Just how many ways can the ‘Sunny’ Gang screw over Rickety Cricket again?
Brief Episode Synopsis: The media is scaring everyone in Philly by blasting the news that a major storm is about to hit the city. When the Gang realize that they’ve ransacked their emergency bunker of its supplies over the last decade, they get a little worried. Mac, Dennis and Charlie head to the All-American Home Center while Dee and Frank gets things ready back at the bunker. The guys end up on separate missions at the store. Charlie wants to stock up on crazy supplies like hatchets. All fat Mac can think about is food, until he gets riled up by the big-breasted news anchor reporting live from the store. And Dennis wants to pick up chicks to bang at his Hurricane Party. When the power goes out at the pub, Frank draws his pistol and fires at a moving object (assuming that it’s a looter) in the basement of Paddy’s. Low and behold, it’s just Cricket – now with a profusely bleeding hole in his hand. Starting to freak out about the situation, Frank and Dee head over to the All-American Home Center to assist the guys while Cricket bleeds in the back seat of Dee’s car. Left alone, a delirious Cricket drives the car through the storefront. Pandamonium breaks out, and the Gang starts looting.
Episode Thoughts: In many ways, ‘The Storm of the Century’ is like the ‘My Name is Earl’ Y2K episode. Everything is blown out of proportion and things get zany. It requires a little suspension of disbelief. While the whole city is freaking out about the impending doom, as the show’s title states, it’s always sunny in Philadelphia. If the skies are blue and the weather is great, why is everyone freaking out? There’s not a cloud in the sky. Frank keeps suggesting that the media is blowing it out of proportion, but to this extent? It comes as no surprise when the Class 5 hurricane is downgraded to an average storm.
The episode’s opening is one of the wittiest of the season. Mac, Dennis and Charlie stare at a newscast reporting on the predicted destruction. With shocked looks on their faces, the guys say things like, “They’re getting bigger each year.” As we see the television screen, we realize that they’re talking about the anchor’s breasts and not the storm.
It’s especially funny to see Dennis lose his confidence around a woman. In one scene, he brashly shoots down a couple of cute girls when they ask if they can bring their boyfriends to the Hurricane Party. “How did you not know that the reason I invited you to my bar was to bang you?” In the next, he turns into a semi-retarded boob while trying to pick up on the busty news anchor that he thinks he’s in love with.
Rickety Cricket has never made, and probably will never make, an appearance without the Gang somehow further destroying his life. First, they got him to leave his position as a priest in the Catholic Church, then they got him addicted to drugs and turned him over to the mob, then Mac and Dennis hunted him, then Frank cut his jugular with a trash can while wrestling, and now Frank shoots him in the hand and locks him in a hot car like a dog. Cricket is a warmly welcome character that deserves to pop up at least once each season just so the Gang can continue ruining his life.
It’s refreshing to go from the previous mediocre period piece episode to one where the Gang is back to their awful selves. Now we just need another really memorable episode like ‘The Gang Goes to the Jersey Shore‘.
