Since its 2005 release, TV series "It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia "has become notorious for its eccentric personalities, dark comedy themes and over-the-top escalation of each situation its main characters get themselves into. Though the series has three writers, each share an equal amount of responsibility for covering such daring ground. One of these major creators is Glenn Howerton, known best for his role as a main character crucial for the group’s dynamic, Dennis Reynolds.
Though "It’s Always Sunny" was perceived by the cast and audience alike as immune to growing stale or being canceled, Howerton’s recent actions prompted all fans of the series to reconsider its longevity. This fear was sparked first by the final episode of season 12, “Dennis’ Double Life,” during which, Dennis discovers that he has a son and decides to leave Philadelphia to raise him.
The episode, and season, ends with Dennis leaving, only to be followed by an interview about the future of the series, in which Howerton stated he wasn’t yet certain about his future with the show. It has since been confirmed that Dennis will return with the rest of the crew for a 13th season in 2018, which is quite a relief, as Dennis was too crucial of a character to be omitted.
The group at Paddy’s Pub is comprised of all equally radical characters, and Dennis is no exception, but he comes closest to leading the group in their endeavors and serves, to some degree, as the gang’s “everyman.” This responsibility often fell somewhere between Dennis and his roommate, Mac, as the series began, but Dennis’ calculated personality proved superior to Mac’s ignorant and emotional one, and Dennis gained control most notably by keeping each member of the gang grounded, albeit through manipulation and insult.
His relationship with Mac was compared several times to that of, as his sister, Dee, put it, “an old married couple.” The show has elaborated on this in several episodes, in which Dennis is portrayed as the resentful husband, bordering very close to insanity when he and Mac move into the suburbs. This concept serves as a means for Dennis to keep Mac below him by psychologically abusing him.
While he often did this by lashing out at Mac for simple stupidities, like proposing that the two use a Dave and Busters gift card at competing restaurants or refusing to look him in the eye while complaining, Dennis has confessed to providing Mac with “fat pills,” resulting in Mac putting on a massive amount of weight in a nearly inhuman amount of time. Some friendship.
Though the series usually puts Mac at the end of Dennis’s shame, the other three members of the gang have certainly not been immune to his criticism. As the only female member in a gang of drunks and the target for conventional sibling rivalry, Dee is most susceptible to rude comments from the entire group.
While the entire gang maintains a running gag of calling her a bird and reminding her how little they care about what she has to say, Dennis seems to be the leading influence in these practices, supposedly starting to abuse and analyzing her reactions during his childhood. This verbal abuse has, on several accounts, lead to a rapid decline in Dee’s self-esteem, coming to a climax in “The Gang Breaks Dee,” an episode that sees Dee degraded to a point of giving up entirely.
The manipulation of Dennis’ friends is a huge part in reinforcing the ambition that seems to give him the lead in almost every one of the gang's plans, even if he wasn’t involved in the development of them. Since the airing of "It’s Always Sunny," Dennis has led his friends in attempts to milk the welfare system, buy a boat for the purpose of further manipulation, hunt another human being, trigger the PTSD of a war veteran, seduce numerous women, and much more.
Most notable to the fan base, however, were the competitive and artistic projects Dennis either led himself or influenced somehow. While the concept of the Nightman, the Dayman, and the world in which these characters existed were the work of Charlie, a particularly unintelligent and equally eccentric friend, the grandiose song, "Dayman, "was actually co-written along with Dennis in an effort to produce songs for their glam rock duo, "Electric Dream Machine."
Perhaps the most severe of Dennis’ endeavors occurred in an attempt to “reignite the rivalry” between Paddy’s Pub and their former flip-cup competitors, who they find uninterested in the competition on account of being poisoned by the gang during the last tournament. After the encounter with their former rivals, Dennis decides to revisit his past fraternity at Pennsylvania State University to recruit a new player. An initially excited Dennis is only met with utter disrespect, as the current students tase him and graffiti his yearbook picture before he leaves. After letting the incident fester inside him, Dennis finds himself so enraged that he rounds up his friends and challenges the frat students to a game of flip cup, only to poison them in revenge.
Instances like the flip-cup tournament help illuminate what Dennis truly is in relation to the group and his own life, that being a narcissistic sociopath who dabbles dangerously close to serial killer status. Dennis showed these colors on several occasions, like instructing the gang on how to tie proper knots and chastising them for tying poor ones that “almost ruined everything,” and confessing a desire to "bind and be bound" when the gang discovered suspicious “tools” in his trunk, but one event seems to blatantly expose Dennis’ sinister side. Ironically, the goal in this scheme was for Dee to convince a psychiatrist to supply her with clinical medication, only to anger Dennis in front of the doctor by interrupting him several times. Dennis then falls into a sinister monologue, in which he claims that Dee would be more use to him if he skinned her, put her in a box, and added her to "his collection,” genuinely being diagnosed and given the medication he sought out by the psychiatrist as a result.
Dennis is prone to monologues like this, as the leadership role he enjoys comes as a result of both his cold personality and immense ego. Comments on Dennis’ character never fail to evoke an unrelenting anger, ranging from body modifications, like dying his hair jet black and fasting in response to the gang noticing a slight double-chin and several grey hairs, to drawn-out narcissistic ravings. During these monologues, Dennis takes a mild irritation or criticism in a direction that almost always results in comparing himself to God, having explicitly referred to himself as “The Golden God,” when lashing out a man interested in purchasing his car.
With such a heightened sense of importance, it’s almost guaranteed that Dennis is actually rather sensitive, making his embarrassments additionally outrageous. Though Dennis does everything with the intention of furthering his own esteem, his irritable personality almost always comes back to haunt him, and does so in such a pathetic manner. Fans recall several meltdowns at the end of Dennis’ schemes, and have grown just as accustomed to find him screaming on the floor at the end of an episode as they have to his monologues. This debasing of Dennis’ character is most deliberately illustrated through an instance in which the gang competed in a television game show, with Dennis acting as cordially as possible in hopes to represent himself as a charismatic, handsome common man. By the end of this episode, the viewer finds Dennis quite literally doubled over on the floor and crying on account of his failure to properly represent himself on television.
Dennis Reynolds truly is a selfish, narcissistic sociopath, but that's exactly what a gang full of unorganized, flamboyant characters needs to stay grounded. If it weren't Dennis' ego and pragmatic leadership, the more eccentric characters would soon drop their position at Paddy's Pub and dissolve their friendships in an attempt to better their lives. In other words, Dennis keeps the gang miserable, and we need them to be miserable for "It's Always Sunny" to be so entertaining.
