Heyyyy-o! What's up, bitches? Are you ready for a new season of the funniest show on TV?

When we last saw the Always Sunny gang, they were appearing in Charlie's play, "The Nightman Cometh," as part of his elaborate and bizarre plan to win the love of The Waitress, which (unsurprisingly) didn't work. Now, while I love this show and appreciate the idea of the "rock opera," I was fairly unimpressed with the Season 4 finale because, aside from a few funny moments, it came across as a rather lackluster attempt to cash in on the popularity of "Nightman" and "Dayman." So, I'm happy to report that Season 5 finds the gang back to form, doing their twisted takes on everything from the economic downturn to the Octomom saga.

The episode starts with big news from both Frank and Dee - he's just bought a foreclosed house with the intention of "flipping" it, and she's decided to rent out her womb to a rich yuppie couple. Dennis, Mac, and Charlie discuss which one to join up with and, after Dennis briefly toys with the idea of pairing the two ideas together somehow, the guys decide that Frank's house-flipping scheme sound like a sweeter deal, sending Sweet Dee alone down the path toward surrogate motherhood.

Neither one of the worst housing markets in history nor a family still living in his new house (and legally entitled to stay there for 90 days) is enough to deter Frank from his new career in real estate, but he decides to quickly sell the house before the disgruntled tenants have time to trash the place and "smear feces all over the walls." Dennis and Mac offer to help by posing as the golden-blazered "good realtor/bad realtor" team of Hugh Honey and Vic Vinegar, who dish out Cheez Whiz and verbal abuse to a very frightened and confused house-hunting couple.

Frank eventually decides that it's time to merge his idea with Dee's, who's made herself quite at home with the rich yuppies. The couple's desire for a child must be pretty strong because they don't immediately back out of the deal when an over-eager Dee hits them with a uterine pricing plan that offers savings for multiple babies - and even an option to "outdo" the Octomom by going for 10. Dee takes full advantage of their desperation, demanding a swimsuit and Pina Colada refills so that she can float around in their pool, claiming that it keeps her relaxed and in prime baby-carrying condition.

Meanwhile, poor Charlie has been on the back burner much of the episode. After embarrassing himself trying to "filibuster" with the homeowners' attorney (the hilarious Brian Unger, reprising his role from "Dennis and Dee's Mom is Dead"), Charlie challenges the lawyer to a duel. Charlie never expects the challenge to be accepted, but the irritated lawyer gladly "pencils it in for high noon" the next day and warns Charlie that he'll find him if he chickens out. Looking for a place to hide, Charlie heads for the yuppie mansion.

"Hugh" and "Vic" show up at casa de yuppie, this time in pastels posing as a homosexual couple who want to start a bidding war for Dee's womb, hoping that the couple will sell their house for baby money. Charlie soon arrives, closely followed by Frank, who busts through the gate and breaks the news that he had to sell back the foreclosed house to the lawyer after the homeowners sued him for making their kids tear out copper pipes that injured their hands.

Realizing that Dee and these strange men are clearly all insane, the yuppies demand everyone get off their property, which the gang takes as the green light to jump into the pool for a good ol' fashioned chicken fight. What, you expected them to actually be respectful and leave?

Quick Summary: As the premiere episode, this one did exactly what it should - remind us why we love these characters and leave us impatiently waiting for next week's show.

Although I would have liked to see more of Charlie, he made the most of his screen time. And since he usually steals the show, his smaller role cleared the way for exceptionally hilarious performances from the rest of the cast, especially Kaitlin Olson.

Grade: B+

So, after what felt like an eternity, the sun is shining through the windows of Paddy's Pub again. It's so good to have these horrible people back in my life, doing horrible things that don't make me feel horrible at all for laughing horribly loudly.

There is always the fear with a show this good that it will start to lose its edge. I actually started to worry about that last season, which was the weakest season so far. That said, Season 4 of Sunny was probably still more clever and entertaining than 90% of sitcoms out there (not to mention that it produced two of the best episodes of the entire series - "The Gang Solves the Gas Crisis" and "Mac and Charlie Die").

And even though we're only one episode into Season 5, I'm predicting that there is absolutely nothing to worry about. Don't expect to see Mac jumping a shark on "Operation Badass" anytime soon.

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It's Always Sunny stars: Kaitlin Olson / Danny DeVito / Charlie Day / Glenn Howerton / Rob McElhenney


"The Pop Eye @ Starpulse" is a column written by native Pittsburgher and current New Yorker, Becky Broderick. You may contact Becky directly at beckeyeam@gmail.com, or check out her other ramblings on The Pop Eye.