weeddennis

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dennis takes a mental health day x capitalist realism

iasip 16.08 - dennis takes a mental health day, mark fisher - capitalist realism

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What the HELL is going on with Mac this season by the way. He's literally just chilling. He's doing his own thing. He's unsuprised by it all, just... overseeing the proceedings, eyebrow cocked and loaded. Frequently the voice of reason. Mac.

What's he UP to.

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there's something in the fact that mac assumes that freddie mercury was 100% straight because he only perceives him as masculine and tough while dennis assumes that freddie mercury was 100% gay because he only perceives him as flamboyant and camp. neither of them recognise the nuance of his identity just like they don't recognise nuance in their own. mac can only be gay or a badass, not both. dennis can only be into women or in an openly sexual relationship with mac, not both.

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It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia – 17.07: The Gang Gets Ready for Prime Time

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i loooveee Succession

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my sweet dee hollywood dream amv

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the insane frank meta that is 'you're the monster but you're the fun monster'

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mac looked so cutesy sitting there w an ice pack on his head

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why did mac say palling around in the bedroom. I don't know what that could even possibly be in reference to lol

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do u think dennis is terrified of becoming older than his mother ever got

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sorry for posting this but did anyone notice that when dennis picks dees outfit he kinda dresses her up like

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putting aside the macdennis of it all, i truly hope glenn and the rest of the cast know how loved they are by cult sunny fans. i'm sure they don't need me or anyone to defend them lol but honestly if you comment and speculate on the bodies of celebs you are so chopped and embarrassing and weird i don't even care. you would probably have aesthetic interventions if you had the money too–try being under the scrutiny of millions of strangers every single day, your every move being surveilled. celebrities are products yes and it is their job to look "good" (whatever that even means) but they are still fucking people. they can see the disgusting comments you put about them online. it's not even that i'm trying defend middle-aged white men (and obviously it's 1,000x worse for women). but i think this episode just refers to the wider issue with how we treat aging and appearances. i genuinely don't think sunny has changed in quality at all over 20 years (there's a lot more to be said about why i think this but just take its consistently high ratings as one example for now) but people don't care about that because the actors aren't young anymore. idk the face tape was really striking to me in particular, the way it literally distorts dennis' face, giving him that uncanny valley appearance to the point where the substance of what he was saying in his speech was just ignored by the audience because they found him creepy–making him into a spectacle ("this is amazing"). i noticed that the fake family frank hired are all significantly younger than the gang as well which just proves how obsessed the industry is with age. the lengths people will go to in order to appear what they perceive as "normal" or "palatable" is just so devastating and of course it goes beyond appearances–which is where dennis' sexuality and his relationship with mac ties in. i do think the decision to make mac gay changed the general audience's perception of the show completely.

i love you macdennis obviously and mac is my favourite character trust me i'm so so happy we got karate and the duster and vampire lovers and boyfriends! but seeing dennis at his most vulnerable like this, literally pleading and begging the audience (the focus group AND us!!) to just see him as a fucking person was the highlight of the episode for me. "people either get ya or they don't get ya"! i love you dennis reynolds. kinda relieved he doesn't have to stress about being on tv now and relive his family fight trauma but he has just been replaced by a younger version of himself. by the man who raised him. i'm absolutely devastated for him in general and am absolutely terrified for next week

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Charlie Just announced on the Today Show that they start writing Season 18 in October!!

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I think an aspect of The Gang Gets Ready for Prime Time people might be overlooking is that the viewers aren’t the only ones this play is about, it’s also very much about the writing of the characters.

And, as almost always when it comes to viewing these characters in certain environments, you cannot treat them all as equals. Neither Charlie nor Dennis are comfortable being in front of a live audience. This is shown over and over again (Sweet Dee’s Dating, Family Fight, Wolf Cola, PTSDee, etc.) and, perhaps most beautifully, in this Season’s premiere. Dee and Mac, in complete contrast, are desperate for attention and feedback, especially in the face of an audience/camera (Sweet Dee on Fire, Billboard, Goes to Hell, Wolf Cola, etc).

So whereas Dennis and Charlie are using this experience to rehearse normalcy in front of an audience/camera they don’t like to be in front of, Mac and Dee are using this experience to showcase their personalities in front of an audience/camera they thrive in front of… and that’s where the character commentary clearly diverges, obvious in the result of the scores, but perhaps less obvious as to what that means.

After Rehearsal 1, Charlie and Dennis only get “confused feedback" and comments on their appearances, because their performances were rooted in stifling their insecurities. Their attempts to look normal were a little botched, and now they only have negative feedback to try and correct. Because Mac and Dee veer the other way and play to an aspect of their personality that they like (being macho and being funny), they get enough positive feedback that allows them to try and improve.

So by Rehearsal 2, you have Dennis and Charlie even worse off, Dennis obsessing over his insecurities, tripping over his words and snapping and Charlie spiralling into a character of himself no one can recognise, to a point where they’re rejected by the audience even further for those insecurities and disregarded; meanwhile Dee and Mac much better off, leaning in to their strong suits allowed for their real personalities to shine from behind, which gave way for genuine feedback about themselves that’s revealling:

Mac, who has had his personality neutered by his obsession with having a singular identity, ends up realising from the audience feedback that people like him when he’s a mix of things, and he’s taking in this feedback and excited to build on it. He’s excited to find out an audience can view him as both badass and gay (and with Dennis)… as a vampire (s)layer, even (of course he takes it to an insane place, because that’s Mac.)

Dee, who has had her personality rejected by the Gang due to their dogpiling of her, is able to discover that she is funny, even situationally so, and her gags are not only encouraged but enjoyed as repeats, she's only dinged by a few due to the fact that she comes off as pathetically sad.

In my reading, this is indeed the writers addressing Dee and Mac criticisms of recent years (S13/14 heavily), and acknowledging their own shortcomings with characterisation there, using the repeat audience members who like their quirky personalities to highlight this in the neutering that occurs in Rehearsal #3:

"Dee never has anything to do ("How come I don't have any lines?"), they cut all her screentime and so she has no role in the Gang. ("How am I supposed to pop with this? I need to be slinging zingers.")" They are showcasing that Dee is a funny character, and having the return audience all sigh disappointingly when she sits down and they don't get the rubber chicken cry is acknowledging Dee as a central, reliant point of the comedy whose expected beats have been missing at times.

"Mac became one dimensional, all he cares about now is being gay/getting Dennis and he's lost every other aspect of his personality that fans loved." 'Badass' Mac made a fantastic showing, to the audience's delight, but the return audience witnessing him clean cut and falling in line, giving in and up to Dennis, results in vocal protest. "Let your boyfriend flip." Mac can be more than one thing at a time, people want to see every aspect of him, regardless of what his current focus is.

Charlie at the end, saying, "Forget it, can we just be us? We're trying to please everybody and that never works, man," is not him telling the Gang to accept that they're going to get a low rating from the audience no matter what, it's him telling them to forget what just happened. Forget the 3. Because the audience's rejection of Dee and Mac in the final Rehearsal wasn't about the audience at all, it was about the characters changing, for no good reason to the deterioration of themselves.

"People either get you or they don't get you, you know what I'm saying?" being met with Dee's very adamant "Yes." is clear enough to me: the audience was getting Dee until her gags were taken away from her; the audience was getting Mac until he was pushed into the role of sit down and shut up to please.

Dee and Mac being able to directly face the audience and see their enjoyment and encouragement of their over-the-top, raw personalities for themselves, has freed them of allowing themselves to be scripted into boxes based on their insecurities. They are free to re-embrace those things (as the writers are doing once more).

(This is obviously Dee/Mac focused, I would love to see someone expand on what I bounce off of with Charlie/Dennis here, if possible)

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dennis’ self perception crumbling when he hired a group of people to literally tell them exactly what they think of him and they all perceive him correctly which is the exact opposite of how he wants to be seen AND part of that being perceived correctly is that he’s in a relationship with mac let’s all kill ourselves

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Let’s recap Dee’s night during primetime:

Never looked better + jokes are hitting + brother being called gay