so. MY THOUGHTS ABOUT PRIME TIME:
sorry this is gonna feel scattered and rambly because i dont feel like making a proper post having screenshots and whatever, i trust you guys remember the things i talk about anyway. feel free to disagree, I don't really care
The audience. the episode does NOT characterize them as biased in any capacity. they are a focus group, they are fully NEUTRAL and have absolutely no stakes in lying or misrepresenting things. yes, they are supposed to comment on US, the audience (duh), but the episode isn't saying they are wrong. at any point. they are strangers and outsiders to the gang, all of their comments are just them saying things HOW THEY SEE THEM. they are calling dennis' speech scary because it was scary, he made himself scary to play into his facade, that is what he does, he has always done this, that is his implication, the real breakthrough is the fact he couldn't keep it up. the audience (and us) sees it as frightening because the show is PORTRAYING it that way. and the audience keeps insisting on how the mac and dennis situation is gay and calling them boyfriends because they are commenting what is being shown to them.
Dennis is not being genuine for the majority of the episode. he is trying to steer the gang to be less like themselves, he is trying to do a thing "without comedy". he is trying to paint himself as things that HE IS NOT. youthful, for one. he is implied to be wearing a wig. he insists that he is classy (when he is not, and this has been a throughline for the whole season). his life experience is anything but classy, AND THIS APPLIES TO SUNNY. this is about sunny. sunny is not classy.
when dennis is having his speech, he is not asking the audience to see the real him, it is literally the opposite. he is BEGGING them to see him for what HE wants to be perceived as. classy, young, straight. all things he is not.
you are not supposed to take his speech at face value, I really do not think RCG is trying to say something so insanely deep here (shocker coming from me, I know), or they would not have mentioned the macdennis situation upwards of 10 times in the episode. what I mean by this is, what he is insisting to be perceived as is all a big fat LIE!
it's not that dennis doesn't want to be labeled, he clearly does. he said so: im straight, im classy, im young.
he is arguing the same thing he was during the sandwich speech in season 15 to mac (and PLEASE go rewatch that if you haven't in a while), which is that your ACTIONS do not define your identity.
and I'm sorry, but that's just not how things work. dennis is not Right in that speech, and he isn't supposed to be read as right either, as EVIDENCED by what dee tells them immediately after
when dennis says "Identity doesn't have to factor into absolutely every decision you make." at face value it is a true statement, like sure, don't act like a stereotype (something mac is known to do), but dennis is using this logic to justify the EXTREME OPPOSITE. ignoring absolutely everything about his life that doesn't align with how he sees himself.
which is... literally what mac did prior to coming out?
he has obviously been heavily traumatized by being perceived in a way that he feels is humiliating (it is), but that doesn't mean it didn't happen or "doesn't represent him". you are represented by the entirety of your life experiences and choices, you cannot pick and choose? either way, dennis only wanted so bad to be perceived in that (INACCURATE) way because of the fear of appearing on tv once again and reliving that painful experience, and so, he tries to hold control of the situation. obviously, one single humiliating incident ISN'T DEFINING to your entire person... but dennis feels that it is, so he is fighting tooth and nail against it at every turn.
anyway, to bring the thoughts back to were I wanted them to go, I don't see why any of this should negate what the episode is obviously saying about macdennis.
"maybe america is ready for us" is an actual callback to the gang gets romantic. and its meta cannot be misconstrued in a way that fits with dennis' character in any capacity. it is a line meant for us to dissect and consider. just as the final dialogue about how frank "went woke and didn't go broke".
I really, really, really, REALLY do not think dennis is denying the macdennis situation because it's not true. if that was the case, the entire episode just wouldn't have been written.
the macdennis situation is included as the FIRST part of the speech (arguably the most relevant, I don't know why we are trying to remove it from the overall context) and is followed by all the other things dennis wants to be perceived as, BUT ISN'T. HE ISN'T CLASSY, YOUTHFUL ETC, and in the same vein, the entire first part is a lie as well, that he is desperately trying to tell the audience by also doubling down with his scary facade, hoping it will be convincing. he can't even get through his entire speech without crying. THAT'S the real dennis behind the mask of needing to seem perfect.
I mean, for fucks sake, this is the same series where one season ago dennis used anal beads on mac. he has a system for men.
dennis doesn't feel understood or listened to by the gang and especially by mac (shown yes in tends bar but also very much in inflates) but him trying to appeal to middle america in this episode was not him trying to be genuine. that was him doubling down on the facade.
which crumbled in the end, and at the end the gang finally knows how Dennis felt during the family fight moment (and they actually see that he has feelings! wow! I don't know if this will stick but that's huge to me!). dennis isn't this emotionless scary villain (he isn't a good person either), but he also isn't normal, and definitely not more normal than the rest of the gang. makes me think of misses the boat. he Likes to think he's the only normal one and they're a bunch of freaks dragging him down. this new ep showed clear as day that the audience actually really LIKED what the gang had going on before he tried to micromanage them.
which btw is the same throughline as big mo. it follows almost the same emotional structure for dennis (only instead of giving up, he crumbles). he wants to rise in the leaderboard and he is getting everyone else down by doing this. because he is not having fun.
so... ok, I don't know if I have more to say, or if the thoughts made sense, but that's how I feel. I do not like how much I've seen the obvious macdennis commentary be dismissed as being "in the way" of dennis' character. I'm sorry, to me, it is an INEXTRICABLE part of dennis' character. in fact, if you try to look at the areas in which he is in denial about, his living situation with mac is THE first thing that becomes apparent. and he is very much in denial of that, as he tried to argue in this same episode that they might not live together forever and he's gonna look for another apartment and "find the one" (also goes to hell, "our house? why is it our house?" gee, I don't know). he has tried many times, and it has always failed. because the reality of the situation is that he lives with mac, and he's always going to.
also... "palling around platonically in the bedroom"... how much more obvious can it be? just because dennis doesn't like to acknowledge parts of his life (and not just about the nature of his relationship with mac. but like, everything else too. PTSDee...) doesn't mean they didn't happen. doesn't mean he can just choose to define them incorrectly and then move past them.
the audience is going to see through that.
his facade isn't working anymore, but when dennis talks to US directly, he is begging for it to work. he is doing all he can. the show is making it look scary. so the audience takes the bait. this always happens. this has happened so many times I've lost count.
in this one instance, we need to see through the cracks, through the "scary" and through what he is saying, into WHY he is saying it and what that means. he is not saying true things, but he is speaking in an increasingly emotionally honest way. and then eventually he just says it. "there is this other show". he actually explains his motivation.
and even if the audience doesn't get it and gets fooled by it as it ALWAYS DOES, the gang seems to have been receptive to it...
and in the end it didn't even matter, because there was never any camera, there was never any episode, there was no frank, they have all been replaced and it doesn't matter. dennis was bending himself over backwards to appeal to the focus group for an episode that never ended up existing for him. and this is what he has been doing on sunny for years. this is the Thundergun 4 of it. the FEAR OF THE AUDIENCE, the trying to change the media to appeal to a broader audience, the flyover states. the "bad reviews" from gets romantic. the jumper. woman's right to chop (and all of Season 14, actually). the expectations not being met.
that's why the emphasis on "pulling this off".
please, I am begging, do not leave out this part of the episode commentary. don't try to dismiss the actual meta they're trying to do about macdennis here.
the episode ends with "he went woke and didn't go broke". it is the heart shaped lock being opened. this is the game. the show has been playing this game for years. "let's keep this between us" is dead. the audience sees through it.
That's all I had to say, I think.
thanks to oomf for the screenshots (idk if they want a credit so i am keeping them anon for now)
I think this dialogue explains my points perfectly, he could not say it more plainly.
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