The words were immortal long before last night: “Day Man (ah), fighter of the Nightman (ah), Champion of the sun, you’re a master of karate and friendship for everyone.” First introduced by Charlie and Dennis in the instant classic Season 3 episode “Sweet Dee’s Dating a Retarded Person,” the song of Day Man and Nightman has been the most significant pop culture contribution of FX’s lone comedy (Testees doesn’t count because it blows). Like Jesse Spano’s drug-addled rendition of “I’m So Excited” on Saved By The Bell, “Day Man” is a moment that stands above almost every other comedic bit in this series’ history.
Whether last night’s episode was designed specifically to build upon Day Man’s rampant popularity among fans, or whether it was just a favorite amongst The Gang themselves, last night’s episode has carved itself a new place in Sunny lore as one of the best and most ridiculous episodes of them all. Let’s breakdown what made “The Nightman Cometh” almost worth the terrible season of episodes that preceded it:
1. Singular Focus — The writing in this episode was brilliant, and I’m not just talking about the funny stuff. Whether you realized it or not, this episode was constructed in a very different way from any other episode in the show’s history. Where most episodes feature an A story, a B story and sometimes a C story, this episode had only an A story. Moreover, this episode’s sole story focused on a single character, Charlie. So rather than get a normal episode with a Mac/Charlie storyline, a Dee/Dennis storyline, and a Frank storyline (for example), this episode had only the “Charlie writes a musical” plot, in which all the other characters were involved. Whereas this series has always felt like an ensemble show, last night’s episode felt like an episode of My Name is Earl or something, with Charlie as our sole protagonist and Frank, Charlie, Dee, Artemis, Dennis, and The Waitress as the kooky cast of supporting characters around him. In a season full of ill-conceived formula busting, this was one unique choice that actually paid off for the one episode in which it was utilized (unlike setting an episode in 1776, doing a B-movie type mystery, or losing Frank for a whole episode– all of which were horrible choices this season).
2. Structure — The structure of the episode was flawless. It seems so simple, but its so darn effective: At the start, Charlie is totally gung-ho about the musical. He argues with the rest of the Gang that for once, they should try doing something without focusing on personal gain or competition (”But who are we doing this against?”). At first, the gang drags their heels, but Charlie begs them to respect his wishes this one time, and put on what he thinks is a terrific musical. By the end of the episode, the Gang has (for the most part) put their egos aside and they pull off an actually entertaining musical without making it all about themselves. But then we have the genius “reveal” — the entire musical was conceived as a vehicle by which Charlie could propose to The Waitress. All along, Charlie has been doing everything for his own personal gain, and he’s the one who ends up ruining what could’ve been a genuinely crowd-pleasing evening of entertainment. At it’s most basic, Charlie is X, the Gang is Y, but by the end, the Gang has become X and Charlie is revealed to have been Y all along. It’s ironic, it’s clever, it’s simple– it’s a perfectly satisfying story structure, and it really shows off the writing skills of the show’s Big 3 stars/writers/producers.
3. Danny Devito — For me, hearing Frank Reynolds sing the “Troll Toll” song about getting into the “boy’s hole” was the funniest part of the episode. I laughed harder at that moment than I had since “The Gang Solves the Gas Crisis” a month ago. Good god, Danny Devito is so funny when they use him well. This season has been a HUGE waste of his comedic talent, and I was relieved and happy to see this incredible asset finally utilized. We have to pray that the guys have learned from their mistakes this year, and go back to the Frank Reynolds of Seasons 2 and 3, who was an enhancement to each episode, not a burden.
4. Music — Surprise! The cast of It’s Always Sunny has some pretty good musical skills. While the married couple of Rob McElhenney (Mac) and Kaitlin Olson (Dee) can both carry a tune well, Charlie Day (Charlie) and Glenn Howerton (Dennis) have legit musical talents, and it was cool to see all these talents on display. From the actual music and lyrics of “The Nightman Cometh” to the individual singing and harmony, I was impressed by the range of talent on display here. I appreciate multi-talented individuals, and I’m glad the guys gave themselves a chance to show off a bit. While they aren’t quite in Trey Parker territory (who writes and sings every single on South Park EVER), they’ve shown themselves to be able composers and musicians. I hope it won’t be the last time we see singing on this show!
5. Absurdity — Mac doing karate moves across a stage with cat eye contact lenses? Dennis and Dee singing about pedophilia? The entire cast singing “Day Man” in harmony while marching down the stage? Mac and Dennis switching parts while Frank orders the cat contact lenses over the phone? I could go on and on. This episode was chock-full of vintage Sunny banter, over-the-top antics, and the hilarious self-centeredness upon which the series thrives. After the uneven mush they called Season 4, I’m thankful that even in a ridiculous musical episode, we still got a decent dose of the bread and butter stuff that Sunny has always done so beautifully. No one can talk over each other like The Gang. No one.
As I mentioned, this episode alone is not enough to overcome the atrocity that was Season 4. Of the 13 episodes that aired over the last 2 months, maybe 4 or 5 were keepers. I will say that when an episode was good, it was really fricking good. ”The Nightman Cometh,” “The Gang Solves the Gas Crisis” and the 2-part “Mac and Charlie Die” were 4 of the best episodes ever. But that leaves about 3 or 4 pretty good episodes and 5 or 6 stinkers. I suppose that when you look at how difficult it is to even create a television series, let alone sustain it for 4 seasons at 13 episodes a season, knocking a 3rd of your episodes out of the park is a pretty decent batting average. My hope for next season is merely that they learn from the mistakes of this season: Stick to what works. Allow yourself the freedom to screw with the modus operandi of the show, but don’t let experimentation take the place of tried and true success. If you’re going to change something about the episode, make sure you keep everything else the same. For example, in “Who Pooped the Bed,” the structure of the episode was already different enough. Did we need the weird B-movie cinematography and 10 minute-long Artemis monologue as well?
When Sunny rocks, it rocks like nobody’s business. ”The Nightman Cometh” rocked. Hard. We’ll miss you until next fall, dear Sunny. Let’s hope you build on the success of Charlie’s musical.
“Nightman 2″ anyone?
Grade: A
Season 4 Grade: B
