‘It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’ Review: “Mac and Dennis Buy a Timeshare”

‘It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia‘ is already off to a great Season 9, with the premiere quite great, and last week's "The Gang Tries Desperately to Win an Award" one of their best episodes ever. Hopefully that bodes well for this week's episode "Mac and Dennis Buy a Timeshare."

The episode opens at "11:45AM On a Thursday" where Dee is pitching Invigaron, a revolutionary product that changes lives. The boys think this is a scam, but Dee tests Charlie's stress, and he tests at 157. What that means, no one knows. Charlie gets sucked in but Dennis and Mac still think it's a scam, so they plan to go to one of these seminars to get free golf clubs, or something along those lines. This can't end well, can it?

Dee has signed Charlie on for the gold member starter kit, which he thinks is for him, but she wants him to sell it. She tries to understand the instructions, but gets confused, while Charlie is worried about his stress. They think Frank could help but he's out at a playground, so they go to find him. At the park Frank's in his underwear and is stuck in a coil. Before they help him out they want to ask questions about Invigaron, which Frank says is a pyramid scheme. He advises them to get a couple suckers to buy the product -- which Charlie and Dee think is a great idea -- but they won't free him in the hopes of getting more advice. Dennis and Mac show up for a Invigaron presentation looking to ignore the presenter, but he hooks them on a timeshare. They plot to buy three weeks into a timeshare, looking to sell the additional two weeks at a profit.

Back at the bar, Ben the soldier and Da' Maniac (Roddy Piper) are the only people who showed up for Dee and Charlie's video presentation. The video is a bit crappy and in it Frank and Charlie reveal it's a pyramid scheme, while the stress test results on Ben are 107 so there's no sales (though Da' Maniac takes a bunch and walks out). Dennis and Mac visit Frank to get him to sign up for their timeshare, but Frank says no, and sends them to Ben. They too won't set Frank free.

Dennis and Mac invite Ben over to sell him on a timeshare and Da' Maniac shows up as well.They planned to upset Ben's PTSD, but any attempt at loud noises upsets Da' Maniac. Ben says he's not up to making business decisions because of his stress level, while Da' Maniac says he's up for it and will pay in Invigaron products. Dennis and Frank then plan to jump into the Invigaron game. Dee and Charlie break into Ben's place to sell him Invigaron wearing night vision goggles, but it turns out that Dennis and Mac are already there in turbans. It turns out that Ben was a computer programmer during the war and doesn't suffer PTSD. The gang then think that Frank is at the top of the pyramid scheme, and break in on a Invigaron presentation. The presenter gets them to pay "opt out fees" to quit. It turns out the best new salesman isn't Frank, it's Da' Maniac. But they still think Frank is behind it. Alas, he's still stuck in the coil.

This was a swift episode, and if it didn't land as many punches as the last episode, it was definitely a solid entry with plenty of solid laughs. The show's at its best when it finds interesting pairings, and things for the main cast to do, and this was strong in that regard, while keeping Frank in the coil is probably the episode's most inspired choice. All in all, a good night of 'Sunny.'