Always Sunny In Philadelphia: Season 7 [Blu-ray]

Seven seasons in, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia continues to push the boundaries of bad taste and pure mean-spiritedness--in other words, exactly what the fans of this popular show want. It doesn't take long for the five lowlifes collectively known as "the Gang" to lower the bar (including the one they own and hang out in, Paddy's Pub) even further than before. Indeed, the tone is set in the very first of the 13 episodes in this two-disc boxed set when Frank (Danny DeVito) makes plans to marry a foul-mouthed, crackhead prostitute, only to watch her OD before he can pop the question. It ain't exactly Downton Abbey after that. Subsequent episodes find them visiting the Jersey Shore, where they variously hang out on a beach littered with used syringes, tiptoe past two homeless guys engaging in sodomy under the boardwalk, and smoke angel dust with some new liquor store-robbing "friends"; trying to file an assault charge against an obnoxious guy who "shushed" them in another bar; preparing for the advent of a Hurricane Sandy-style storm by ogling the well-endowed TV reporter who's on the scene; and, in a season-ending two-parter, attending their high school reunion, where they discover they're no more popular as adults than they were as students. Some of this is genuinely funny, like the video Frank concocts when they decide that Paddy's needs an online presence; some is just gross, including a disgusting bit about vomiting up fake blood. The fact is, there's a lot more raunch than wit in these episodes, most of which are celebrations of insults, inappropriate remarks, and just plain stupidity. Of course, one person's vulgar is another's hilarious; what some find repellent, others will consider merely irreverent. --Sam Graham