Kaitlin Olson and Company Are One Wicked Family in Season 2 of ‘The Mick’

Des Delgadillo

From shining as a team player in her “It’s Always Sunny” days to owning the spotlight in her own comedy, Kaitlin Olson has more than proved her worth as a bombastic loose cannon who only plays by the rules that suit her. Olson broke every rule she could during the first season of Fox’s “The Mick,” a series that sets the delinquent Mackenzie “Mickie” Murphy (Olson) on a crash course with responsible living after her wealthy, felonious sister and brother-in-law flee the country. Tasked with the three spoiled Pemberton children, each dealing with different aspects of adolescence, and booze-swilling maid Alba (the riotous Carla Jimenez), Mickie needs to pick up the pieces her jailbird sister left behind.

After the family’s palatial estate and a whole lot of cash was torched thanks to young Ben’s (Jack Stanton) pyromaniac tendencies, Mickie and co. Have quite a bit of up-keep ahead of them in the show’s second season. Thankfully, the newest season of “The Mick” promises even more of Olson’s twisted schemes and family in-fighting, a combination that makes last season’s fire look like a sparkler demonstration by comparison.

Wealthy living is one dangerous habit, and Mickie’s dilapidated little family are hopelessly hooked with no hope of rehabilitation. Chip (Thomas Barbusca) needs to keep his recent descent into poverty on the down-low, mainly so he can continue to charm his buddies at the Fairbanks. The Pemberton’s money-man, Barry (Jason Kravits), essentially cuts the Pemberton kids off from their own fortune, but no matter. If there’s one thing Mickie and Sabrina (Sofia Black-D’Elia) do better than anyone else, it’s hatching downright dastardly plots to get what they want, especially if it involves copious amounts of lying and blackmail.

Mickie and Sabrina decide to do what any upstanding, money-hungry duo would do: They get a prostitute and try to blackmail Barry by threatening to go to his wife with the revelation. Of course, there’s so much wrong with that plan, least of which is the fact that Barry’s gay. Talk about a monkey wrench. He also doesn’t even have a wife. The woman Mickie mistook for his wife is actually his recently widowed sister. It’s raining monkey wrenches now.

Leave it to poor, unassuming Ben to fall under the spell of a TV evangelist, believing that there are, in fact, demons that walk among us. That’s enough to put the newly righteous Ben onto Alba’s case, suspecting her to be the demon of which the evangelist spoke. He even reads the whole bible, front-to-back, in an attempt to exorcise the maid’s demons.

As crazy as it might be, Ben’s plan works more soundly than Mickie’s does. Ultimately, though, the only hope the family has for a roof over their heads is to move back into the remains of the “charred” Pemberton mansion. It’s a little crispy, but it’s home.

It’s breathtaking how quickly Mickie is able to pivot from concerned parental figure to devious troublemaker. It’s the balance between the two that give this show the warm, family touch it needs to click with viewers of all kinds. Sure, Mickie’s out for herself first and foremost, but with every episode her bond with the rascals she has been tasked with looking after gets even stronger. It makes one question how much longer until Mickie starts putting them before her in truly uncharacteristic fashion. Until then, the money well seems to have dried up completely, something that the Pemberton family sees as devastating, but for Mickie it’s just business as usual. It looks like Mickie’s finally in her element.

“The Mick” season 2 premiered Sept. 26 and airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET on Fox.