FX's 13-Part Wonder "Terriers" Deserves Way More Love

FX’s 2010 crime show Terriers is in the conversation for “best one-season-wonder TV show” of all time. For sure, it is in the canceled-too-soon Hall of Fame. The series boasts a 93% Rotten Tomatoes score today, and it’s a must-watch for fans of good TV, plain and simple. That is, as long as you can cope when it’s over.

Terriers stars Donal Logue as washed out cop Hank Dolworth, who teams up with his reformed thief and best buddy Britt Pollack, played by Michael Raymond-James, as erstwhile private investigators.

Terriers nailed the balance between off-beat comedy and procedural drama, but its cancellation left its greater potential untapped, along with several dangling plot threads.

"Terriers" Was Poised To Be Among The Great Shows Of Its Day, But It Was Canceled After Just 1 Season

Inside FX's Biggest Mistake: The Best Show You've Never Watched

In the mid-2000s, FX was quick to recognize the changing TV landscape, even ahead of AMC. Before Breaking Bad and Mad Men made the latter the #1 cable alternative to HBO, FX had already produced a generation of proto-prestige television programs: dramas like Rescue Me, The Shield, Nip/Tuck, Damages, and the transformative comedy It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

Terriers was part of the second wave of FX shows. It aired from September to December 2010. Yet despite only being on the air four months, Terriers has an outsized legacy. Why? Because it's almost-universally regarded as one of the biggest missed opportunities of 21st-century TV. It could have been a contender, one of the great shows of its era.

The FX executive who ushered in FX's golden age, John Landgraf, has described canceling Terriers as one of his biggest mistakes in his decades with the network. It was a rare miss for Landgraf, who succeeded by nurturing other shows, like Sons of Anarchy, that couldn't have survived elsewhere. Yet limiting Terriers to one season was a huge miss.

"Terriers" Is One Of The Great Misesd Opportunities Of The Early Prestige TV Era

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Terriers showcased Donal Logue's credentials as a dramatic lead. While Logue has done plenty of great work since the show's untimely cancellation, one of the things audiences missed out on most was watching the actor blossom even further, akin to the transformation of Bryan Cranston in Breaking Bad and Bob Odenkirk in Better Call Saul.

It was also a breakout role for co-star Michael Raymond-James, coming off the heels of his vital role in True Blood Season One. Terriers is certifiably great, as its certified fresh RT score attests to. It was beloved by critics in 2010. Despite that, its cancellation was a knee-jerk reaction to the show's struggling ratings.

What makes it especially painful, though, is that it was the kind of reaction John Landgraf and FX consciously avoided with other shows of that era. Today, Terriers holds up as a great watch, but only if viewers can invest in the characters emotionally despite knowing their stories are destined not to go anywhere, due to FX's unfortunate foible.