Six months in the past, the world’s unlikeliest crossover grew to become a actuality when the gang from It’s At all times Sunny in Philadelphia appeared on Abbott Elementary. It gave the unfailingly candy present an opportunity to indicate slightly edge, whereas letting the gang run unfastened in an entirely new atmosphere—have a look at our adorably imaginative people-pleaser Janine (Quinta Brunson) on the point of scrap with Candy Dee (Kaitlin Olson)! However their respective television houses are wholly totally different territories (the adult-inclined FX for Sunny vs the extra broad-appealing ABC for Abbott), a truth I forgot about till Ava’s (Janelle James) hilariously timed “sh*theads” left me questioning if I heard appropriately, solely to have my jaw drop when aforementioned cutie pie Janine, with little hesitation, drops a wholly uncensored c-bomb.
Abbott simply obtained an entire lot wilder.
It’s been two years since Sunny’s sixteenth season aired, and the depths of the gang’s depravity have blurred in my reminiscence regardless of being a longtime viewer. However from the second deviant goofballs Charlie (Charlie Day), Frank (Danny DeVito), and Mac (Rob Mac, as a result of sure, that’s how he’s now credited on the present, which makes us marvel if his colleagues are as irritated as the relaxation of us) began scheming to “pull a Blind Side on ‘em,” i.e. recruit an exceptionally tall baby into their alma mater’s basketball group, I remembered who we have been coping with, and that’s to say nothing of the horrifying mixup in the lavatory (“What’s it gonna take to persuade you to depart a spot like this and include us?”).
Diehard Abbott followers who might have tuned into the Sunny premiere would possibly object to the extent of its degenerate humor, as individuals have all through the present’s twenty-year run, nevertheless it permits the Abbott forged to play off of it fantastically (“A basketball recruit? Oh, thank God! My thoughts was going to horrible locations”). It’s an especially humorous present all by itself—the scene the place Ava mocks Janine’s exasperated panting broke me on every rewatch of this episode—however seeing Abbott play straight man to Sunny’s gleefully incompetent debauchery makes for an important bit of synergistic television.
Although most of the particular person Sunny hijinks was proven in the Abbott episode—save for Dennis (Glenn Howerton), who, we’ve now found, spent a lot of the time working an impromptu espresso operation due to his distinctive mix of sporadic cleverness combined with spite (“I’m like Walter White over right here”)—the “further footage” gives us some additional perception on extra of the gang’s ridiculous stunts throughout their weeklong neighborhood service. When Frank (Danny DeVito), Charlie (Charlie Day), and Dennis’ plan to assemble an underage boy band is thwarted (“You see, the unhealthy boy is the most necessary one. As a result of the unhealthy boy makes the sexual element much less bizarre”), they flip their consideration to a barely extra well-intended plan to provide the children a historical past lesson by having their academics do an up to date rendition of “We Didn’t Begin the Hearth” (Sheryl Lee Ralph’s over-the-top adlibs are very good). Their response to discovering Fall Out Boy beat them to the punch is dramatic, to say the least.
Now that the double episode crossover is full, my remaining verdict is that it’s a pleasant shakeup for the sometimes PG-13 collection, although the mix ends in what seems like a barely muted Sunny; the sensation evens out a smidge solely in the remaining couple of minutes, when the setting is reversed and the gang is again on their very own dirty turf at Paddy’s Pub. It’s an important one-off (two-off?) occasion, however I’m trying ahead to seeing the gang occupying a full half hour moderately than share the display screen time. However like the metropolis of Philadelphia, my weekly viewing schedule is sufficiently big for the each of them.
Kaleena Rivera is the TV Editor for Pajiba.