In the first episode of Mixology, which premiered last night on ABC, martini glasses appear garnished with olives, Collins glasses are routinely topped off with lime wheels and the occasional rocks tumbler floats across the illuminated counter of a nameless New York City bar. But these props are the extent of the mixology—as related to bartenders shaking, stirring and building cocktails—that takes place in ABC’s new Wednesday night show about singles searching for love in a bar. As applied to the sitcom, the aggravating term mostly refers to the mixing of social and sexual dynamics while attempting to pick up a one-night-stand in a Meatpacking-esque bar.
“Look at that chick throwing up. I’m going to bang her out,” says one of the main male characters toward the end of the episode. This is a perfect example of the slimy jokes through which Mixology portrays the pick-up scene at a typical urban bar. This isn’t always untrue, but so unnecessarily crude and creepy, that each joke falls flatter than the next.
If a Manhattan bar was this gross all the time, it’s guaranteed no self-respecting New Yorker would keep coming back “looking for love.” (One British-accented character pukes in his potential love interest’s red satin clutch upon meeting her, and then goes on to flirt with an unsuspecting doe-eyed damsel outside the bar. Real New York women would be breaking shit if subjected to such bad behavior.) Yet, the premise of the show has the same ten characters returning each week just to be treated badly, in the name of love.
If you plan to keep watching, it’s probably best to dull the senses with a couple of Martinis (over-sized glasses approved, in this case) before diving into the rest of the season.