Somewhere in between. He's right in that on Sunny they dropped any pretense of believability and wholeheartedly embraced that concept going forward. I would imagine that it would be hard for someone to come in cold and NOT be thrown by that show and the complete surface ridiculousness. Once you get adjusted to it though, he's right...it's a pretty simple concept as far as the 'gang' being the only reality that is embraced. It's not art or some sort of 'meta' thing, it's just a pretty funny show. If he is suggesting some sort of advanced hyper reality, well then, I would have to call bs too.
What ever terms we use, Sunny is very much based on real life situations, just boiled down, then Phillied into something that fits into the comedic theme of the show.
Take this last season of Sunny - it's been the best by far IMO. They have actively tried to flesh out the characters more. We have learned that Dennis is a closeted homosexual, with an over-inflated sense of his own importance, who made his lifelong friends by hanging out with his drug dealer and the class clown to further his own private delusions of grandeur. We all know people like that, not neccesarily with the same set of circumstances, and hopefilly not to the same degree.
Charlie was an abortion survivor, from a single mom and was molested by his Night Man uncle. Of course he is going to be imbalanced and have trouble functioning in a normal society. He has no tools for success, which is exactly what you find in people who have suffered thru abuse at a young age.
Ronald "MAC" MacDonald is forever in search of something, anything, that will make him more relatable to his absentee father - the show has dedicated several episodes to that idea. His machoisms are clearly realted to trying to prove how manly he is, and they always backfire, as he and the rest of the group tend to revel in their self-sabotaging efforts.
Sweet Dee's confidence was destroyed by her over-bearing mom, and in what I have always though to be a brilliant concept, shares the exact same group of delusions as her brother. I have always loved that while the gang relentlessly taunts her, they are always actually right in their taunts - she is a failure, her dreams are ridiculous, and she does look like a bird.
I'll give you Frank - he is becoming more and more of a "Kramer" as the show goes along, but for the most part, despite the absurdity of the situations and plot lines, Sunny has always dropped in some finely-layered, and even sad truths about why these people choose to do what they do. They have always made it clear why these people struggle, and why they will never succeed - all through believable and realistic means in a very funny, dark and abstract manner.
