It's Always Sunny In Moscow is a Russian remake of It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia that fails to recapture the show's unique humor. It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia revolves around the Paddy's Pub gang, consisting of twins Dee and Dennis, Charlie, Mac, and Frank. While the show is technically a sitcom revolving around the gang's various misadventures, it's a good deal darker than something like Friends. The gang are all cruel, selfish, and sometimes downright evil and the series loves prodding various taboos for uncomfortable humor.
It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia was nearly canned after its first season, but after Danny DeVito joined up in season 2, it evolved from a cult favorite to a beloved show. The series has now run an incredible fourteen seasons and counting and is still receiving strong reviews. The show has slowed down in recent years as the cast have worked on other projects, such as Glenn Howerton leading A.P. Bio or Rob McElhenney starring in his co-created series Mythic Quest: Raven's Banquet. While season 15 isn't confirmed, it feels like a given.
Foreign remakes of American TV shows are nothing new, with India producing an acclaimed big-budget 24 remake while Columbia remade Breaking Bad as Metastasis in 2014. Remaking a comedy for another country can be a very tricky task, however, as sometimes the humor of a particular show doesn't translate well. This would be a particularly tough task in the case of the dark humor of It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia, which was reinvented for Russian viewers as It's Always Sunny In Moscow.
It's Always Sunny In Moscow is essentially a shot for shot redo of various It's Always Sunny In Philidelphia episodes. Instead of Paddy's Pub, they work in a bar called Philadelphia - which is easily the best gag - and all the characters follow closely to their counterparts from the original show. While It's Always Sunny In Moscow might reuse the same scripts, the results fall horribly flat. Like That '70s Show's UK remake Days Like These or even Gus Van Sant's infamous Psycho redo proved, just copy and pasting the same dialogue and camera shots and hoping for the same results doesn't work.
That's what makes It's Always Sunny In Moscow so surreal. It's so close to the setup of It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia, but there's something about the performances and execution that feels off. It's not really the actor's fault since recreating the dynamic of the Philadelphia cast would be near impossible, but Moscow's doppelganger characters are charmless compared to the real deal. It's Always Sunny In Moscow also diluted some of the original show's darker humor, so outside of a curiosity watch to see how closely it follows its American counterpart, it's best avoided.