain trust currently working in TV. Comedy fans can only hope this show doesn’t get lost in the fall season’s Thursday crush.