Terriers: A Review

By Stephen Fasulo II

Terriers is the best show you’ve never heard of. The show is the definitive self contained storyline in television, the perfect one act masterpiece. The show is the story of Hank Dolworth and Britt Pollack, two private investigators that try and help the helpless while securing themselves some spending money. The story may sound a little boring, but the strength of Terriers is that at every point where you think the show will do something average, it does something extrordinary.

The best thing about the show is probably the two leads. Each character has so much depth crammed into 13 perfect episodes. Hank Dolworth, played by the phenomenal Donal Logue, is a former cop with the morals of a man who decides he has to protect the innocent, and manages to be fun and witty despite having some serious emotional baggage. Britt Pollack, played by Michael Raymond-James, is a former thief that has a healthy dependent relationship with a competent girl who accepts him for who he is.

It’s more complex than the usual FX show. The characters in the peripheral are just as complex, and each have their own thing going on. I think the best part about it is that none of the characters have patience for the antics of the two, but at the same time, they understand Hank and Britt are genuinely good people who try to do good.

The story is also very well done. Little in the story leads to a dead plot line, and each new character in the story allows for new pieces of the overarching plot to gain new facts and details that add more to the mystery of the season. Speaking of the mystery, it’s the little differences from the usual cliches of the procedural crime show that make this show great. In an ingenious move, when the characters fake an affair, the plot is foiled because the man they are trying to fool has looked the pair up on the internet and recognizes Britt, who posed as the man.

The show follows the rules of the universe, and every action has a logical reaction. If Hank and Britt kidnap someone to help save another, the consequences follow them. In the thirteen episodes a plotline resumes five episodes after it seems to end. The show succeeds because every character is three dimensional and at the end, you understand what will happen next, because they are fully developed.

At the end of this show’s pitch perfect single season, you’ll want more, but you’ll be satisfied because the ending is good. Watch Terriers, because it’s the best kind of television show.