It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia was a huge success and much of this praise goes to the brilliant cast. However, not everyone played their role well.
It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia was created and directed by Rob McElhenney and Glenn Howerton. Most of the It’s Always Sunny actors perfectly embody a group of amoral and trouble-making friends. It can be difficult to separate the on-screen character from the actors. This is simply because the actors do such a phenomenal job at playing their roles.
However, this doesn’t mean that every performance in It’s Always Sunny is a good one. For many of the weaker roles within It’s Always Sunny, the actors fail to make their characters well-received. Some characters come across as more morally defunct than the gang. At times, they can be hard to watch – especially in some of the earlier seasons.
While the first season of It’s Always Sunny isn’t bad, it’s missing a certain DeVito-esque charm that’s introduced at the start of season two. Frank Reynolds is introduced as an uncaring and selfish rich man who has no problem locking the rest of the gang out of their apartment so he can be alone with women.
However, he transforms into one of the funniest members of the gang who can’t picture living without Charlie. Frank is often fueling many of their schemes since he has the money to do so. DeVito’s performance is top-notch in every scene he appears in.
Jimmi Simpson and Nate Mooney don’t do a terrible job playing their roles as the incestuous McPoyle brothers. However, the pair aren’t entertaining to watch in an otherwise hugely entertaining sitcom.
For the most part, their performances come across as uncomfortable. Some scenes have aged incredibly poorly and can be difficult to watch. One such example is The Gang Gets Held Hostage, which also involves the McPoyle sister, Margaret.
Cricket’s tale is one of the most tragic in It’s Always Sunny. He begins It’s Always Sunny in a fulfilling career with the Catholic church, and he seems to genuinely love what he does. This all changes when Dee takes advantage of his long-time crush on her and ultimately ruins his life.
He becomes a ‘street rat’, as dubbed by It’s Always Sunny, which leads to some of the most entertaining episodes – like Mac And Dennis: Manhunters. David Hornsby does a fantastic job pulling off both extremes of this character, making him believable and realistic in each instance.
Artemis Pebdani, who plays the on-screen character of the same name, has some incredibly good moments. For example, in The Gang Beats Boggs: Ladies Reboot, she’s shown using tea and crystals to scam other women on-flight. Ladies Reboot has one of the most entertaining scenes in It’s Always Sunny thanks to Artemis Pebdani.
For much of her earlier appearances on-screen, Artemis is another character who’s hard to watch. She makes unwanted advances at Dennis, which include licking his face. Many of her quotes are vulgar and don’t land well in an otherwise hilarious sitcom.
Some of the most entertaining characters in It’s Always Sunny are related to the gang, including Charlie’s mother. Bonnie Kelly is played by the wonderfully talented Lynne Marie Stewart. Charlie has many odd quirks, all of which stem from his mother and how she raised him. Arguably, Bonnie is even more of an oddball than her son.
Her concern for Charlie seems very genuine, despite being an almost fully absent parent during his youth. Bonnie especially shines after she begins living with Mac’s mother. The two have very different but complimenting personalities. Together, they are a joy to watch.
Uncle Jack (Andrew Friedman) overall stands out as a hard-to-watch character, despite his infrequent good moments. If Uncle Jack’s characterization was limited to his antics as a lawyer, there wouldn’t be any issues with his character, and he would likely be a welcome addition to the cast.
In many of his appearances, Uncle Jack is implied to be a pedophile. It’s also heavily implied that Uncle Jack had molested his nephew Charlie, who’s shown to be visibly uncomfortable with his presence. Many of his ‘jokes’ involve this implication, which isn’t funny and is incredibly hard to watch or hear.
Mac’s dad is another one of the gang’s family members to make an appearance on It’s Always Sunny. Mac’s dad is played brilliantly by Gregory Scott Cummins. Mac talks about his father as if he’s loving and supportive, but it doesn’t take more than a few moments on screen for fans to realize this is far from the case.
In reality, Mac’s father is a hardened criminal whose idea of father-son bonding is asking Mac to smuggle drugs into prison for him. The disconnect between his true personality and Mac’s vision of him makes most of their interactions incredibly fun to watch.
In the ninth episode of season three, Sweet Dee, Dee brings her new boyfriend back to the bar to meet her friends. It doesn’t take long for them to assume that he’s disabled, and her friends use an ableist slur to describe him.
Kevin Gallagher is not disabled, but the gang had made an assumption based on certain behaviors derived from offensive stereotypes. While many later episodes can touch on similar topics more sensitively, Sweet Dee aged incredibly poorly, making Kyle Davis’ performance stand out in a negative way.
Glenn Howerton’s role as Dennis is incredibly convincing. Like other characters in It’s Always Sunny, Dennis has a negative side, including having a predatory system in place to manipulate women’s emotions so he can have sexual relationships with them. Making Dennis unique, the rest of the gang fails to understand Dennis’ behavior and they actively criticize him for being predatory.
This leads to character development, where Dennis learns to become empathetic. This range allows Glenn Howerton’s talents to shine. Dennis is also a flesh-out character and known for his narcissism, which gives him many hilarious moments, such as his “Golden God” rants.
Mary Lynn Rajskub is somewhat convincing as Gail. Gail’s character, compared to the rest of the cast, leaves a lot to be desired. Her entire character revolves around the joke that she’s disgusting, annoying, and incredibly hard to be around. Gail also has inappropriate relations with her uncle-in-law, Frank, and Charlie’s landlord. Her character is meant to be quite unsanitary and unsavory, but Rajskub failed to make Gail sympathetic.
Hannah has always had a passion for writing, having done creative writing as a personal passion since 2012, and is thrilled to be a content writer for CBR. When she isn’t writing for work or for fun, she can usually be found playing games, cosplaying, singing or petting her cats. You can connect with her here: [email protected].
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