Seinfeld on Crack

That's how some critic, somewhere, described It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. And if that sounds good to you then you really should be watching. If you liked Seinfeld because the characters were scheming, selfish, bad people who consistently got themselves into bad situations by scheming selfishly, then Sunny is probably for you.

Last season the show was brilliant half the time, and seemed like they were making it up as they went along half the time (turns out, they probably were). This season, with the addition of Danny DeVito, who must be doing this for fun because he certainly doesn't need any of the FX Network's money, that ratio has improved to about 75% brilliant, 25% tossed off.

The show is about four friends who buy a bar in Philadelphia. Kind of the same way Seinfeld was about four friends who, well, do nothing in New York. Like Seinfeld, there are three guys and a girl, all of whom are pretty much complete assholes, in different ways (vain, stupid, drunk, self-deluded, etc), and all of whom are completely self-absorbed.

Seinfeld did some dangerous, edgy stuff. The masturbation contest, Susan's death. But the "on crack" part of Sunny is well earned. They kind of take that edgy thing and walk right off the cliff. Episode titles like "Dennis and Dee Go On Welfare" and "The Gang Exploits a Miracle" and "The Gang Gets Racist" and "Mac Bangs Dennis's Mom" give you a pretty good idea about what happens.

If those titles made you chuckle, check it out tonight. FX used to have a really great site, with loads of video, but they seem to have taken down most of the good stuff. Anyway, here's where you can get some video, commercials, etc.