4 out of 5

Director: Insert Joke

Breaking Bad has emerged as the king of slow-burn television by giving us continual developments that are payoffs of previous developments. That show is also gripping from the start thanks to an amazing pilot that establishes our leads and themes without either dawdling or hurrying things along. It’s a lucky blend. Terriers is a slow-burn show, fronted by a much more jokey lead – Hank, played by Donal Logue, an ex-cop, ex-husband, ex-alcoholic now working as an unlicensed P.I. with fellow used-to-be-something pal Britt. Through the constant buddy banter and smart guy responses, creator Ted Griffin works in layers and layers of amazing character development that absolutely gets its hooks into you, as well as an equally Breaking-Bad-smart plot that builds upon what comes before, and doesn’t try to fake the viewer out. Alas, it really takes about 5 episodes to get to this point. Until then is all groundwork, and groundwork without an identifiable goal or endpoint. If I hadn’t had a handful of people tell me how awesome the show was, I probably would’ve stopped watching, which makes it understandable why Terriers didn’t get to stick around. Thankfully, the lone season is wrapped up with enough conclusions and enough openness to make it a well-rounded experience. Let’s thank our streaming service for giving us the opportunity to watch shows like this in one bundle so we can appreciate how good they are without the week-to-week judgments of regular TV.