4. The Gang Misses The Boat (Season 10 - Episode 6)
Throughout the history of sitcoms, an underlying "will they, won't they?" tension has acted as the lifeblood of many a show. In making their major characters a gang of reprehensible sociopaths, Sunny has avoided this tiresome convention extremely well. In Season 10, when the creators eventually decided to pair off two of the main characters, it came across as a genuinely shocking moment. Charlie and Dee spend the majority of the episode getting along incredibly well, brushing off the antagonism of Mac, Dennis and Frank, and bonding over a shared love of beat poetry. Their eventual kiss is shockingly intimate and genuine, defying the heartless precedent set by nine previous seasons. Things predictably revert to type the following morning, which sees the pair furiously deny any shenanigans to the rest of the gang, but the moment remains a shocking landmark of the whole series. Sunny might have earned its fanbase by defying the conventions of its genre, but it also brilliantly flaunts its own rules on occasion - a major factor in the show's continuing freshness, even ten seasons in.