At first glance it may not look like The Mick reinvents the wheel. It’s a show where a renegade wild card gets thrown into a family and suddenly needs to be a role model. In fact, sitcoms often tank from that sort of by-the-numbers premise. The Mickembraces these hackneyed tropes and makes them feel exciting and new. It also manages to turn them into strengths. It mixes edgy with sweet in a way that’s easy to do, but hard to do right. Over the course of its first season, The Mick leaned on strong writing, atypical storytelling, and an unbelievable cast of burgeoning performers that all helped this comedy turn out a surprisingly consistent debut season. Now, with the show’s second year underway, I touched base with the series’ creators and showrunners, Dave and John Chernin, who took me through a tour of the show’s sophomore season. Let’s break down the chaotic world of The Mick!
The Mick Season 2 Episode 1 – “The Hotel”
“Mickey and the kids are forced to downgrade from their temporary residence at a hotel after their financial advisor cuts them off due to excessive spending. Mickey and Sabrina refuse to accept the decision and launder up a plan to prevent anyone from stopping their stride. Meanwhile, Jimmy teaches Chip that the tricks to living in a luxurious hotel can be simple.” DEN OF GEEK: How did you guys approach the beginning of this season? Did you have a number of ideas at where things could be starting off?- DAVE CHERNIN: We had no ideas except that we wanted them to end up in the burned down house by the end of episode one. We definitely knew we wanted them to live in the burned down house for a few episodes at the start of the season, but we also wanted to start our viewers in the world that they expect to see people on this show. JOHN CHERNIN: Yes. Very much so. We are really excited to play around with that. DAVE CHERNIN: We are writing the script right now where Chip finds out who his father is. Something that I really love about the show is that in spite of this family going through such wear and tear, it feels like it sticks with them and there’s growth going on as a result. Do you plan to explore more of that this season and watch these characters develop even further? We go wherever the story takes us. We don’t set out with an idea of like “oh, let’s grow a character in this way,” we just kind of let things evolve naturally. I don’t think anyone expected Chip to be such a sympathetic character when we created this series, but Thomas Barbusca has portrayed him in such a way that it allows us to take it to that place and I think that is going to make that much more poignant. Is there anything that you guys learned from the first season that you tried to put into practice this year? This premiere gets away from the Pemberton house for the majority of the episode. Was mixing things up in this regard an intentional effort to try and challenge yourselves a little bit? JOHN CHERNIN: Certainly not. We don’t want to challenge ourselves anymore than we possibly have to. But I do think we are not afraid to go where the story takes us. We believe viewers are intelligent enough to keep up. DAVE CHERNIN: No. All we can do is write what is funny to us. We don’t try to be especially dark. John is just a twisted man… Did you guys consider pushing things even further and having the Pembertons staying at the hotel for several episodes, or at least keeping them away from their home for longer? Talk a little on these characters needing to ultimately live in a burned down, destroyed home this season. It’s an image that feels so emblematic of this show and the Pembertons. JOHN CHERNIN: Well I don’t know that they are going to live there for the entire season, but we felt that after everything they put Barry through he would be less inclined to help them and they would have no choice but to return to the charred remains of their former home if only temporarily.
