The ABC sitcom starring Katy Mixon as Katie Otto is not another show about housewives but rather a comedy about a middle class family doing their best in a town full of the one percent. The series starts when the Otto family moves to Westport, Connecticut to give their youngest daughter Anna-Kat a better education and school system to help her overcome her OCD.
The family of five is one of my favorite TV families of all time to spend time with — and I’ve hung out with a lot. Each family member brings something entirely new to the table. The Otto’s might just be your average middle class family, but that is what makes them so extremely relatable and easy-to-like. Starting with Katie, she may be a decent mom and wife but she is far different from the classic sitcom wife trope of the mother who is overly loving towards her kids and appears to enjoy making dinner and cleaning for her family. Aside from that, Katie is loud and obnoxious; she’s never the quiet one in the room.
Then we have Greg, the sweetest man on television. Greg is quite the opposite of your stereotypical dad who watches football on Sundays and doesn’t know how to effectively deal with his emotions. In fact, the history professor’s favorite hobby happens to be attending war reenactments and reading books about historic political figures. Greg is romantic and highly receptive to other feelings and desires. Despite being “the man of the house” he struggles with being stern towards his children; he instead leaves that up to Katie.
Next is Taylor (Meg Donnelly), the oldest of the three kids. At the start of the show, Taylor is fifteen and only concerned with her popularity and getting in with a group of girls at school called the blonterage. Taylor couldn’t care less about her grades and thinks getting C’s in the way to go. In season two, Taylor meets her perfect match in Trip (Peyton Meyer), who is equally beautiful and much more focused on sports and his social life than his grades as well.
Taylor’s younger brother Oliver (Daniel DiMaggio) is almost the complete opposite of his sister when it comes to his academic achievements. Upon moving to Westport and attending a better school, Oliver took that as an opportunity to think bigger and start working towards the goal of getting into Harvard. In fact, Oliver is so set on getting in that he risked getting made fun of by his friends to become a ballet dancer in order to better his chances. He is also best friends with the richest kid in school, Cooper Bradford (Logan Pepper).
Last is Anna-Kat, the “favorite” child of Katie’s and the baby of the family. In Anna Kat’s being the youngest doesn’t mean she is the dumbest. Nothing gets past Anna-Kat in the Otto family and she usually gets her way.
Katie’s best friends Dorris (Ali Wong) and Angela (Carly Hughes) also play a major part in the show. Dorris is a stay-at-home mom in a loveless marriage who has nannies and chefs and Dorris is a divorced lesbian lawyer. Together, they are always giving Katy the absolute worst advice on marriage and parenting.
Another great element of the show is Katie’s over-the-top rivalries with the other moms in Westport starting with her arch nemesis, Chloe Brown Mueller (Jessica St. Clair). From pitting their kids against each other in school elections to attempting to drive each other out of business nothing is off limits for these rival housewives.
American Housewife is fun, hilarious and more than just your average sitcom. Although the stories are told from the women’s perspective, the show has something to offer everyone no matter your age or gender. Due to the Otto’s and their friends providing further depth than most sitcoms, you don’t have to fit any certain box to relate and laugh along with these characters. American Housewife is ABC’s best comedy in years and deserves to be treated as such. Catch up on the first four seasons of American Housewife on Hulu and start hanging with the Otto’s today. You’ll be glad you did.
Season 5 is coming soon to ABC on Wednesdays at 9:30/8:30 central.
Grade: A
By Blair Krassen @blairlyawake