The Mick Season 2 Episode 7: Writers’ Room Recap

Editor’s note: The Fourth Wall is a platform for creators, actors, and industry insiders to bring the readers behind the scenes of the production process. In our latest installment, we removed the curtain on the writers’ room for the second season of Fox’s The Mick.

This part of the walkthrough looks at the sixth episode from The Mick’s second season. Previous installments can be found here. In this installment, showrunners Dave and John Chernin are joined by the episode’s writer, Rob Rosell. 

The Mick Season 2 Episode 7 – “The Homecoming”

“Mickey and Jimmy bring the gang back to their hometown of Warwick to celebrate the retirement of Jimmy’s high school baseball number and discover how much of a big shot he was. When they meet up with old friends, Jimmy learns that Mickey may have had a hand in ruining his chances at a professional baseball career. Meanwhile, Chip and Sabrina find themselves in a pickle with some spoiled Warwick teenagers.”

Written by Rob Rosell; Directed by Richie Keen

DEN OF GEEK: Mickey and Jimmy returning to their roots and learning a little more about their earlier years is a lot of fun. Were you excited to shed some light on that side of them?

DAVE CHERNIN: Yeah! We tried to listen to the fans a lot during season one and something that we learned is that people wanted to know why Mickey and Jimmy were together. So we wanted to get into that a little bit this year. You sort of assume that Jimmy would be lucky to be with Mickey, so when we were trying to break the idea we thought it’d be funny if we flipped that. Here we have Jimmy as a great guy who had a great thing going and then Mickey brings him down.

Well, I think it’s a telling development that Mickey has a hand in Jimmy’s stunted lifestyle and his lack of success. Do you worry about ever pushing things too far with how Mickey treats Jimmy?

DAVE CHERNIN: It’s something that we thought about a bit with this one. At the end of the day Mickey is certainly someone that can come across as unlikable. It’s something that we’re going to continue to explore in future episodes.

ROB ROSELL: We thought it was funny and tragic that in a way, if Jimmy had never met Mickey then his life would be better. That’s also part of the genesis of their relationship, which is certainly a very co-dependent relationship between two very flawed people. Everything else aside though, they do really care about each other. I might not have created the show, but in my mind these two people do love each other. The fact that that’s true allows them some leeway with their bad behavior towards each other; especially Mickey towards Jimmy.

Off of that, this episode goes out on a rather serious note between Mickey and Jimmy. Did you guys consider taking this in a different direction, or was it time for the two of them to reach this point?

JOHN CHERNIN: I think that with everything that we did in this episode that it would feel false if we ended it in any other way. I think if we ask the audience to come along on this journey where Mickey has been lying to Jimmy for 15 years and it’s changed the direction of his life then a silly ending or something that tries too hard to be funny would just ring false. We like the opportunity when we’re able to lean into those more dramatic moments.

ROB ROSELL: We also liked that these highly dramatic conversations are going on, but that they’re all about Jimmy’s burnt ass. We wanted it to be a serious drama about ass. That was kind of what excited us here. Sometimes our show gets so crazy that it’s also easy to forget that Scott, Kaitlin, and Rhys Coiro—who guest stars as Ed DeLuca—and all also just such good actors. 

DAVE CHERNIN: It’s also just fun for us. I mean, we get to see these actors do stuff all the time, but we get excited when these more dramatic moments go down because Scott and Kaitlin have such a huge range that they can show off. That whole bar scene with Jimmy—it was our last day of shooting and we were completely out of time. He got one take at that and Scott MacArthur is a master crier. He turned on the waterworks and it was a thing of beauty.

JOHN CHERNIN: For those that don’t know about Scott MacArthur, he trained in Moscow in both acting and ballet and he has a very serious dedication to both of those crafts. He’s incredible when he gets to let loose.

Ed DeLuca is an interesting character. Could you see him returning to the show or even doing a flashback episode that looks at Mickey and Jimmy’s friendship with him back in the past?

DAVE CHERNIN: I think we’d love to find a way to bring him back. That’s just such a fun character and Rhys is so good in the role. So yeah, we’ll definitely be looking for opportunities.

JOHN CHERNIN: He’s also the husband of one of our go-to directors, Kat Coiro!

Sabrina and Chip need to square off with younger bullies and it makes for a great side story. Talk a little on their experience in Warwick and playing into their privilege and differences.

JOHN CHERNIN: I forget how we originally came up with this idea. I think we thought it’d be really funny to see Sabrina be so blasé and then outwitted by a bunch of little kids. I love that scene where the two kids try to convince Sabrina to flash them. 

DAVE CHERNIN: These are two privileged kids, who like their family, come from this town. So they have an interesting emotional connection to it. Then we thought it’d funny if Chip just freaks out and treats it like it’s Baghdad. Meanwhile Sabrina doesn’t think it’s that bad, but then winds up in this huge fight with these children.

Important stuff here: Are there really that many randomly dead stray birds throughout the streets of Rhode Island?

DAVE CHERNIN: That’s a hard fact! We did our research.

JOHN CHERNIN: That’s a direct shot at Rhode Island. I hope that anyone in Rhode Island who reads this uses it as an opportunity for change. 

ROB ROSELL: Look alive, Warwick!

Fix the problem!

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