TVSquad

(S03E09) Despite what we -- and Rob McElhenney -- thought was going to happen, FX has decided to stop airing back-to-back episodes of Sunny one week early. Does that mean that the show's ratings are so good that the network wants to spread things out a little more? Let's hope so. I mean, the longer we have new episodes of Sunny the better...

Anyway, this was an episode where the seemingly thrown-together B story was much funnier than the A-story featured in the title. In fact, if the episode was "The Boys Create a Band," that would probably have been a more accurate reflection of what dominated the episode. But you can't go wrong with the title they went with.

Oh, and there's another good reason why the title is the way it was: It ties perfectly into the cold open, like usual. "I am not dating a retarded person!" protests Dee, right before the title card flashes on the screen. It's a more elegant way to say "Uh... yeah, you are, you gold-digging whore!"

Poor Dee. She thinks she's smarter and more sophisticated than the rest of the gang, when we know she is just as dumb and depraved as the any of them. So when she was informed by Dennis that her rapper boyfriend might just be retarded ("He took class in a trailer outside the school. He rode the short bus!"), we don't feel sorry for her in the least.

Here's a question for you, though: didn't Dee and Dennis go to the same elementary school? I mean, they're twins! Dennis said that he went to school with the guy, but you'd think at the very least he'd ask Dee if he remembered Lil' Kevin, too. I guess it could have been possible that they went to separate schools, with the promising Dennis going to a private school and the back-braced, disappointing Dee dumped into public school.

Anyway, the best part of the plot was the "Normal vs Retarded" scoreboard Dennis was keeping, adding points to it at will. "Where did you get four from?" protests Dee. "No, it's Retarted 3, Normal 1." As we found out, Kevin isn't really all that retarded -- he may like his cartoons and juiceboxes, but he can freestyle bitter rants about Dee pretty quickly -- and Dee's just in it because Kevin's becoming famous.

Like, I said, that B plot, where Charlie, Mac and Frank form a band, was the better of the two stories. I mean, there wasn't much of an actual story there, but it was funny seeing Mac pick a guitar based on how he looked with it, Frank wear a bad toupee and an ill-fitting New Wave-era skinny-tie suit, and Charlie sing a song about how the "Nightman" pins him down and comes inside of him. "Dayman" might have been a better song, but that's only because Charlie created it after huffing spray paint for hours. How much is that trashed hotel room going to cost Frank, by the way?

Who knew that Charlie had musical talent? He not only can play keyboards but he can sing, too. And, at the very least, his dressing like Bob Dylan beats Dennis' spandex and codpiece. How he got "Nightman" from those pictogram lyrics is anyone's guess. It's amazing what an illiterate can do when he's motivated. Of the band names given, I kind of like "Pecan Sandies" the best, only because of the reason why Frank's twisted mind came up with that name. "Chemical Toilet" is next, especially when paired up on the bill with "Electric Dream Machine."

This was a funnier episode than some of the ones we've seen during the last few weeks. I think it was because we're just seeing the gang's normal degenerate behavior instead of a special "concept" episode. To me, that's when things work the best, especially when they're not all off in little groups. Not sure if the remaining six episodes will be this way, but we know that next week's will. Why? Because it's "Mac is a Serial Killer," the episode that's been playing on MySpace since the summer. And it's classic Sunny.