A Sunny disposition
The loud, frantic, deliberately heightened It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia has survived eight seasons now, with a ninth on the way in September. At this point it’s unlikely that any casual viewer will stumble over it by accident and be horrified by what they see. Sunny can be coarse and uncouth, but it’s also wise and witty — the very definition of a modest but surprisingly engaging TV comedy that is made on a shoestring budget but delivers big laughs.
In an eighth-season episode called Charlie Rules the World, the gang’s de facto loser, Charlie Kelly, becomes obsessed with a post-apocalyptic video game called Techpocalypse, in which World of Witchcraft meets South Park. Charlie (Charlie Day) becomes so good at the game that he racks up record-breaking scores and becomes its most popular player, with real-world gifts and a similarly obsessed Dee (Kaitlin Olson) as his suddenly grovelling real-life assistant and game queen.
For someone with ‘deep psychological problems,’ to quote his character’s Wiki entry (“... an easily excitable man-child who is unable to cope with daily problems, prone to emotional outbursts and often confused and flabbergasted by modern-day life”), this proves to be a toxic mix. (FX Canada — 8:30 p.m.) The so-called Red Wedding episode of Game of Thrones, actually titled The Rains of Castamere, gets a fresh airing, in all its gory, messy glory. It isn’t any easier to watch the second time around. (HBO — 9 p.m.) Owner’s Manual is a new realityTV challenge in which two machinery experts test whether it’s better to read the manual or trust their instincts when learning about a new piece of machinery. (AMC — 8 p.m.) The Pitch, the docu-reality challenge series on ad agency campaigns returns. (AMC — 9 p.m.)