Plot: The series follows "The Gang", a group of five depraved underachievers: twins Dennis and Deandra "Sweet Dee" Reynolds, their friends Charlie Kelly and Mac, and Frank Reynolds, Dennis and Dee's adoptive father, who runs Paddy's Pub, a run-down bar in South Philadelphia. They are dishonest, egotistical, lazy, manipulative and vengeful. Episodes usually find them hatching elaborate schemes, conspiring against one another and others for personal gain, vengeance, or simply for the entertainment of watching each other's downfall. Their tactics often rely on inflicting emotional and sometimes physical and psychological pain on individuals both deserving and undeserving. They regularly use blackmail and manipulate one another and others outside of the group.
Their unity is not solid; any of them would quickly dump the others for quick profit or personal gain regardless of the consequences. Almost everything they do results in competition among themselves. Despite their lack of worldly success, the Gang generally maintain high opinions of themselves and display an often obsessive interest in their own reputations and public images. Despite this high sense of self worth, the Gang often have little sense of shame when attempting to get what they want and will often engage in activities which others would find humiliating, disgusting, or even preposterous, such as smoking crack cocaine in order to qualify for welfare, seducing a priest, or hiding naked inside a leather couch in order to spy on someone.
Much like in Seinfeld, the plots and schemes hatched by the Gang rarely result in lasting success; indeed, oftentimes, the plans backfire to adversely affect the group or at least, leave the Gang back at square one with little to no gain.
