Terriers finds a nice medium between darker cop shows like The Shield, and the eternal cheeriness and wise-cracking of shows like Psych. There's certainly plenty of charm in the cast headed by Donal Logue and Michael Raymond-James, and the dialogue is littered with fun lines. However, there aren't any of those unrealistic, overt jokes in Psych (it's on my mind since the summer finale was tonight). And a good part of the episode is dead serious, the result of being attacked and seeing dead bodies. The air of cheer on Terriers is always predicated by the sad fact that these two scruffy guys have major problems.
The plot was fairly interesting, as Hank and Britt work for a rich developer named Robert Lindus who also is their prime suspect for two murders. At the end of the episode, they frame Lindus for murder--in addition to cashing his check--but it looks like Lindus will be a thorn in their sides for quite a while. The other part of the episode develops Hank and Britt's relationships with their women, Gretchen and Katie, respectively. Clearly Gretchen is conflict about Hank, but she's getting married soon, and Katie would like a son, though Britt is not that kind of guy right now. While Hank doesn't make a move on Gretchen, Britt makes a small, and in his case, meaningful gesture, offering to get a dog with Katie.
From the pilot alone, it looks like Terriers will be a show that's not too deep that viewers have to watch each episode to get what's going on, but will be extra-awarding for those who do so.
Score: 8.9/10
