Boom: Not dead. Double Boom: A post not about a video game (don’t worry, I’ve got the early stages of a possibly upcoming discussion of… something. No spoilers here, sorry. Well, spoilers for an episode of It’s Always Sunny in Philidelphia, just not for my thing.)
I woke up this morning feeling like death. The night had been rough, filled with constant disturbances in my sleep, seeing me constantly beset with vivid, horiffic visions, jumping me awake. Upon the ringing of my alarm clock at 7am, I became aware of the sensation of sickness and nausia in my stomach, partnered with a general sense of despair within my head (Eat your heart out, H.P. Lovecraft) It wasn’t long before I discovered the cause of my illness; A failure, on my part, to take my previous days medication. Yay for dependency. An unfortunate effect of not taking my medication is that my body and mind sort of give up. The night of the day in which I fail to take my medication is always like this, as the chemical imbalance in my body interferes with my ability to function or think normally.
After waking, I lay in bed for a while, trying to relax and deal with the symptoms. I then took a shower, before making breakfast and sitting down to watch an episode of It’s Always Sunny in Philidelphia, A show that I have been binge watching over the last couple of weeks. Today, as it happened, I had arrived at the episode ‘Mac Finds His Pride.’ For those of you who have not seen the show, a constant running joke throughout the shows seasons is that Mac is clearly a homosexual individual who is unwilling to accept that part of his life. The show smartly avoids making the joke about the fact that he is gay, and instead focuses on the fact that he is in the closed about it. ‘Mac Finds His Pride‘ is about, well, Mac finding his pride. Mac had been sort of half in and out of the closet for the past couple of seasons, but this episode was about his feelings of not really fitting in anywhere, a problem which Danny DeVito’s Frank summises comes from his unwillingness to fully aknowledge this part of himself that so clearly controls so much of his life. Throughout the episode, Frank constantly reminds Mac that, although Frank himself doesn’t ‘get’ Mac or his lifestyle, he wants his friend to be able to live life without the pain that is clearly being felt.
After some by Frank to immerse Mac in gay culture in efforts to push him to be more self-accepting, the episode climaxes with Mac coming out to his Father, a man locked in prison for various drug and violence related crimes. The important thing to remember is that this man already doesn’t like Mac. By his own admission, he ‘doesn’t get’ Mac. He sees his son as soft, inept, and a bit of an idiot. Of course, Mac is all of these things. The point is, your father should never see those as reasons to dislike you. A father’s role is to support you through those percieved problems.
Despite the fact that I have already spoiled major portions of this episode, I would like to not do so for the majority of the final scene. Playing it off as the show did was, needless to say, an enormous risk. Other shows have tried and failed to have meaningful and honest engagements with the topic of someone coming out as being gay. I frequently lement when a comedy show pumps the breaks to dedicate an entire episode to a single character dealing with a personal or cultural issue, as it often feels tonally at odds with the rest of the show. If a show fails to do it properly, the best outcome will be an episode that feels like an honest attempt to cover an issue, but does so at the expense of the show itself, which is how I personally believe Brooklyn Nine-Nine handles its more serious episodes, dealing with issues of race or sexuality. I don’t hate, or even dislike these episodes, and I think they do far better jobs than other shows have done in simillar situations, but I still believe that the execution of the storyline has come at the cost of the purpose of the show. It’s Always Sunny might be the first comedy show that I have seen that deals with these issues without having to act as a detrement of the episode.
Having an emotional scene in a comedy show is often actually a great idea, when handled appropriately. How I Met Your Mother is basically a masterclass in doing so. Scenes like Ted sitting alone in a bar without his friends, the smile from Barney’s face fading as he sees Robin silently shake her head at him (probably the scene that I rank as being the most successful implementation of a depressing moment into a comedy show) or, of course, the famous “I’m not ready” scene, where Marshall cries into Lilly’s shoulder after recieving some heartbreaking news.
In contrast to these scenes, ‘Mac Finds His Pride‘ actually ends on quite a touching note. Whilst there is sertainly a level of heartbreak in one part of it, the true gem in the scene happens right at the end.
Before I write about that ending, I want to discuss how I feel now. As you might have picked up from this and almost every other post on this site, I am a big believer in the power of art. I see movies, television shows, games, music, all the types of media as truly being art. I have seen, first hand, the effects that art can have on someone. It can change a day, or a week, or even a lifetime. I doubt that the ending of ‘Mac Finds His Pride‘ will alter the course of my life, or do too much in the way of changing my week, but I can certainly say that it changed my day. The events of the last five odd minutes of the episode are completely different to almost anything that came before, stylistically, functionally, and tonally, yet the episode, and the show itself, has ensured that it doesn’t feel jarring. Everything culminates with a close up shot of Frank, a tear running down his face.
“I understand now”
Y, Though? 