'It's Always Sunny' and The Inspired Facial Wizardry Of Dennis Reynolds

By Petr Knava | TV | September 12, 2016 |

‘Dee, I will slap you in the teeth!’

For long time viewers of the show, one of the many, many great pleasures of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia is Glenn Howerton’s portrayal of Dennis Reynolds. More specifically the gradual unraveling of his sanity (or the slow slipping of his mask of normalcy, depending on how you want to look at it) and the way Howerton portrays this through some absolutely inspired facial wizardry. Sometimes it’s more subtle, sometimes absolutely in your face, but over the years it’s become one of the key pillars of this fantastic, hilarious show about awful, awful people.

This Wednesday’s episode was an amazing demonstration of this. It was a joyous exploration of the depths of Dennis Reynolds’ madness, as he and Mac took a bet that they — city dwellers through and through — wouldn’t be able to last a month in a beautiful, spacious suburban home, complete with green lawns, an hour-long commute, and an aww-shucks neighbour called Wally who just will not stop remarking on how hot it is today, huh? They start out kidding themselves that everything is ‘at ease’ and much less stressful than the city, but it doesn’t take long for the particular rhythms and flavours of suburban living to kick in, and day-by-day they drive Mac and Dennis Shining-like mad. (It doesn’t help that Frank and Charlie are doing ‘something with Russian hats’ back in the city that looks really fun but that Mac and Dennis just can’t understand because, ‘you had to be there’.)

This post is, quite simply, just an appreciation of one man’s undoing at the hands of the suburbs, of the weakening of the already-straining surface tension that keeps his madness under control, and an appreciation of the wonder that is Dennis Reynolds’ face.

Warning: Spoilers.



Mac: ‘I call it: Mac’s Famous Man ‘n’ Cheese!’



‘Ok, but I mean I don’t really know how famous it is. I’m your friend and I’ve never heard of it.’



‘Let’s just get a good night’s sleep’



‘That one noise is just so much louder than all the city noises. You fixate!’



‘Luckily I’ve got the commute to relax.’



Mac: ‘Mostly I just tried to get the living room set up.’



‘Hey slow down, children play here, you fat cow!’



Wally: ‘Hot one today, huh?’



‘Goddammit, what is that?!’





‘Are you sure you don’t have a dog?’



‘No, don’t merge, don’t merge! We’ll all wait for you to send your text, YOU FAT PIG!’



Wally: ‘How you doin’, neighbour?’



‘You ever been in a storm, Wally? Not a thunderstorm, but a real storm. A storm of fists.’



‘What’s that?’

Mac: ‘Dog grave.’

‘Huh.’



Mac: ‘Anything exciting happen at work today?’



‘Newsflash, asshole!’



Charlie: ‘You got this man! In less than a minute, you guys’ll have been here for a month!’



All hail the King of the Face, Dennis Reynolds!

But seriously — those damn Russian hats? What’re they doing with ‘em?! WE NEED TO KNOW!





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Petr Knava plays music

Petr is a staff contributor. You can follow him on Twitter.

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