Dennis Reynolds Calms Down
"Dennis Takes a Mental Health Day" in the Always Sunny Season 16 finale
My coverage of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia concludes with Episode 8.
If you listen to The Always Sunny Pod, then you probably understand the extent to which Dennis Reynolds and Glenn Howerton are inextricably joined, even if Howerton would be reticent to admit it. Though Charlie and Rob lent their real names to their Sunny characters, Glenn opted out, wanting to keep himself separate from his deranged, misogynistic character. Yet funnily enough, more-so than Charlie with Charlie or Rob with Mac, Glenn really does appear to share a number of crucial behaviors and character traits with Dennis.
Frequently on their podcast, Rob or Charlie have mentioned some strange quirk or action of Glenn’s that they ended up using as inspiration for Dennis. Take away Dennis’s predatory behavior and sociopathic tendencies, and you kind of have the most caricatured version of Glenn Howerton. Both Glenn and Dennis are highly particular, picky, easily irritated by the actions of others and prone to odd fixations — ok, well, I can relate. So, reportedly with inspiration from a real-life incident that happened to Glenn (I vaguely remember this from the podcast, but I guess I’ll trust Slash Film here), “Dennis Takes a Mental Health Day” feels like the ultimate coalescence of the reluctantly linked Glenn-Dennis persona.
It’s also a fitting send-off episode in a season which has been partly carried by consistently top-tier Dennis performances, a season which has coincided with Glenn’s newfound, mainstream embrace post-Blackberry, and a season which marked a return to Sunny’s overall creative groove. “Dennis Takes a Mental Health Day” works to combine old tricks and new ambitions, in an episode where Dennis finds himself mercilessly at the hands of endless modern technological bureaucracy. After a trip to the doctor’s “forces” Dennis to take his blood pressure levels into his own hands (“We all get to a certain age…” “Do we? I don’t,” Dennis replies), he decides to take a mental health day to relax, unwind, unplug and free himself from the stressors of life at Paddy’s Pub.
Of course, it’s not so easy to unplug these days, and at every turn Dennis finds himself confronted by modern horrors meant to make his and everyone else’s lives easier. Hands-free electric cars, apps you need to download to buy coffee, phones you need to in order to do everything, and the relentless calls to customer service when none of these thing that are supposed to make life easier actually work. Dennis Reynolds was not built for life in the 2020s, and seeing him interact with apps and iPhones and Tesla knockoffs is like seeing those behind-the-scenes set photos of actors in period clothing using modern gadgets or smoking cigs.
Dennis feels so out-of-time and placeless, so adrift and at the whims of a world he doesn’t understand; a caveman in a Geico commercial. You realize, then, as Mac, Dee, Charlie, and Frank concoct a largely off-camera scheme to use a pressure cooker to turn rocks into diamonds, how Paddy’s Pub is akin to another dimension, and how the characters of Always Sunny truly exist in their own world no matter how the times change, and how they may or may not progress alongside it. I think that’s always been the key to keeping Sunny great: keeping these characters as disconnected from reality as possible, so that when they’re forced to confront it it’s more apparent just how absurd and insular they are. That’s also what makes these characters’ interactions with other, normal people so funny, because they live by their own psychotic rules and perspectives, like watching the toons of Who Framed Roger Rabbit? intermingling with humans.
Of course, part of the conceit of this episode is that the world has somehow managed to out-absurd and break the guy who has been trying to break it himself for the past two decades. After 18 years, Dennis has met his match in the form of touchscreens and call centers… or has he? By the end of the episode, after losing his phone, his day at the beach, his patience, and his sanity, he somehow manages to arrive at the headquarters of his high-tech rental car manufacturer and tracks down the CEO, who himself is spending a relaxing day at the beach. This launches a climactic sequence of cannibalistic (and bizarrely erotic) surrealism set to “Listen to Your Heart” by Roxette.
In the end, it turns out to have all been a dream. Except, not really a “dream,” it was an intentional fantasy created by Dennis, while still at the doctor’s; an elaborate scheme of his own to physically force his blood pressure down by over 20 points and get it to the ideal, healthy ratio, various plot points and characters of which were littered by the faces and images of his doctor’s office. Ultimately, the world could never out-absurd Dennis Reynolds. As Séamus Malekafzali pointed out to me, “Dennis has risen and destroyed entire civilizations in a single day in order to calm down from something.”
Thus, the newfound, budgetary ambition on display in “Dennis Takes a Mental Health Day” (directed by Heath Cullins, writing credit given to Ross Maloney), reverts back to the pure simplicity of what makes the show work, and Dennis gets up from his doctor’s chair to return to Paddy’s Pub, to help his friends turn rocks into diamonds with a pressure cooker. It’s a really hilarious, perfect, and weirdly beautiful conclusion to a season that was far too short — hopefully, the guys feel emboldened and creatively energized by Season 16 to make Season 17 longer. And if I can make one other complaint, it’s that perhaps this season was almost too much of a Dennis showcase. At a certain point, after seeing Glenn Howerton kill it from episode to episode, being almost too great, and then concluding on an entirely Dennis-centric episode where he gets to partake in the series’ most experimental scene, also while his off-Sunny career finally seems to be substantially taking off, part of me was like… it would have been nice to see more of Kailtin Olson, who I felt got kind of sidelined this season.
Otherwise, that’s a wrap on Season 16, which, if you’ve been keeping up with these reviews, you already know I think was fantastic. I’m probably a little biased because I love It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, it’s easily my favorite show, and I want it to succeed and be good But after a disappointing past few seasons, believe me when I say the guys got the spice back. And even then, those past few seasons have their share of really solid stuff that’s worth checking out — don’t discount late-period Sunny. Overall, I think their podcast has been crucial to improving upon their material as they keep the show going in their later years, and it probably ended up being far more illuminating for them they thought it would be when they started it. Honestly, I would love to ask them and find out the extent to which their podcast informed this new season — sadly, there is a strike going on (KIDDING).
I’ll conclude this review (before my additional thoughts/favorite moment section) by saying that I hope some of you enjoyed these reviews — I certainly enjoyed writing them, even though I know reviewing one show for eight weeks that not everybody who subscribes is going to be a fan of, was not the best way to gain favor with my subscriber base. Rest assured, I probably won’t be doing any other TV coverage since I don’t like any other recent TV shows enough to review them; I might review Severance Season 2 if it ever actually comes out. I guess I could’ve reviewed I Think You Should Leave, but I didn’t consider it in time.
Additional thoughts/favorite moments:
Honestly, don’t have much to add for this section, because I found that the episode as a whole was just one long “favorite moments” section; also that’s maybe why this review is less plot summary than the past reviews. I think that the episode just really speaks for itself, especially since it’s only one, simple plot line. And also it’s probably better for how the episode plays out if I don’t reveal as much.
So, as I mentioned earlier, this episode is reportedly a fictionalization of a real mishap Glenn Howerton had with his own Tesla, which has me wondering: is this episode partly making fun of Tesla and Elon Musk? That’s what I was thinking, but Rob, Charlie, and Glenn all own Teslas as far as I know, and have very, very briefly, and quite a while back, spoken favorably of Musk. But maybe, is this episode now sort of a dig at him, in the wake of Twitter stuff, all the fucked up issues with his stupid useless cars, and the annoying situation Glenn had with his Tesla? It’s hard to say — it could just be lighthearted ribbing. But the last time the guys praised Musk was a year or two before the Twitter stuff, so I wonder if their views on him have changed at all.
Dennis Reynolds saying “Two boba teas, please,” is more disturbing than literally anything he’s ever said before.
I love the running bit of Dennis’s music taste being exclusively pop power ballads — that has to have a direct connection with Glenn, who recently went on a rant on the podcast about how much he loves Ann Wilson from Heart.
I’m sure the Dennis stans are being very normal about this episode.
really enjoyed your coverage of this season. will be first in line if you decide to do severance next 🫡
i loved this. perf