The Mick Season 2 Episode 16: Writer’s Recap

At its core, The Mick is still a family sitcom. It’s a show that often gets so weird and out of hand, but this is a still a comedy about a quirky family. However, his shouldn’t be held against The Mick and it even helps make the case that “traditional” sitcoms aren’t dead as long as the writers push the medium hard enough. The point here is that “The Accident” is an episode of The Mick that tackles two traditional storylines—bedwetting and fake IDs—but takes them to completely unpredictable places.

“The Accident” puts the youngest Pemberton member, Ben, front and center as he struggles in his attempts to make a friend. This doesn’t get any easier when a disaster at a sleepover results in Mickey, Jimmy, and Alba intervening to simultaneously be the best and worst guardians of all time. Beds get peed on and Sabrina is forced to spend time with Chip, so everyone is in dire straits this week. Series creators, Dave and John Chernin, take us through how this episode came together.

The Mick Season 2 Episode 16 – “The Accident”

“After Ben wets the bed at a sleepover with fellow classmates, Mickey, Alba and Jimmy go to extreme lengths in order to save his reputation. Meanwhile, when Sabrina loses her fake ID, Chip offers to help get her a replacement in exchange for a night out with her and her friends.”

Written by Daniel Libman & Matthew Libman; Directed by Eric Dean Seaton

DEN OF GEEK: Stories don’t revolve around Ben too often, but when they do there’s always this sense of everyone rallying together to help him out. It feels like Ben-centric episodes have the strongest sense of community at times. What do you think about that?

JOHN CHERNIN: I always think that we want to do more Ben episodes, but it’s just really tricky due to the limited hours in the day that we’re allowed with him. So we try to pick our moments to get a really good one in, but this is one that we always talked about and laughed over. As a former bed wetter myself, I know how embarrassing that can be at sleepovers. Ben is this really sweet kid who’s just so innocent that everybody just wants to rally around him.

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This episode also has Sabrina and Chip helping each other out, so to speak. In spite of these two being brother and sister it often feels like they don’t get to share a storyline like this very much. What do you like about finding opportunities to put them together?

DAVE CHERNIN: We love everyone in our cast so much. Sabrina and Chip are at that age where they’re far enough apart—13 and 18, I think—and it’s always funny to dig into that gap. Chip is just the best at being a shitty little brother so we thought it’d be fun to put them in a situation where he has the upper hand for once. 

Let’s talk on Chip’s hidden camera in Sabrina’s room for a minute. I’d say that that’s another piece of evidence in his unhealthy attraction towards Sabrina.

JOHN CHERNIN: He’s not going to look at that part of the screen! He’s fine!

DEN OF GEEK: This also kind of gets mirrored when Alba spies on Mickey and Jimmy. It feels like she would have a camera in their room if she could.

JOHN CHERNIN: I don’t know if she’s technologically savvy enough to pull that off.

DAVE CHERNIN: It’s definitely much creepier for Alba to do than it is for Chip.

There’s a rather drastic resolution to this episode with Ben’s sleepover storyline where all the beds get peed on. Was that always the conclusion on this one?

JOHN CHERNIN: I think so! Did we ever try to finish this one differently, Dave?

DAVE CHERNIN: I don’t think so…It was still an area that FOX never loved. This was a hard one to execute in terms of what we were allowed to see and hear. 

JOHN CHERNIN: I think there might have been a moment where it might have been Jimmy and yeah, that didn’t feel right. That would have been a problem, but it’s one of those things that we can get away with it because it’s Jack Stanton [Ben].

DEN OF GEEK: At any point did you guys consider maybe discussing if there was a psychological component to Ben’s bedwetting or if it’s more of a “some kids just wet the best” sort of situation?

JOHN CHERNIN: Oh, you give us far too much credit! I don’t know if we ever did and I don’t know if there was ever a reason why I did it as a child. I just assumed that I was a failure as a child.

Clearly you were just waiting to put it into an episode of television thirty years later. This also might be the first time that we see Ben’s bare back since the time he gets that tattoo. It’s not a big deal, but it’s nice to see its reappearance here.

DAVE CHERNIN: I wish that we could get back to it earlier, but it’s always nice when we can find an excuse to return to that and show it off.

What do you think happens with Alba after the episode ends? Does she eventually just roll off the roof or do Mickey and Jimmy come back to sneak her down?

DAVE CHERNIN: I kind of always thought of it like in the same way of how she’s stuck in the pool in the pilot. She needs to figure that out for herself in her own time. She probably jumps.

JOHN CHERNIN: Yeah, I’d say that she jumps.

Our walkthrough of The Mick’s second season will continue next week.