It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia: Every Season Ranked Worst To Best (So Far)

The brainchild of star Rob McElhenney, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia is set to become the longest-running live-action comedy series in US television with its upcoming fifteenth season. At the end of 2020, it was renewed by FX through to its eighteenth season, meaning fans have still got quite a lot to look forward to.

Initially gaining a small cult following, streaming services such as Netflix have secured the show a place as one of the most popular comedies currently on-air.

Known for its irreverent humour, dark social satire and the sheer insanity of its lead characters, It's Always Sunny is a wonderfully unique sitcom, mainly due to the fact that Charlie, Dennis, Dee, Mac and Frank are all pretty terrible people, but all equally endearing and easy to root for. Even if you can never really explain why...

As of this writing, fourteen seasons have aired, and like all shows some are far stronger than others. That being said, none are out-right bad, and it's a testament to the writing of McElhenney and co-stars Charlie Day and Glenn Howerton that the show has never slipped into the realm of "bad TV." With that in mind, here are all 14 seasons of It's Always Sunny ranked worst to best.

The problem with Sunny's thirteenth season is easy to spot, and it all comes down to the absence of Glenn Howerton's Dennis Reynolds. Without Dennis, the usual banter between the gang seems almost tame in comparison to earlier seasons, and this inconsistency ends up dampening the narrative of the season slightly.

That being said, it's still got splashes of brilliance. Early in the season, the gang tackle Trumpism in "The Gang Makes Paddy's Great Again," and they feel the power of the Me Too movement in "Time's Up for the Gang." There's also the brilliantly old-school "The Gang Escapes", in which they try to get out of an escape room.

Then, of course, there's that finale. In "Mac Finds His Pride", Mac tries to come out to his father, and does so by giving a deeply moving dance routine. It's a great sequence, giving the show it's most heartfelt moment. There are blips, best seen in "The Gang does a Clip Show" and the uninspired Wade Boggs sequel, but all told season thirteen is good TV, simply let down by some maddening inconsistencies.