5 out of 5

Although it’s whittled down to a slim ten episodes a season the past few years, occasionally, Sunny hits a rough patch.  Whether it’s over-reliance on nostalgia gags or a general lack of coherence that’s propped up by excess… some episodes just don’t make ya’ laugh.  I must say, though, as I browse over the list of episodes from the past ten or whatever years, I don’t actually see the rough patches.  But that’s a love that’s been rose-tinted by many, many repeat viewings of episodes that I didn’t initially warm to.  And while every season has offered its genius moments, I’ve approached them somewhat cautiously, eyeballing the list of writers and directors and noting, sometimes, how little the original crew is involved.

Ah, but season 10.  When the season starts as strongly as ‘The Gang Beats Boggs’ – though not written by The Gang – it gives you goosebumps, reminders of those first few seasons when the laughs came from incredibly unexpected directions (which is nice, as the ep was written by the Chernins, whose episodes have generally been amusing but maybe not amongst the best).  And the pace kept up, each episode maintaining fairly strong plotty throughlines while giving everyone a chance to actually shine (and act) and not fall back to much on college-kid pleasing in-jokes, with another pinnacle achieved with the genius Charlie Work, certainly one of the most energetic and inventive episodes from the show’s entire run.  Coincidence that the entire season, save ‘Boggs’ was either written by our main troupe or dudes who’ve been around since at least season 3?  Mm.  Maybe.

As usual, I should dock the DVD for being pretty lame – the ‘gag reel’ is five minutes of people laughing during takes (which always makes ya’ laugh, as it’s infectious, but there are some shots of improv moments I wish we could say more of), and I know we’re never, ever again going to get commentary…  And while I realize ten episodes can’t fit on one disc, the five episodes a disc feels fairly lame, though recognizing that it’s unavoidable.  At least some more effort into the menus would be nice.

…So you should see it as a sign of how goddamned good I think this season is that I’m fine allotting it five stars despite DVD lameness; that if you don’t have easy access to a streaming service when this is inevitably made streamable, that this is one of the seasons you should own.  And, uh, I guess that’s all there is to say about that.