Olson pulls double-duty as lead of FOX's shameless 'Mick'
Kaitlin Olson has been making us laugh while pushing the boundaries of good taste since 2005 as Sweet Dee on “It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia,” the surprisingly durable comedy whose 12th season premieres at 9 p.m. Wednesday on FXX, and now she's pulling double-duty as the star of FOX's similarly outrageous “The Mick.”
Olson plays Mickey Murphy, a hard-living woman-child who finds herself the surrogate mother of her rich sister's three children after a federal indictment prompts mom to flee the country. Created by “It's Always Sunny” writers Dave and John Chernin, “The Mick” manages to be both a fish-out-of-water story and a rags-to-riches story. Combine the high concept and a likable star and you have a solid foundation for a sitcom.
What “The Mick” doesn't have is shame. If you tune in at 7:30 next Tuesday, you'll see a clown overdose on heroin and one of Mickey's young charges swallow a balloon filled with the drug. A future episode centers on a 17-year-old's loud, unsafe sexual trysts. Whether you find any of that funny will likely depend on how much you like the characters that Olson and her fellow actors have created — and I like them a lot.
The standout may be Jack Stanton, a child actor with no prior screen credits whose innocent glee is a perfect counter to Olson's sarcasm. Longtime TV staple Carla Jimenez also impresses as the housekeeper who gets to shed her uniform and live large once Mickey takes over the mansion.
Sandwiched in between the relatively chaste “New Girl” and the new season of “Bones,” “The Mick” feels a little out of place on Tuesday — this and “Family Guy” seem to be a natural doubleheader — but the winning cast could make this a ratings triumph in its own right. Hopefully the characters can outshine the shocking gags in future episodes.
• Sean Stangland is a Daily Herald multiplatform editor. You can follow him on Twitter at @SeanStanglandDH.