ABC’s “Mixology” begins on a sour note, and to the surprise of ABC exec’s since the show was aired after their hit “Modern Family”. ABC aired their bar comedy on Wednesday February 26th, after “Modern Family” hoping great ratings would trickle down to the newbie.
“Mixology” takes place at Mix a high end bar in Manhattan’s meat packing district. Recently dumped by his fiancé, Tom (Blake Lee), meets up with his confidently handsome friend Cal (Craig Frank) and his fast talking friend Bruce (Andrew Santino), who insist on throwing Tom back into the dating pool, whether he likes it or not. An attorney Maya (Ginger Gonzaga) is as beautiful as she is brutal, and unfortunately is Tom’s first encounter, a few moments with her and Tom is in tears. Throughout the episode we journey with Tom to encounter several strange characters with their own set of problems, such as aggressive single mom Jessica (Alexis Carra) and her gorgeous frenemy Fabienne (Frankie Shaw).
The formula for “Mixology” was all right, so what could have so gone wrong. Perhaps it is because ABC did not consider if the “Modern Family” audience was also the “Mixology” audience, the two shows are not exactly similar. Two comedies do not an interchangeable audience make, and ABC knows better than that. “A toxic brew”, “watered down jokes”, and “A misogynistic piece of frat boy awfulness” are just a few reviews that ABC’s “Mixology” has received since their airing on February 26th. It leads one to question why ABC, with their strong female audience, would think women would want to hear jokes about rape and women who are whores, after watching their favorite show “Modern Family”. You can imagine how quotes like “they smashed it out about five times a week” and “I thought she was a whore” would be appealing to a woman who was expecting to laugh.
This was certainly a miss for ABC, but nonetheless “Mixology” airs on Wednesday’s at 9:30 pm on ABC.
