Mixology Wednesdays, 9:30 p.m., ABC.

A suspenseful drama series like 24 could gain a lot from having an entire season set over a short period of time, but for a sitcom, the benefits are not as apparent. So creators Jon Lucas and Scott Moore have their work cut out for them with Mixology, a comedy series set entirely over the course of a single night in a Manhattan bar.

Each episode focuses on one particular pairing among the 10 main characters, with flashbacks filling in backstory. Although some of the actors are charming and some of the jokes are amusing, the various match-ups are built on romantic-comedy clichés, and there’s no room for character development when the entire season is going to end only a few hours of in-show time after it began. Mixology may be an ambitious experiment, but it’s hard to see any kind of payoff coming out of it.