I’m no medical expert, but there’s probably something wrong with the x-ray that serves as the opening scene of the special airing of THE MICK. And apparently, it’s because the youngest child is eating weird stuff. Obviously, he’s coping with the fact that his parents abandoned him to the care of his frazzled aunt, and eating non-edibles is his way of acting out. But in case you forgot the plot of the sitcom that has just three previous episodes, Mickey explains what’s going on in the young kid’s life super fast. But the doctor’s not concerned enough to do much but note that Ben recently had a birthday and seem vaguely disappointed that she wasn’t invited to the party. Ben eats the car keys so Mickey uses his body to open the keyless entry car. Lucky it’s a fancy new car or she’d have had to wait for the keys to move through young Ben’s system and the plot would have been totally different.
The plotline is that even with older siblings and a maid that breastfed all the babies, Ben’s birthday was overlooked. We’ll soon find out that despite his annoyingly immature speech patterns, he’s actually a very good reader. Yet he doesn’t know his own birthday or age. Which is weird, because any parent or babysitter or teacher or anyone around kids under 10 will tell you that they look forward to their birthday every day of the year, no matter how near or far off it may be. They also love how old they are and will proudly shout it out. So the humor of the kid asking how old he is and not noticing his belated party is lost in having to suspend disbelief too much. But at least it allows for what is a ridiculously long plot build up, complete with new fangled birthday rap to get out of the way as the action finally starts.
THE MICK: Jack Stanton in the “The Balloon” episode of THE MICK airing Tuesday, Jan. 10 (8:31-9:01 PM ET/PT on FOX. ©2017 Fox Broadcasting Co. CR: FOX
Older siblings that show no signs of ever getting along or plotting together and admit to forgetting their brother’s birthday somehow pull together to throw an over the top carnival for Ben. And in the midst of a life-size chess board, balloon sculptures, and bouncy houses, he’s sitting alone at a table, munching on crayons. So much for the modest balloons, cake and clown scenario that Mickey had in mind. Although Jimmy has gotten their favorite childhood clown to show up, transforming pigeons into confetti and everything. It’s even more impressive than the pony Chip got his brother. The pony that takes Chip for a ride around the block. But while Chip is on a horseback ride, the clown is in the bathtub shooting up and passing out while he waits for his promised cake at the end of his clown act. The clown act doesn’t happen, but a string of misunderstandings does, which lead to nearly hilarious hijinks ensuing.
Alba finds the clown passed out in the bathtub next to a needle and a balloon. While the group is pondering what to do with a passed out clown, who swallowed a series of flags for Mickey to remove before he starts breathing, young Ben manages to sneak in to swallow the balloon filled with an unidentified substance. As the family dubs the balloon a “bad balloon,” Mickey freaks out about calling 911 and losing the kid to the system and all that will entail. Then there’s a series of loosely cobbled together efforts in trying to get Ben to puke. It’s hard—“the kid doesn’t have a gag reflex”—but Mickey does. Gross-out humor in the midst of crude humor, clever.
It’s also time for the cake before they head to the hospital and the call for cake alerts Sully enough to start stumbling around in his quest for sugar, terrifying the kids that start running around and in the meantime, the pony with Chip astride has headed back to the party and is headed straight for Ben! The scene is well shot as you know what’s going to happen but it’s still awesome to see the chaos of the best party ever go awry as Mickey’s written-by-a-man maternal instincts kick in just in time for her to rescue Ben from the path of the horse as Jimmy takes the physical fall.
Eventually, they all end up heading to the hospital because eating a live mouse is a funny punchline after a poignant moment of the kid reading a “postcard from the parents,” courtesy of Mickey’s creativity. And there’s also a completely illogical explanation about Sully passing out in the bathtub—he’s a diabetic that needs to shoot up and carries his own cake spoon. Although cake is often eaten with a fork when it doesn’t come with ice cream.
The writers still have some work to do to add logic into the illogical and still make it funny, but now that they are (mostly) done explaining the new family unit, the show has definitely improved. But seriously, we don’t need to hear about how inept and unprepared Mickey is to care for kids anymore–it’s just too much exposition. We just need to see it because the show is at its best with the physical comedy, not the commentary.
Season 1, Episode 4 (S01E04)
The Mick airs Tuesdays at 830PM on Fox
Read all of our reviews of The Mick here.
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Carly is a freelance writer that watches too much TV while she writes blogs and articles about lifestyle including travel, food, fashion, beauty, home decor, entertainment, health, fitness and wellness and green living.
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Carly Zinderman | Contributor
