What starts out as being just a very pleasant, funny current show with a nice original vibe to it eventually turns into one of the strongest comedy shows in modern American TV.
A gang of worthless, completely broken, nihilistic individuals; each one more messed up than the next in his own way; wreak havoc on everything they touch and everyone unfortunate enough to cross their paths.
The show is strong on many levels. The combined and distinct humors of Charlie, Mac and Dennis as writers, coupled with a very strong and coherent character development aspect, and the ability for the show to come up with new ideas and story lines and (somehow) not feel blatantly stupid and redundant despite the VERY minimalistic main plot... all makes for a very steady foundation that allows for plenty of seasons to be binged through seamlessly.
There's a difference between what the first couple of seasons feel like, and what seasons 7 and 8 feel like, and then what the last few seasons feel like... but there's a consistent quality to each episode, and they manage not to repeat themselves or go crazy just to remain relevant at all.
The supporting cast is great too: the mothers, Danny Devito, "sweet" Dee, and the character "Cricket" in particular is brilliant - with the funniest scenes usually involving any of the McPoyle family members (and milk).
On a slightly deeper note: the show may come across as too dark at times with its humor, but it seems as one gets up in age to where they're closer to the guys in the show's age, it's just comedy for the sake of comedy so there's definitely a certain cynicism about it all and the moralities drawn from the episodes are quite brutal: people are hopeless and hopelessly unchangeable, bad habits never break and life is tough and unfair so you might as well waste yourself away... but it's all for the laughs in the end.
A solid 8/10.
A gang of worthless, completely broken, nihilistic individuals; each one more messed up than the next in his own way; wreak havoc on everything they touch and everyone unfortunate enough to cross their paths.
The show is strong on many levels. The combined and distinct humors of Charlie, Mac and Dennis as writers, coupled with a very strong and coherent character development aspect, and the ability for the show to come up with new ideas and story lines and (somehow) not feel blatantly stupid and redundant despite the VERY minimalistic main plot... all makes for a very steady foundation that allows for plenty of seasons to be binged through seamlessly.
There's a difference between what the first couple of seasons feel like, and what seasons 7 and 8 feel like, and then what the last few seasons feel like... but there's a consistent quality to each episode, and they manage not to repeat themselves or go crazy just to remain relevant at all.
The supporting cast is great too: the mothers, Danny Devito, "sweet" Dee, and the character "Cricket" in particular is brilliant - with the funniest scenes usually involving any of the McPoyle family members (and milk).
On a slightly deeper note: the show may come across as too dark at times with its humor, but it seems as one gets up in age to where they're closer to the guys in the show's age, it's just comedy for the sake of comedy so there's definitely a certain cynicism about it all and the moralities drawn from the episodes are quite brutal: people are hopeless and hopelessly unchangeable, bad habits never break and life is tough and unfair so you might as well waste yourself away... but it's all for the laughs in the end.
A solid 8/10.