10 Amazing TV Shows You've Probably Never Heard Of
1. Terriers (2010)
Thirteen episodes long and with no follow-up season, FX’s Terriers is possibly the biggest missed opportunity in recent television history. After all, network TV may live and die by ratings and the advertising, but cable TV has an entirely different metric for success, and Terriers had some of the most spectacularly ecstatic reviews a debuting TV show has ever seen.
Starring the incomparable Donal Logue as ex-cop Hank, and Michael Raymond-James as his best friend ex-thief Britt, Terriers saw the two men try their hand running a small time private investigation business in the low rent suburbs of San Diego.
Nuanced, witty, and scruffily charming, Terriers played character at the forefront, as you’d expect from a TV show born of the collaboration between Shawn Ryan, creator of The Shield, and Ted Griffin, writer of Ocean’s Eleven. So did the actors, though: Logue and Raymond-James actually lived together during filming in order to have that best-buddy shorthand going from the word go, and it shows.
It wasn’t all smooth, shuffling soundtrack and deadpan wisecracking, although that played a part. No, Terriers had it all: some of the finest character actors in television, working their asses off in engrossing, compelling drama. No gimmicks, no ultraviolence or gratuitous nudity… just evocative storytelling, told with grace and flair.
Cracking dialogue, swerves a-go-go, tight, masterful direction, and a career best performance from Donal freakin’ Logue. Everyone involved has said that, given the right set of circumstances, they’d happily come back for a second season, or even a movie… even six years later. That speaks to how special they knew the work they were doing was.
Terriers wasn’t a one-off - there have been many TV shows of this level of quality over the last decade or so. This is a golden age of television, after all. But almost all of those other shows got the audience they deserved and the ending they deserved (except for Deadwood, of course - thanks again for that, Milch).
That’s not to say that Terriers isn’t still worth looking up. FX aired all thirteen episodes, which is handy if you’ve got a Netflix subscription and you’re feeling like binging on something classy. The whole season ties together in an arc that becomes intensely satisfying, and rewards a rewatch.
And if you’re worried about closure, don’t be - the ending may be the most satisfying open ended conclusion since Angel announced he wanted to slay the dragon.