Now that this show has unfortunately been canceled, I figured I would write this review for the first and only season.

The saddest thing about this show being canceled is the fact that it was such a breath of fresh air into the genre of crime dramas. The pilot episode really drew the audience in to this pair of unlicensed private detectives. The relationship between Hank (played by Donal Logue) and Britt (played by Michael Raymond-James) is uncannily natural and fun. Terriers almost seems unscripted the way these two talk to each other, which is an ode to the script.

This show was clearly so well thought out and constructed, that you feel like you are apart of the investigation itself. This is most obvious in the pilot episode, as Hank and Britt talk through a number of theories about the case together after each new development. Terriers intelligently takes a page from HBO’s The Wire and ultimately follows one case throughout the entire season. This is arguably the most entertaining crime drama I have seen on television, next to two FX series: Justified (which will most likely be cancelled after its 2nd season) and The Shield. Throughout the series, I never felt bored and the pacing was never slow.

The coolest thing about this show is how truly realistic it is. When one of its main character is in trouble with the law, it doesn’t just go away or remedied by some good deed they perform…they pay the consequences. Not only does the show follow the rules of law & order nearly to a ‘T’, but it also constructs ‘real’ people whose motivations and emotions are believable, natural, and relatable. Terriers is like television’s Chinatown; a realistically written and realized mystery following a couple of likeable, yet flawed private detectives.

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