FX
Sadly but not surprisingly, FX has decided not to renew Terriers for a second season. The emotionally satisfying thing to do would be to pretend that FX is run by idiot philistines who blindly killed a show that was on the verge of becoming a hit. But it would not be the honest thing.
Terriers was a character-driven private-eye show that combined wit, poignancy and heart, and by the middle of its first season it established itself as something really special. But by that point its ratings had established themselves well south of a million, very poor even by the standards of FX, which has in the past gone the extra mile to keep around ratings-challenged shows it believed in. (If Terriers had managed even the ratings of Damages, I’m sure it would be coming back.)
At this point, I shouldn’t bore you with a postmortem of the possible reasons—the title, the marketing, &c.—but it’s a double shame because Terriers was not exactly medicine: it was an entertaining show with likeable leads in a genre that people like. At this point I just have to throw up my hands, hope the next Terriers does better, and look forward to Shawn Ryan’s next series, The Chicago Code in midseason on Fox.
The bright side: the first season told a complete and satisfying story that whose enjoyment isn’t compromised by the loss of future seasons. So if you haven’t watched it yet, or want to give someone the DVD down the road, I can suggest it heartily. RIP, Terriers.