While initially rejected by some critics for its outlandish plotting and deliberately offensive sensibilities, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia has turned into one of cable's longest running sitcoms. Now heading into a twelfth season on FXX (after having debuted on the original FX network for it's first nine seasons), the series is showing no signs of slowing down or holding back on its trademark outrageous humor.
Now, a new red band trailer teases the kind of shocking antics The Gang will get up to when the series makes its big return in January 2017. The new season looks to bring even more of the eyebrow-raising situations that fans have come to expect, along with all new forms of mayhem and madness. Some of their upcoming adventures are described in the new trailer's accompanying promotional text:
FXX’s original comedy series It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia is back! This season, the gang goes to a waterpark, deals with a Wolf Cola PR nightmare, and actually spends a whole day tending bar!
Originally pitched as an even more extreme take on a Seinfeld-style undermining of traditional sitcom tropes, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia follows a crew of characters collectively referred to as "The Gang" as they get into an escalating series of adventures while ostensibly working as the proprietors of a run-down dive bar in downtown Philadelphia. A cult hit that has gained a loyal following, the series has been credited with launching the burgeoning movie career of comedian Charlie Day and revitalizing that of comedy legend Danny DeVito - who joined the regular cast in season 2.
Day appears as the best friend of Glenn Howerton's Dennis, while series creator Rob McElhenney plays their friend Mac, and Kaitlin Olson plays Dennis' sister Dee, all of whom operate (read: mainly hang out in) "Paddy's Pub." DeVito initially arrived as Dennis and Dee's non-biological father Frank, who may or may not also be the biological father of Day's character (also named Charlie.)
Rather than maintain an internal consistency or engage in the longform character development that has been standard for network and cable situation-comedies since the advent of Friends in the 90s, It's Always Sunny often maintains only the barest semblance of continuity outside the "starting point" of the characters (barely) keeping the bar up and running. Episode plots typically involve get-rich-quick schemes, comic-misunderstandings and other sitcom standards, but filtered through a tonal gimmick of all five main characters being varying degrees of greedy, violent, disingenuous and potentially psychotic.
Source: FXX