Mike & Molly: "St. Patrick's Day"

Premiered March 18, 2013.

It's the morning of St. Patrick's Day and Chicago PD officer Mike Biggs (Billy Gardell) and his partner Carl McMillan (Reno Wilson) are discussing how they plan to celebrate the occasion.  Carl is planning a huge St. Paddy's party, which will be the first time he's entertained at his new apartment. He's got green beer, a pinata and "enough green M&Ms to dam up a levy."

Mike disappoints Carl when he says that he and his wife Molly (Melissa McCarthy) can't make the party.  Molly is ovulating, so they plan to spend their St. Patrick's Day engaging in...other activities.

Molly's sister Victoria Flynn (Katy Mixon) is also planning to attend the St. Patrick's Day party with her friend Harry (David Anthony Higgins).  She's taking a class about the works of Shakespeare, a subject on which Harry is an expert.

They read romantic passages from Romeo And Juliet to each other, which makes Victoria realize she is attracted to Harry.  Their St. Paddy's plans get complicated when Victoria kisses Harry.  He's not sure how to react. 

Meanwhile, with help from his housemate Samuel (Nyambi Nyambi), Carl prepares for his party.  The party turns out to be a bust because much to Carl's disappointment, no women show up.

Carl and Samuel are very disappointed.  Can their St. Patrick's Day party be saved?

J.A. Morris says:

There aren't a lot of St. Patrick's Day episodes and perhaps this one demonstrates why.  There's not a lot you can do with the holiday.  I'm an Irish American myself, I understand the significance of March 17.

But a St. Patrick's Day party being "ruined" because no women show up hardly compares with bad things happening at Christmas (you know, "Christmas is cancelled!," "Mom gets fired on Christmas Eve," etc).  I'd say only about half of "St. Patrick's Day" focuses on the occasion, the rest is just a typical sitcom episode.

Harry and Vincent (Louis Mustillo) celebrate with green beer.

Having said that there are plenty of comments and jokes about green beer to make it appropriate for seasonal viewing.  However, it's not a very good episode.  I'm a big fan of Melissa McCarthy and Katy Mixon, but this was the first time I watched Mike & Molly.

Most of the jokes were flat and sometimes repeated ad nauseam.  For example, Mike mentions that Carl got so drunk the previous St. Patrick's Day that he kissed a horse.  This "joke" gets repeated about four or five times in the first scene and it wasn't that funny the first time.  For good measure, the horse-kissing gets brought up again at the end of the episode.

Fans of the actors might enjoy watching this on March 17, but that's the best thing I can say about "St. Patrick's Day."  It's not terrible, just mediocre.

J.A. Morris' rating:

2 Shamrocks.