By The Mick
For a time, the cast of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia would attempt to venture off into their own paths while still staying committed to their show. Charlie Day showed more attention to his film career. Glenn Howerton started a new series called A.P. Bio. Rob Mac started a new series called Mythic Quest. Danny DeVito already had his own film career established. Then, in 2017, Kaitlin Olson would start her own new series called The Mick, which aired on Fox.
Olson also ventured into her new show with two It’s Always Sunny writers — Dave Chernin and John Chernin. The Chernins had also created the show.
What’s The Mick about?
At first glance, The Mick might seem like a show that carries over the same irreverent humor of It’s Always Sunny into a new plot where Kaitlin Olson plays a similar character to Dee Reynolds. The predominant similarity of both shows is that they put a more extreme twist on some famous TV tropes. It’s Always Sunny had been self-described as “Seinfeld on crack.” The Mick is what happens when you take the gimmicky, “forced family” classic sitcoms of the 70s, 80s and 90s and put them on crack.
Olson plays Mickey Molng, an unapologetically trashy woman who loves living hard. Mickey finds herself taking care of her rich sister’s spoiled children when their parents flee the FBI after an attempted arrest on some white-collar crimes. Mickey and her on-again/off-again boyfriend, Jimmy, take it upon themselves to stay at her sister’s mansion and become surrogate parents for the kids, who completely hate this situation.
The plot is a device to get the lower class and fish-out-of-water Mickey and Jimmy to butt heads with the entitled kids and the weird rich elite. Mickey constantly plays a game of power with the 17-year-old socialite Sabrina, who is played to “bitch-perfection” by Sofia Black-D’Elia. The middle child, Chip, played a little too good by Thomas Barbusca, is very reminiscent of Carlton Banks from The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, where he very much basks in his superiority and upper-class status, but constantly finds himself being so detached from reality that he is ultimately the butt of the joke. And then there’s the youngest, Ben, who shows every sign of a troubled child, but does so in such an innocent way that everyone else is desperately trying to guide him in the right direction. Then, there’s Mickey’s sidekick, Alba, who is the former maid, but she hilariously decides to stop doing her job amid the parents’ absence and just spends time with Mickey.
What makes it good?
As previously stated, the Chernins and Olson bring a lot of similar humor from It’s Always Sunny to the show, but it somehow seems darker. The difference may be because The Mick still has a hint of classic sitcom sentimentality, but it constantly pulls the rug from under you and things always take a hilariously awful turn. When this show was appointment-viewing for me, I always loved how extreme the humor would get. On a recent rewatch, I realized that the show consistently utilized graphic violence like a throwback to Looney Tunes cartoons and The Simpsons. They were visceral punchlines, but having them done in live-action and played completely straight gave the jokes an extra oomph, which made The Mick feel bolder than most comedies.
Jimmy is played by Scott MacArthur, who also serves as a staff writer and story editor, and there is rarely an episode where he doesn’t get horribly physically abused in some way. This series made me an instant fan of him.
Unfortunately, Fox opted not to continue with the show after the second season and Olson returned to the still-running It’s Always Sunny, as well as a new show, High Potential. This was probably one of the most heartbreaking TV show cancellations for me (next to the discontinued Kim’s Convenience), but I am thankful we still got 36 glorious episodes out of it. And even more thankful that they are still available to view on Hulu. So, if you need something to binge this weekend, I recommend you check it out!
The post The Best Dark Comedy You Never Watched: The Mick appeared first on JoBlo.
