This episode of The Mick “The Buffer” has Mickey actually losing one for a change. Thus far the “Aunty Buck” character has been 2 and 0. Now however, Sabrina goes for the win with a little help from Kai.
Granted it is a somewhat of a “backdoor” win but it is, nonetheless, a victory over Mickey. The episode centers around the eldest Pemberton child having a relationship with “found” word worker Kai. The two have a seriously sexual thing going on.
After a very noisy sexual liaison, which drives Chip around the bend, Mickey has a talk with Sabrina and recommends using condoms. Sabrina refuses which causes her aunt to go into overdrive and recommending a slew of different birth control options.
At one point, she comes into the room with a bag full of various things that she picked up at the “free clinic.” The show’s creators Todd Biermann and Randall Einhorn, along with the writer of the episode; Laura Chinn, manage to artfully hide the name of the free clinic.
It is clearly the Planned Parenthood free clinic; something that, if the president elect and his newly chosen cabinet have anything to do with it, will disappear. With the republican party’s rabid “right to life” mantra that rules birth control as “murder,” this non-specific reference to PP clinics, that also provide for women’s non sexual health issues, may be the last time it can be used in a show’s storyline in a comedic sense.
Heading back to the storyline: Mickey also tries “selling” Sabrina on using birth control pills. The younger woman claims that they poison women’s bodies and refuses to consider taking them. The youngest Pemberton, however, is clearly impressed by Mickey’s description of these “magic pills.”
The kid hijacks the tablets and begins ingesting the hormone laden things as fast as he can. There are several shots of Ben force-feeding himself enough estrogen to change his personality drastically.
(Sidenote. Points off for lack of originality here guys and gals. This gag has been done before. Most notably in John Tucker Must Die where Jesse Metcalfe’s massively hormonal character complains that his “boobs hurt.” Little Ben Pemberton does not have this problem and his swift mood changes and crying jags are hysterically funny, but…It has been done before…a number of times.)
The Mick has Mickey acting as a “human condom” and interrupting Kai and Sabrina until they finally give in and agree to use a condom. Meanwhile, Chip, with his over-inflated sense of self, is on a mission to have girls make out with him.
Kudos for the decision to do the “human condom” montage with K7’s 1993 “Come Baby Come” as the backdrop. Very funny.
Jimmy, manages to make the middle child paranoid enough that he wants to get a vasectomy. As Chip goes from humiliating himself to having a homemade vasectomy, a girl kicks him in the family jewels hard enough that he has to see a doctor, Jimmy is there to provide stupid advice.
Mickey decides to cool things down between Sabrina and Kai initially by having sex with the artisan. Alba volunteers to take the fall but Mickey angrily tells her to back off. The plan does not work as Kai is clearly not into “older women.”
The next step is to trick Sabrina into thinking she is pregnant. Alba slips the girl some ipecac and she is violently ill. Next Mickey finds some fake pregnancy tests and at last the girl believes she is pregnant with Kai’s child.
Kai, who clearly loves his little gravy train, proposes and Sabrina accepts. The whole plan falls apart when Mickey angrily explains their subterfuge. Sabrina is overjoyed that Kai loved her enough to propose when he thought she was pregnant.
“The Buffer” ends at Mickey 2 – Sabrina 1. The Mick is firing on all cylinders. Even their use of a gag that has been done before takes nothing away from this comic ensemble
The chemistry is spot on. Olsen may be the conductor, or MVP (take your pick) but the entire cast bring it in this show. Scott MacArthur as the “luncheon meat” boyfriend, Carla Jimenez as the “sort-of” faithful housekeeper, Thomas Barbusca as the “love to hate him” middle kid, D’Elia as the snooty eldest child and Jack Stanton as the impressionable and so funny youngest all equal comedy gold.
The humor may be quite “incorrect” but it works brilliantly. This episode, with Olson’s character getting turned on by Sabrina’s boyfriend, was a perfect example of the gags being a little “un-PC” or “child friendly. This is just fine as the series is not for kids.
The Mick Tuesdays on FOX but in a disturbing move by the network, the series is moving to Sunday.
Cast:
- Kaitlin Olson – Mickey
- Sofia Black-D’Elia – Sabrina
- Carla Jimenez – Alba
- Thomas Barbusca – Chip
- Jack Stanton – Ben
- Scott MacArthur – Jimmy
Guest starring Andy Favreau as Kai and Suzanne Whang as female doctor.
Mikes Film Talk 