Did This Season of ‘It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’ Live Up to Rob Mac’s Promise of Being the Best One Ever?

Back when It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia Season 17 premiered on July 9th, series star and creator Rob Mac tweeted, “I think start to finish this is the best season of Sunny ever.” 

Now that the season is over, is the Always Sunny fandom aligned with the tastes of a man who legally changed his name to “Rob Mac”?

Last night, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia closed out its most long-awaited season ever with a crossover extravaganza in which Frank, Dennis, Mac, Charlie and Dee appeared on The Golden Bachelor to recap the bizarre, upsetting, not-fit-for-Disney events of Frank’s televised quest to find the love of his life. “The Golden Bachelor Live” concluded the arc that took over the final stretch of episodes in Season 17 on a heartfelt note, both in the final scene of the episode that brought Frank and his new love Sam together, and in the montage played in honor of the late Lynne Marie Stewart.

As the dust starts to settle on Season 17 and the Always Sunny writers prepare to get started on the next one, the fandom will now begin the offseason cycle of episode comparisons and season rankings that will keep us arguing like The Gang until Season 18 premieres. However, we aren't quite ready to crown Season 17 as Always Sunny’s peak, though it might be unfair to say that the show past its peak — or, as Dennis would say…

Mac’s critical inclusion of “start to finish” in his superlative praise already puts Season 17 behind other beloved seasons, seeing as the distance between that “start” and “finish” was shorter than it’s ever been on Always Sunny. The latest season was just a measly eight episodes, which, compared to usual frontrunners for the fandom’s favorite season such as Four or Five, leaves very little room for missteps. But, to be clear, Always Sunny Season 17 made very few mistakes. 

While the fandom bristled at the soft lighting and camera movement of the Abbott Elementary production design from the season opener, “The Gang Fucks Up Abbott Elementary,” no new episode was a stand-out dud, at least according to the IMDb ratings. Plus, when Season 17 was on, it was on — the Is it Cake? fake-out at the end of “Frank Is in a Coma” will undoubtedly go down as one of the all-time greatest punchlines in It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia history, as well as one of the most traumatizing moments in Sweet Dee’s already sad life story.

In iconic scenes like the “Frank Is in a Coma” reveal, Season 17 returned to the formula that first made Always Sunny such a massive hit: In each episode, Frank disrupts, excites, baits and manipulates the Gang into putting themselves in unthinkable situations through his near-unlimited wealth and his love of chaos. From the lifelike (or, I guess, deathlike) cake in “Frank Is in a Coma” to the dog masturbation kicker in “The Gang Goes to a Dog Track" to literally every insane story beat in the final two episodes, Frank was the Gang’s guiding darkness from “start to finish” in Season 17.

However, Season 17 is still ultimately a return to form, rather than an elevation to heights never before seen on It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Compare it to Season Four, which brought us, among other amazing episodes, “Mac and Charlie Die (Parts 1 and 2),” “Who Pooped the Bed?” “The Gang Solves the Gas Crisis,” “The Gang Gets Extreme: Home Makeover Edition” and, of course, “The Nightman Cometh,” all of which surprised and shocked fans of the still-young sitcom by showing them that, as low as the Gang went in the previous seasons, they can always go lower.

Season 17 was a superb entry in the It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia canon, but I can’t name it the all-time best season ever — especially not when there wasn’t a single musical episode.