Tuned In+Uncategorized | December 6, 2010

No Second Chance for Terriers

By James Poniewozik
FX
TERRIERS: L-R: Donal Logue as Hank Dolworth and Michael Raymond-James as Britt Pollack in TERRIERS premiering on FX. CR: Mike Muller / 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.)

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Tuned In+Uncategorized | December 2, 2010

Terriers Watch: Should They Stay Or Should They Go?

By James Poniewozik

Spoilers for the season finale of Terriers coming up: I am going to do my best not to write about Terriers, the series, in the past tense. Despite its ratings, I believe there’s still that chance that FX will realize it had—has! has!—a series too charming, well-written, and simply good to take off the air. [...]

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Tuned In+Uncategorized | November 18, 2010

Terriers Watch: Criminal Record

By James Poniewozik

Spoilers for last night’s Terriers coming up: In much of the handwringing over why Terriers is not doing better in the ratings, here and elsewhere, one point of discussion has been the branding—especially the title, which seems to have left some potential viewers unclear what the show is about. The explanation is that Hank and [...]

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Tuned In+Uncategorized | November 4, 2010

Terriers Watch: By Hooker By Crook

By James Poniewozik

Brief spoilers for last night’s Terriers after the jump: Last week’s Terriers post convinced me there’s enough interest in the show that I should return to it on the blog. And this was a good week to do it, because “Pimp Daddy” was a strong explanation of two questions that Terriers explores. The first is [...]

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Tuned In+Uncategorized | October 28, 2010

The Morning After: Terrier Than Thou

By James Poniewozik

A reader on Twitter writes: any chance of a Terriers Morning After? Another solid ep last night. Show does lots of little things right. Done and done, and agreed! I have not, unfortunately, had the time for week-in-week-out reviews of FX’s Terriers, but I’ve still been following it weekly, and I’m a little puzzled, frankly, [...]

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Tuned In+Uncategorized | September 8, 2010

TV Tonight: The Truth About Cats and Dogs

By James Poniewozik

NBC has generated headlines over the past year with its attempt to remake ’70s private-eye show The Rockford Files. Somebody should let them know they can stop trying now. FX has not remade The Rockford Files with its sly-humored new P.I. drama Terriers, debuting tonight, but it has pursued what is probably a better idea: [...]

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Tuned In+Uncategorized | August 4, 2010

TCA Roundup: Special FX

By James Poniewozik

The Television Critics Association press tour usually has the assembled journalists peppering network executives with difficult, sometimes even hostile questions. But then there are networks like FX, which airs a roster of critical darlings. President John Landgraf took the stage yesterday and was greeted with questions about how much the network was going to add [...]

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Tuned In+October 1, 2009

P.I.s and TKOs for FX

By James Poniewozik

With Jay Leno on five nights a week, somebody has to make dramas at 10 p.m., and increasingly that somebody is FX. Having already ordered the promising-looking Lawman for next year, the network adds to is stable of largely testosteron-ey dramas with two more drama orders for 2010. Terriers stars Donal Logue (pictured) as an [...]