‘The Mick’ Is Bringing an FXX Edge to Fox

It’s hard to believe that in 2016 there are still so few vehicles for a woman in network comedy. New Girl and (arguably) Crazy Ex-Girlfriend aside, there are no sitcoms out there with a single female face above the title. Well, in January, Fox will triple-down on the belief that a woman can carry a comedy when It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia‘s Kaitlin Olson will star in a show that looks to maintain some of the boundary-pushing feel of that show without scaring away audiences in the 8 o’clock hour. The Mick premieres Jan. 1 after the NFL double-header before moving to its regular slot on Tuesdays.

“I’ve spent 12 years on a show that my children can’t watch, so I’m very excited to do a family comedy,” Olson said at an advance screening. And based just on the commercials, you might mistakenly believe that’s all it is: Fox trying to water down the Always Sunny formula into something suitable for kids.

What the show turns out to be is something that is less unrelenting than the FXX show but still has the same bite. “I set out with the Chernin brothers [the show’s creators] to make something that could maintain the comedic integrity of what we’re going for,” Olson said. “I think Fox has let us do an amazing job of doing a network show that really feels like it belongs on cable.”

Olson plays Mickey, the ne’er-do-well sister — the kind of person who describes her work as “Y’know how it goes? Just kinda … in between … things.” Her sister, Poodle, married into money but isn’t as different from Mickey as she would like everybody to think. The FBI arrests her and her husband in the first few minutes of the show and leaves their children in the care of Mickey.

Do the kids hate her and rebel? Of course. Does Mickey prove to be a terrible guardian? Naturally. Do they all learn to get along eventually, because otherwise there couldn’t be a show? Most definitely. What elevates the show beyond the expected plot points is in the details.

Things like middle son Chip’s obnoxious speech during the backyard party: “In the spirit of Labor Day, let’s give it up to the real laborers: the caterers.” It’s in Mickey’s devious plan to corral Sabrina, her oldest charge, by tricking her into a drinking contest with NyQuil. It’s in the fate of that poor owl mascot for the kids’ school.

Olson brings an electric energy to the basic fish-out-of-water premise, and it does exactly what everyone at Fox hoped: It makes a network sitcom feel like a cable sitcom. Mickey gets hammered while the kids are at school and spends 18 hours face-down in a puddle of wine wearing a wedding dress. She plays hooky with Ben, the youngest, and goes on a shopping spree with his credit card. Her advice to stand up to a bully goes hideously awry, and Chip spends a good chunk of the episode covered in blood.

It’s controlled chaos — the sort that Olson has made her trademark during her 12 years on Always Sunny. Her willingness to let herself be ugly for a laugh isn’t unique, but her success has certainly paved the way for other women to push the envelope. “I don’t they weren’t out there,” she says of similarly fearless female comedians, “I just think people weren’t writing for them.”

She cites Julia Louis-Dreyfus as a major influence, and there seems to be a clear through-line from Seinfeld’s Elaine Benes to Sweet Dee on Always Sunny to Veep’s Selina Meyer to Mickey and all the crassly hilarious women in primetime now: Max and Caroline on 2 Broke Girls, Abby and Ilana on Broad City, Bonnie and Christy on Mom. “If anyone could take credit for starting or progressing that movement, I would give it to her,” says Olson. “But if I could lump myself in there, I’d be very proud, sure.”

The Mick premieres Jan. 1, 2017, and will air regularly on Tuesdays at 8:30 p.m. on Fox.