American Housewife

[Katy Mixo's] talent may be the key to buying this new comedy some patience with the audience as it figures out what it wants to be.

Once called “The Second Fattest Housewife in Westport,” the series hits the usual notes but doesn’t sing.

American Housewife so far is too busy taking offense to be much fun to watch.

Lurking somewhere in American Housewife is an incisive sitcom that can sit companionably along with ABC’s thoughtful, culturally relevant sitcoms. In a mostly encouraging sign, the second episode of American Housewife ditches the weight talk almost entirely, but it also feels softer and, like its revised title, generic. American Housewife needs to find the middle ground.

Like so many first episodes, American Housewife starts off functional, but only vaguely promising.

It could be fun once it figures out where and how to direct its snark, but at the start, it’s too haphazard to make much of an impression.

All told, Katie is a commanding presence, a social commentator with a flair for insult, a housewife with a bottomless capacity for complaint. Ms. Mixon performs commendably. What the show needs now are writers of whom the same could be said.