TERRIERS (2010)

“Curiosity killed the cat.”

"Yeah, I heard that cat had that shit comin' to him."

Following the story of two not-so lucky in life private investigators in San Diego, FX's Terriers sounds like the type of program I would never usually check back with on a weekly basis. Only this time around it was the names attached to the crew that caught my attention.

Created by Ravenous scriptwriter Ted Griffin and backed up by former Whedonverse writer/directors Tim Minear and Shawn Ryan, Terriers was put on my must watch list for 2010. Much to my dismay and legions of other followers, the show was canceled after it ran it's 13 episode first season.

In what should have been a career-defining performance, Canadian actor Donal Logue steals half of your heart as the recovering alcoholic ex-cop P.I., Hank Dolworth. His younger partner, Brit Pollock, an ex-crook who is also trying to get his life back together is played by Michael Raymond-James who steals the other half of your heart. Together these guys have the best-buddy chemistry down so well I could swear they've known each other for years. There was no need for Logue or Raymond-James to really have to show off with emotional schmaltz, they just had the chemistry from the very get-go, which is a rarity in television.

Terriers' perfect blend of VERY dry humor, emotional turmoil and plot twists galore gave it an unique feel completely different from most crime dramas. I will admit the only episode that turned me off was the generic pilot episode, so I beg you to not give it up on it so quickly.

Fortunately with it's short run, Griffin was able to wrap the show up with a perfect ending that could act as both an acceptable open-ender or a gateway to a complete make-over had the series continued. So don't be worried that you'll be left with a jawdropping cliff-hanger.

With it's near perfect writing, direction, acting, cinematography and scene set-ups it's a colossal shame this show never got the chance to continue. Or perhaps we're lucky Terriers never got the chance to lose any of it's superbly executed quality.

We'll never know.

MUST SEE EPISODES:
1x03:  CHANGE PARTNERS: a perfect blend of what this show is all about.
1x05:  RING-A-DING-DING: emotionally engaging and huge character arcs
1x11: SINS OF THE PAST: ex Angel writer/directors Shawn Ryan & Tim Minear do what they do best...a flashback episode

EPISODES TO AVOID:
1x01:  Really, it's the only weak episode in the bunch...but it's also the one that gets the multiple stories running.......so.....yeah.  Watch it anyways.

BUYER'S GUIDE:
Sadly, Terriers is not available for home viewing and there's still no sign of a release.  However, even though they've canceled it, FX is still playing reruns every week.

TWIN PEAKS: Season One (1990)

"I'll see you in my dreams."

"Not if I see you first."

“Who killed Laura Palmer?” became one the most asked questions in the land of water cooler conversations for a very brief time in the early 1990's.  Created by Hill Street Blues' head-writer Mark Frost and Blue Velvet director David Lynch, Twin Peaks' legacy grew into a pop culture phenomenon that would go on to influence many other hit cult-TV shows for several decades to follow.

In simple, it's about a seemingly sleepy Pacific Northwest town that is turned upside down when the homecoming queen, Laura Palmer, is found dead, wrapped in plastic.  Enter FBI Agent Dale Cooper (decorously played by Kyle MacLachlan) who whisks in and innocently begins unraveling not only the mysterious murder but several of the community's seedy little secrets.  It's a real amusing collection of bizarre characters too, including barking teenagers, ladies with logs and backwards talking dancing dwarfs.

Half quirky satirical soap-opera and half dark twisted mystery, Twin Peaks came at just the right time when television was becoming overly boring and predictable amongst it's hordes of stand-alone episodes.
Right off the bat, the series proves itself to be a very unique addition to the primetime line-up with it's gloomy cinematic feature-length pilot episode.  Filmed near Seattle, Washington, Lynch made the best of the grey skylines, the wind dancing through the dense haunted forests and the ever-present foghorn in the distance.  The moody atmosphere is instantly hypnotizing but lures the audience even further down the rabbit hole with it's humorously bizarre dialogue, oddball character quirks and now-iconic music that switches between cool-cat jazz to melodramatic soap opera themes with great ease, courtesy of Lynch-mob regular Angelo Badalamenti.

Character highlights include the bromantic relationship between Agent Cooper and the local Sheriff Truman, played a refreshingly under-stated performance by Michael Ontkean.  There's the always quirky and humorous banter between Deputy Andy Brennan and the bubbly  secretary Luck Moran.  And let us not forgot the seedy but charismatic Brothers Horne. 

Sadly, after the pilot episode, the series opted to film in California and, like The X-files after it, the series loses quite a bit of it's mood amid the bright and sunny woodlands, which look nothing like the Pacific Northwest.  Thankfully the quality of the writing upholds, with the exception of some red-herring storylines that seem like a lot of the characters were created to add to the strangeness of the town but could never find anything worthwhile beyond that.  Hints of the supernatural begin emerging, especially with the introduction of the unforgettable Red Room and that dancing dwarf I mentioned before, which completely separated Twin Peaks from anything that had ever been seen on American network television ever before. 

In addition to all the bizarre scenarios the series conjured up it also offered some rewarding philosophies and very touching character moments that painted a certain beauty into the world that at times seemed nothing but doom 'n gloom.  A healthy balance of the dark, the humorous, the weird and the compelling helped attract a wide audience that had no idea what was to come, and that was the allure (until a certain point) that had every body talking week after week.

In just 2 months of airing the entirety of it's first season, Twin Peaks was that show everyone was talking about and most couldn't wait to what was next after it's cliff-hanging season finale.  The question was, could it keeps it's perfect balance of unpredictable weirdness and high quality writing?