I rarely watch the first season of a show when it airs.
This is because of two things. One, I normally don't have time to watch them, since I have my schedule pretty much full. Two, they have a tendency to get cancelled before they can get to a stopping point in the series, and that breaks my little TV loving heart. I have broken this promise to myself several times, and this year is no different.This brings me to today's topic - what is the best new fall series?
My vote goes to Terriers, on FX.
A brief synopsis for you - an ex-cop and an ex-con make a meager living by being private investigators in the San Diego area.
My first thought was, "oh great, another crime drama." That's not surprising. It seems that every other show on TV today is a crime drama. When one goes off the air (Law and Order), they just make another one with the same name and put it in the same time slot (Law and Order: Los Angeles). This is different, though. It's well written, well acted, and, dare I say it, refreshing.
The show's two main characters, Hank (Donal Logue) and Britt (Michael Raymond-James) are extremely complex, which is rare to see these days. Hank is a former cop who earned a dishonorable discharge from the force because of his alcoholism. Additionally, he also lost his wife and his dignity, which all drove him to get clean and sober. Despite all this, you root for him - he's a lovable character with the very human quality of regret, and almost every choice he makes as a character is the result of this. He's trying to make things right. Midway through Hank's season one arc, we meet his autistic sister (played by Logue's real-life sister Karina), whom he lovingly cares for. Not all drunks are bad guys, it just takes sobriety to show it. He is a completely selfless character at the beginning of his character arc, which is almost unheard of. Almost everything he does is for someone else. It seems that his want is to help people, but his need is to help himself. That's backwards! But like I said - refreshing.
Britt is completely different. He's a former thief who met his live-in girlfriend in the strangest manner possible - he broke into her house to steal her stereo and saw her picture on the refrigerator and decided to visit her place of business in order to pick her up. He met Hank when Hank caught Britt trying to commit yet another robbery, and, instead of dragging him into the police, offered to make him a business partner. Unconventional! See? Refreshing.
As if these characters weren't complex and interesting enough on their own, these two actors have tremendous chemistry. I've only heard of Michael Raymond-James because of True Blood, but I've followed Donal Logue through the depths of his career (from Little Women to The Tao of Steve to Grounded for Life to The Patriot) and back again, and all because I saw Conan interview him in 1999 and decided I liked him. He hasn't had the most notable career, but he deserves to. He's a nice Irishman. Anyway, these two have never worked together, but you'd never know it - their banter (which is hilarious and often worth rewinding and listening to again) is flawless.
But that's not all that's good about this show.
My other favorite crime drama in recent history is Castle, but even I will acknowledge that the best thing about that show is Nathan Fillion, and to some extent, the relationship his character has with his daughter Alexis (played by the lovely Molly C. Quinn). The biggest weakness of crime drama shows, Castle included, are the crimes themselves, and the storylines that follow. Terriers beats these odds with unpredictable, original storylines that leave the audience not only guessing, but wanting more.
And there's more where that came from.
Meljo
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