It’s time to accept that Kaitlin Olson is the funniest of them all in ‘It’s Always Sunny’
Dee makes every joke, hare-brained scheme, and messy situation funnier. Olson (and Dee) is the show’s secret sauce.
It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia has a secret weapon, and it’s not the gun that Danny DeVito’s Frank Reynolds keeps on his person at all times.
It’s Kaitlin Olson, the show’s only female lead.
In the grand tradition of Elaine Benes, the character made famous by Julia Louis-Dreyfus on Seinfeld, “Sweet Dee” Reynolds is “one of the guys” — she’s just as depraved and degenerate as the men on the show. To say every character on Always Sunny is a disgusting freak is an understatement, but that’s the point. And thankfully, Dee is no different.
She doesn’t limit herself to the typically “feminine” role where she watches the guys run amok and shakes her head in disapproval. And because Dee gets down and dirty with the guys, she makes every joke, harebrained scheme, and messy situation funnier.
Alongside her dad Frank, her brother Dennis (Glenn Howerton), and their “friends” Ronald “Mac” McDonald (Rob Mac) and Charlie Kelly (Charlie Day), Dee is, ostensibly, a proprietor of the fictional version of Paddy’s Pub. (Yes, there is a Paddy’s Pub on Race Street in Old City; it’s unaffiliated but smartly takes advantage of the publicity anyway.)
But as Always Sunny fans familiar with the show’s lore know, this wasn’t always the case. When Olson auditioned for the series, she was dismayed to find her lines parroting gender stereotypes. She almost turned the series down.
Olson and Mac (they’d go on to get married in 2008) had a direct conversation about letting Dee be funny. Mac agreed and ultimately convinced her to give the project another chance. Dee has held her own against the four other reprobates ever since.
She is, without question, a terrible person; at one point she pretends that she tragically lost her child just to avoid being audited, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. You’re not supposed to like Dee. Honestly, you’re not supposed to like any of these people. The way Olson plays her, though, makes you keep watching.
It shouldn’t feel groundbreaking that a woman on TV is given room to be reprehensible, but it somehow is. Olson takes full advantage of her character’s enormous flaws, and to great effect.
Something particularly striking about Olson as a performer is the way she dials in very intensely for every moment of every scene, particularly when Dee is cartoonishly awful. Her eyes go wide, her voice rises two octaves (so that she can scream obscenities). Fans of the show know that any time Dee retches or gags, they’re in for a very, very gross treat. In a lesser show, the only girl probably wouldn’t be this gross. Always Sunny’s greatness is defined by just how weird and off-putting Dee can be.
Olson is a master of inventive, strange line readings; years before Catherine O’Hara started playing Moira Rose on Schitt’s Creek, Olson was elongating syllables and words to extraordinary effect. The way she says “god d- it” is downright brilliant.
The actress is also wholly determined when it comes to stunts. Marc Scizak, one of the show’s former stunt coordinators, once revealed that she would frequently perform them herself even if a double was willing to do it.
"Who Pooped the Bed?" is a beloved Always Sunny episode for many reasons, but chief among them is a moment where Dee, caught trying to shoplift a pair of shoes, makes a run for it, and collides headfirst with a parked car. Olson did that herself. A later episode, "The Gang Goes to a Water Park," sees Dee stuck in a slide; Olson also performed that stunt.
In Always Sunny, the characters rarely grow, evolve, or learn to become better people. Dee starts off as, and remains, a craven woman who doesn’t seem to care about anybody, but that hasn’t hampered Olson’s performance in the last two decades. Quite the contrary. She has simply leaned into Dee’s most disgusting impulses, whether she’s losing bets at a dog track and eating dog food to win again, or trying to drink enough beers on a plane to beat Wade Boggs’ alleged record.
It’s oddly and disturbingly satisfying to see the depths to which Dee sinks, and in the hands of a less talented actress, Dee would probably still be funny, but not the glue that holds the show together. Olson (and Dee) is the show’s secret sauce.
With all due respect to Mac, DeVito, Day, and Howerton, Olson is the funniest person on the show. She is finally getting her time in the sun thanks to her guest role on Max’s Emmy-winning Hacks, which earned Olson an Emmy nomination.
Olson’s name belongs in the same bracket as comedy luminaries like Louis-Dreyfus, Tina Fey, and Kristen Wiig, but she’s usually left out of the conversation. Being the only woman in a comedy full of men isn’t easy. But like these actresses, Olson paves the way for others to follow in her footsteps. Maybe, thanks to her work, the “nagging woman” archetype can be a thing of the past (a girl can dream!), or at least become slightly less common.
Olson’s work in Always Sunny is nothing short of magnificent, and after two decades on the air, she’s still firing on all cylinders, providing perfect reaction shots and line readings even when Dee isn’t the main focus of the scene.
It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’s 20-year mark is the perfect time to recognize Olson’s brilliance, consistency, and commitment in the role of Dee — because without her, the show’s version of Philadelphia would be cloudy and gray.