‘It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia‘ Review: “Frank’s Back in Business”

‘It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia‘ has been pretty funny for its eight season. Though there's been some lesser episodes,the last episode "Charlie's Mom Has Cancer" was solid, and we're hoping for good things from tonight's episode "Frank's Back in Business."

The episode opens at 11:15 AM on a Friday at a board meeting. Atwater Capital is struggling to figure out how stave off being carved up by a corporate merger, so they call in "The Warthog" aka Frank. Back at the bar Mac, Dennis and Dee loot a lost wallet from a guy named Brian Lefevre. It's all Canadian money, but then there's Phillies tickets. Frank comes in with Charlie, both dressed in suspenders and ready for business. At the game, it turns out the tickets were for box seating, and Mac and Dee start to loot the box. Dennis suggests they figure out a game plan to pretend to belong. When someone comes in asking for Brian Lefevre, Dennis pretends to be him, which leads to an introduction to Brian King (Joel Murray). At the office, Frank reels off a list of things for Charlie to do, while also complaining about all the women and minorities working there, and when Frank sees a coworker having problem fixing a copy machine, he uses it as a chance to fire the kid and motivate the troops.

Back in the box, Dee starts doing a really terrible Canadian accent, which makes Dennis pull everyone aside. He reveals he enjoys pretending to be the other guy, and he gets creepy while doing so. "I want you to get off with me" he repeats to Mac and Dee. He then confronts King and says that the deal they've been offering him is not good enough. Dennis presents Mac and Dee with their new backstories, and keeps pitching the getting off part. King tells them to go down to the locker, and he has what they like. They find that the present is young-ish Asian boy, which leads Dennis to fire Mac because Mac won't go on the ride of pretending. But it turns out the boy is a caddy. At a sushi dinner (served on a naked woman), Charlie reveals that Brian Lefevre is also the owner of Atwater, which Frank plots to use. But when Charlie starts talking nonsense in front of clients, Frank is forced to fire him.

Back at the bar, Charlie and Mac pow wow about going into business together. Just then someone shows up at the bar asking for Brian Lefevre. At the Atwater stockholder's meeting, Charlie and Mac show up to present a homemade video selling "fight milk," which is for bodybuilding, and is made of milk and vodka. Then they reveal that Brian Lefevre was murdered outside the bar, and Dennis reveals that he keeps getting off on his whole "pretending to be Brian Lefevre" thing, which leads to big argument between Dennis and Dee. Frank then makes a speech, but it's interrupted by a phone call when Frank reveals he sold the company to Asian interests for a lot of money, and that everyone's fired.And that's the end of the episode.

"Fight Milk" is definitely the highlight of the episode, which has some moments, but doesn't really stick the landing. The show is at its best when the characters are engaged with what they're doing, and this never quite comes together like the better episodes. It feels like this should be a standout Frank episode, but in the end, he doesn't get that many interesting things to do or say. All things considered, it's okay.