Terriers Forum

Television history is littered with fantastic shows that no one watched. Perhaps my favorite of these is Homicide: Life On The Street, which somehow managed to earn enough acclaim (and awards) to survive in a Friday 10 PM timeslot for seven whole seasons despite being regularly underwhelming ratings. Alas, though, the collection of amazing television shows that only lasted one season (which includes fan favorites like Freaks and Geeks and Firefly) has seen its number swell by one, as FX recently announced the cancellation of Terriers, arguably the best new show of the television season.  
 
Terriers suffered from a pretty damn poor title that failed to explain anything about the show. I mean, Terriers? Does that say "scrappy private detectives eking out a living in San Diego" or "reality show about dog groomers"? Given the option, would you rather watch something called Justified, Sons of Anarchy, or Terriers? Name aside, Terriers was a terrific show, featuring some great acting from Donal Logue and Michael Raymond-James as a pair of private dicks, trying to make their way on the mean streets of SD while dealing with the various personal conundrums that such a job entailed. This show seemed to be inspired by the SoCal writings of Raymond Chandler in its attention to language, which nabbed me pretty early on, but the character work was also excellent, especially when the middle of the season came around and the interpersonal relationships started to get more intense. 
 
Terriers, you were a fine show, but perhaps you were doomed from the start by the inclusion of Tim Minear as a producer; he's an amazingly talented writer who's been fated to work on a series of quickly-canceled shows. Firefly, Wonderfalls, Dollhouse, The Inside, Drive, etc. Mr. Minear, hopefully your luck will turn around sometime soon. In the meantime, we'll enjoy the Terriers DVD set when it comes out. (And there'll almost assuredly be a more thorough Resurrecting The Canceled before that comes out.)

I'm very sad to see this show go. I agree it was definitely one of the best, if not the best, new show of the year. I'm going to blame the terrible title 100%.

It's amazing that shows like CSI and Law and Order go on for 10 or more seasons and the episodes are always the same but a show like Terriers that had a great story and is something different gets cancelled after 1 season.

This is a shame, I've only recently started hearing this show was good. All the previews and ads for it made it look super corny.

Really? I thought it would do better then one season. It's a great show with great actors. You can really get behind the characters since they seemed so real.

Sherlock Holmes's dog was a terrier, wasn't it? That would explain the show's title.

I agree with your thoughts on that title. I think one of the best copshow titles was another FX show: The Shield. It was concise, it gave you a slight idea as to what the show was about, and it's just a cool sounding word.

Never watched it so blame me amongst others.
 
A little show called Arrested Development and another one called Touching Evil are 2 of the shows that I still miss till this day. :(

@handlas said:

" Never watched it so blame me amongst others.  A little show called Arrested Development and another one called Touching Evil are 2 of the shows that I still miss till this day. :( "

Thanks for opening up old wounds with the Touching Evil mention. :(

GOD-FUCKING-DAMMIT!!!!!!
 
Even though I knew this was going to happen, it still doesn't make it any less painful. 

I hate to say it but the name did most of the damage to it.  With so many shows and other content to decide what you spend time on, seeing something called Terriers on a channel guide means you skip it.
 
Also, I liked this show better when it was one guy named Jim Rockford, or two guys with the last name Simon.

The title made all the difference. Until Rorie started mentioning it here, I thought it WAS some show about dogs.

I watched maybe the first 4 or 5 episodes. I thought it was ok, until I realized that it was just an amalgam of really dumb character cliches with some slightly-better-than-average plots. Everyone could act fine, which sorta saved it, but... I dunno. Plus, long haired dude was kind of a dick. 
 
God dammit, now I feel like a troll. 

that sucks. terriers was without a doubt THE BEST new show of the season.

sad that it's not coming back, but at least it got to finish the season instead of getting canned midway through, and while the ending was something of a minor cliffhanger, it was still a satisfying end to the story.  
 
Also, it was weird watching a TV show where one of the characters had the same name as I do...
 
about the name, Pitbulls and Bulldogs are Terriers, and they have a reputation for being tenacious. Unfortunately most people think of tiny little Jack-Russells or something like that when they think of a Terrier.

God damnit. This is one of the few shows on TV worth watching these days, and I just started getting into it. Ironically, they'll probably replace it with some ridiculous reality show about dog grooming or some such. I mean, we already have one about traffic tickets. How much lower can it go?

Wierd how I checked it out because it was named Terriers, I kinda get the name, can't explain it though just like it.

And I really liked this show, damn the world and such!

Daaaaaaaaaamn. Shame on me for assuming it would hold out for at least one more season...

I felt it coming, but it still stings. Definitely the best new show of the season and it sucks we live in a world where that's somehow not good enough.

I saw the first episode and thought it was OK but the premise didn't seem like anything too special and the Terriers naming didn't make any sense to me. Seems like it didn't make sense to many other people either.