The Mick

The Mick prizes laughter above all—the petty sniping between kids and adults inspiring chuckles, the more elaborate and destructive set pieces going for gasps and belly laughs. When a sitcom knows its voice and sense of humor this early, growth and development can come along later.

Like "The Simpsons," "Married with Children," "Malcolm in the Middle" and other Fox sitcoms, the ridiculous reach is what makes "The Mick" work.

Olson does a great job as the title character, willing to go for anything if it lands a laugh. (Most times it does.)

The first episode is not as edgy (or, quite frankly, as funny) as it thinks it is. Olson is a gifted physical actress but the woman-behaving-badly shtick starts off a bit toothless. The second episode is sharper.

Between Olson and her talented cast-mates, there’s certainly enough here to merit future sampling, but this wannabe-badass sitcom could really earn its stripes by shedding its leash (somehow).

You may not laugh until it hurts, but there are some laughs to be had. Particularly for those who also swear by Family Guy.

Clearly this isn’t the comedy of the "Leave It to Beaver" era, but there are some laughs to be found in "The Mick," which is made tolerable thanks to Ms. Olson’s charm in spite of the character she plays.

There's only so much mileage the show can get from focusing on "everyone on this show is awful" gags. But with sharp performances and total commitment to the hedonistic material, The Mick still finds a couple new places to explore.

After four episodes ... The Mick has already settled into that frustrating spot of being a comedy designed for cable but forced to play by network rules, too soft and squishy and indecisive but nonetheless consistently elevated by Olson.

Fox’s new comedy dangles the promise of outrageous high jinks just around the corner, but at its heart, it’s a conventional story, the misfit forced to become the parent to three wayward kids and, of course, become a better person.

The Mick knows what it is. Knows what it wants to be. And it is pretty uncompromising about that ... although there actually are some warm and fuzzy moments in late episodes. There are also some genuine laughs. Although, after having seen the first four episodes, there aren't as many as there should be.

Believe it or not, the comedy’s not crass enough to really generate the laughs it should.

It’s just an okay sitcom with a frequently charming performance by Olson, which may be enough for a while, wedged in between New Girl and Bones. But it also seems like the kind of project that could leave Olson feeling trapped.

So few people saw ABC’s "Uncle Buck" last summer that it’s probably safe in this case to mention that — wait for it — it’s the same plot, which probably is familiar to fans of the John Candy movie. The Mike Epps show lasted just a little over a month on ABC, but the chemistry is better among the ensemble cast of "The Mick," and Olson is the sassy glue that keeps the whole thing together.

Although Olson and the cast give it their all, “The Mick” is no fun.

For some, Olson’s immense comedic talents and the show’s rude humor may be enough of a diversion to stick with The Mick, but if you want to see Olson give a similarly great performance on a much better written show, go back to It’s Always Sunny. She deserved a starring vehicle, but this one let her down.

A predictably crude but sometimes funny comedy.

Ultimately the show feels like a shallow exercise in provocation. Once the incessant attempts to offend grow wearisome, there’s not enough here to bring you back for another round.

Without the freedom in language, tone and general obnoxiousness that FXX gives "Sunny," the over-the-top situations in "The Mick" are less likely to make you laugh than to make you feel vaguely uncomfortable.

It’s hard to root for the characters to form a makeshift family when all of them are such terrible people, but their terribleness is compromised by the need to make them semi-likable. It’s the worst of both worlds.

Add it all up, and what you actually have is a bad case of sibling envy, as Fox stretches for the kind of edgy comedy that has drawn praise and attention (if not always ratings) to sister network FX. What you don’t have is anything fresh or funny, or any particular reason to watch.

The pilot is all flimsy irreverence, pitting caricatures of entitlements and desperation against each other to meaningless effect. [30 Dec 2016 - 6 Jan 2017, p.115]

Every part of the show is predictable.

No story, or joke, goes as far as it needs to in order to really extract the necessary laughs. The FX version of this could be a scream; the Fox version feels watered down and largely forgettable.

The material’s the problem. "The Mick" lumbers along instead of flies. Scenes grope for punchlines that — when or if they come — lack punch or just belly-flop. "The Mick" wants to be outrageous, but instead settles for excessive.