It’s a Very Sunny Christmas

If one of your favorite holiday traditions involves throwing rocks at trains then It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia: A Very Sunny Christmas might be just the Christmas special for you. The special, exclusively on DVD and Blu-ray, brings the same TV-MA humor that Sunny fans love to the holiday season as Mac, Charlie, Dennis, Sweet Dee and Frank relive their favorite Christmas traditions and try to understand the Christmas spirit.

The special gives us a glimpse into Christmas past for the Reynolds family as everyone’s favorite Grinch, Frank (Danny DeVito), gives fake-out gifts to Dennis (Glenn Howerton) and Dee (Kaitlin Olson) just to mess with them. They vow to teach him a lesson of their own by using his former business partner to pull a Christmas Carol inspired series of stunts to teach him what a jerk of a father he’s been to them. At the same time, Mac (Rob McElhenney) tries to repent for his family’s past gift-thieving ways and Charlie (Charlie Day) struggles to come to terms with his mom’s rather unique Christmas tradition. Of course, because it’s Sunny we also get a very nude DeVito exploding out of a couch, Charlie biting Santa in the throat and an animated sequence featuring an elf with no pants.

Sadly, some of show’s regulars, like The Waitress (Mary Elizabeth Ellis) Artemis (Artemis Pebdani) or Rickety Cricket (David Hornsby) are absent from the special and you can’t help but think how much funnier it would have been with a dose of those characters. Still, the animated sequence done in the classic tradition of Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer is sure to please along with the sequences featuring a young Mac and Charlie.

For serious Sunny fans, the special is a must-have with making-of footage and a bizarre sing along that feels like a glimpse into the mind of a serial killer. Those new to the series would be better off picking up seasons 1 & 2 on DVD before diving into the Holidays with The Gang.