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It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia is a popular sitcom from the house of FX Networks.
The series originally premiered on FX in 2005 and aired eight seasons before moving to their sister channel, FXX in 2012. The show has since aired seven more seasons till date, with the latest season, the 16th season, released on June 7, 2023, at 10 pm ET.
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia was created by Rob McElhenney and developed by Glenn Howerton alongside McElhenney. The cast of the show features notable actors like Charlie Day, Glenn Howerton, Rob McElhenney, Kaitlin Olson, and Danny DeVito in the central characters alongside an ensemble of talented rotating supporting actors who add a dash of color to the show.
With over 15 seasons under its belt, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia is an extremely popular title among the audience. The series has received positive feedback from both critics and audiences for its writing, dark sense of humor, and take on controversial social subjects such as racism, sexism, politics, religion, and addiction. It has even garnered a cult following of its own, with many fans hailing it to be among the greatest sitcoms of all time.
Set in Philadelphia, the show follows the misadventures of a group of friends who run Paddy's Pub, a run-down Irish bar. With morally ambiguous characters to boot, the members always get involved in hilarious shenanigans and absurd situations, making for the foundation of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.
With its 16th season set to arrive today, fans are eagerly waiting for the return of their favorite characters and get to see them back up to their antics. In this article, we explore some of the best seasons the show has aired to date. While It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia has been lauded for maintaining quality content over the years, it still has its own share of high points.
Top 5 seasons of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, according to online ratings
1) Season 4
The fourth season of the series is arguably the best season of It's Always Sunny. Released in 2008, the season aired a total of 13 episodes with guest appearances from actors like Zachary Knighton, Fisher Stevens, Geoff Pierson, Sinbad, and others.
With a rating of 100% on the Tomatometer from 13 critic reviews and 97% from the audience, it was the first season to get such a high rating. The fourth season puts the gang into the most hilarious situations and predicaments with Mac and Dennis set to hunt down Col. Cricket for teabagging him, while Dee and Charlie think they may have become cannibals.
The season also has the gang reselling gasoline as a business idea, scamming the health insurance company for free coverage, Charlie and Mac faking their deaths and Dennis ending up in a mental hospital. The iconic episode, The Nightman Cometh, which has often been lauded as the best episode in the series, is also part of the fourth season.
2) Season 7
Season seven is a close second on our list of top seasons. With a Tomatometer rating of 100% and an audience rating of 97%, it scores the same as season four. Some prominent guest appearances include Kristina Apgar, Jason Sudeikis, Lance Reddick, and Jessica Collins amongst others.
The seventh season had Frank falling for a prostitute, Dennis helping Mac with getting back into shape, a very eventful road trip to Jersey Shore, a child beauty pageant, two brothers mending their estranged relationship, and a finale where the gang goes to their high school reunion.
3) Season 9
With another 100% rating on Tomatometer and a 97% audience score based on over 250 ratings, season nine is among the top echelons of It's Always Sunny seasons. Although not marked by any notable story premise, each episode in the season is remarkably entertaining and memorable in its own right.
In the ninth season, the audience is treated to a down-in-the-dumps Dee, issues of gun control, the gang getting involved in a pyramid scheme, Charlie being experimented upon, and an installation under their Lethal Weapon plotline. However, one of the season highlights was when the gang becomes self-aware and talks about how they have not ever won any real awards.
4) Season 8
The eighth season is another one of It's Always Sunny's top-rated seasons with a 100% critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes. What the season did so well was the overall well-written episodes in their signature style. The series just lets the gang loose and let them do what they do best - humiliate themselves through their own antics.
Season eight has a lot of things going on for it including Dennis's ex-wife, Maureen Ponderosa's wedding which gets crushed by a bath-salt-in-the-milk incident, a trip to the therapist to determine who cleans the dishes at the pub, a fake cancer scare and a mock trial.
5) Season 11
Released in 2016, the eleventh season of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia also racked up a 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes. The season went on to prove itself as one of the more liked later seasons of the shows, with the ones that followed it not being such hits among fans.
The eleventh season brought in new ideas and gave the series a new front to explore. The season brought back Chardee MacDennis, the board game that was originally introduced in season seven, sent Mac and Dennis to experience suburban life, saw Dee trying her hand at being an arthouse director, showed the aftereffects of the botched up wedding of Maureen Ponderosa and many more thoroughly entertaining episodes.
These were our top picks of FX's long-running sitcom, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. However, with its well-executed dark humor and morally bankrupt characters, the whole series deserves a watch from new audiences.
With the series just having dropped its latest 16th season on June 7, the fans are already excited to get to see these nuanced and flawed characters back in action.
Tune in to FX every Wednesday to catch the new episodes at 10 pm ET.
