The Kaitlin Olson show that's darker than It's Always Sunny is still on Hulu

If you were watching It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia when it was properly hitting its stride, you might remember there was a period where every cast member decided to spin off and do their own thing. Charlie Day started popping up more in films, Glenn Howerton jumped into A.P. Bio, and Rob McElhenney went all-in on Mythic Quest. Danny DeVito of course already had more bizarre, delightful film credits than most people have pairs of pants. Meanwhile, back in 2017, Kaitlin Olson tried taking centre stage herself, heading up a new Fox comedy called The Mick.

Olson didn't go solo for this one — she roped in Dave Chernin and John Chernin, a pair of Sunny writers who actually created The Mick. It meant there was bound to be a familiar razor-sharp nastiness to the thing, but with Olson in the driving seat.

The Mick ran for 36 episodes before Fox pulled the plug.

The Plot: Dysfunction as Weapon

So what’s the premise? At a glance, The Mick looks like it’s ripped from the same DNA as It’s Always Sunny — you get irreverence, and Olson’s lead is certainly cut from the same cloth as her Dee Reynolds character — but it’s essentially a giant send-up of the whole ‘forced family’ sitcom formula. You know, all those classic American shows from the 70s onwards where misfits get stuck parenting some kids and suddenly everyone learns a special lesson. Only with this, it’s as if someone’s spiked the wholesome punch bowl with battery acid and handed control to people with absolutely no impulse control.

Olson plays Mickey Molng — absolute disaster, loves a drink, allergic to anything resembling responsibility. She’s forced to look after her wealthy sister’s children when said sister and husband do a runner from the FBI, hiding out from white-collar crime charges. Mickey turns up at the posh mansion with her on-off boyfriend Jimmy (the brilliant Scott MacArthur), and the pair are left to play caretaker to these spoiled kids who want nothing to do with them.

• Sabrina (Sofia Black-D'Elia): Oldest child, teen socialite, as acid-tongued as Mickey, and locked in a permanent power struggle with her.
• Chip (Thomas Barbusca): Middle child, very much wants to lord it over everyone but is so out of touch with reality he’s forever the joke’s punchline — think Carlton from The Fresh Prince, if he got dropped in a skip.
• Ben (Jack Stanton): Youngest, genuinely adorable but clearly heading for trouble if left to these maniacs.
• Alba (Carla Jimenez): The former maid who, the second the grown-ups vanish, decides her job description now mostly involves getting drunk with Mickey.

Violence, Sentiment, and That Looney Tunes Energy

Here’s the thing: while it shares the same black-hearted humour as Sunny, The Mick somehow feels even darker. There’s a surface-level sitcom sweetness, the kind networks insist on, but it’s constantly being undercut by scenes going wildly off the rails — like sitcom sentimentality being chucked off a balcony. On a rewatch, the use of slapstick (often quite brutal, Looney Tunes-style) really stands out; people get hurt, sometimes gruesomely, and it’s always played straight, which for my money makes the joke land ten times harder.

Scott MacArthur as Jimmy, by the way, gets physically destroyed in pretty much every episode. Not in the ‘cartoon fall, pop up’ way, but more like real suffering — and it’s invariably brilliant. That’s proper commitment to a bit.

The End, Too Soon

Despite a dedicated cult following and some brilliant reviews, Fox axed The Mick after just two seasons. Kaitlin Olson was back on Sunny and moved onto yet another series, High Potential. For those of us who loved seeing her let completely loose, losing The Mick stung, if never quite on the level of, say, Kim’s Convenience getting the chop. Still, 36 episodes was a decent run given how madcap the whole thing was, and the good news — if you’ve never seen it — is you can still catch the whole lot on Hulu.