Pilot Review: Terriers

Terriers (FX)
Premiered September 8 at 10pm

A show about non-cops trying to make their way in law enforcement with minimal cooperation from the law triggered mostly by their own disregard for the badge is hardly groundbreaking territory for television. The network on which this show airs, however, is known for innovative, creative programming, and therefore expectations are high for such a pilot. There’s really not much intrigue, however, since this show doesn’t offer much, if anything, in the way of new or interesting plots or storytelling. What’s mainly disappointing is the two leads, who seem like a perfect pairing based on their previous parts. The trouble is, both have had far better roles in the past, and they hardly deserve to get stuck playing these surprisingly boring and lifeless characters. Donal Logue was incredibly fun as the mastermind between “The Knights of Prosperity” and breathed some admittedly tone-inappropriate life into NBC’s “Life” when he joined the cast in the show’s second season. Michael Raymond-James was an important and great player on the first season of “True Blood.” Now they’re both saddled with a rather dull show that simply doesn’t have any energy or any fun characters, including the lead private detectives. It’s very much like a less lonely and sarcastic version of the pilot of HBO’s “Bored to Death,” with two people in the driver’s seat instead of one. That show got much better after a couple of episodes, but every episode of this show is going to be an hour long, and that could become very tiring. FX shows tend to be extremely heavy on the characters, so a deep immersion will be necessary. More confusingly, the last ten minutes of this show turned shockingly serious with the murder of one of Hank’s friends, and that seems like an odd direction for the show to take given the events that led up to it. I feel like I should tune into episode two just to be sure, but I’m really not interested at all. One, though only one, memorable moment: Britt (Raymond-James) announcing that he’s depositing the check after Hank (Logue) declares war.

How will it work as a series? This show needs to decide if it wants to be a comedy or a drama, and it can only be a dramedy if it picks a primary genre (a funny drama or a dramatic comedy, but there needs to be a starting point). It’s unclear whether the show will focus on recurring villains or episodic cases, but Hank and Britt should be able to piss off just about anyone they encounter, which could be remotely entertaining.
How long will it last? FX has a couple shows going that I don’t like, such as “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia,” “The League,” and “Archer.” Before having seen this show, I would have classified it with those, but now I’m not so sure. I think this show should do fine for a season because it’s on cable, and after that it’s likely it will continue if the ratings keep up.

Pilot Review: C-