its 20th anniversary. Season 17’s batch of eight episodes are as outrageous, offensive, and culturally inappropriate as we’d like (and expect) them to be. They hit on several trendy and hot-button topics while also deepening the show’s own twisted and malicious universe through the gang’s weird obsessions. Today, I specifically want to focus on the third episode, titled “Mac and Dennis Become EMTs,” that both pays homage to and ridicules the network’s hit drama series, the fantastic “The Bear.”
It all starts with the peppers. As one of our favorite idiots, Mac (Rob Mac) points it out early on, “Peppers spice everything up.” They certainly do, as we see in the opening scene where two EMTs are trying to resuscitate an unconscious man in Paddy’s Pub after Frank (Danny DeVito) fed him one of his unbearably hot peppers. Dennis (Glenn Howerton) and Mac are thrilled by watching the first responders work (seeing the action first-hand gives them a high) and decide to take a crash course to become like them.
Meanwhile, Dee (Kaitlin Olson) is doing a Postmates side gig, delivering food, which Frank takes advantage of to get himself a smash burger. That immediately lights a bulb in Charlie’s (Charlie Day) head, thinking he could make a burger like that (or an even better one) at home. From there, it doesn’t take long until he turns his apartment into an environment meant to resemble a fast-paced restaurant kitchen, and himself into a self-made (and delusional) “master chef” who’s macrodosing peppers to keep up with the imagined high stakes.
