PROGRAMMING NOTE: Will Ferrell Temps On The Office For Four Episodes Starting Tonight, Five (Well, Four) Other Big Guest Stars To Follow

As you’ve probably already heard by now, Steve Carell is leaving Dunder Mifflin this season (in three episodes to be exact) to focus on his film career.  While we’ll certainly miss the world’s best boss, we’ve felt for some time now that as much as we’ll always have a special place in our heart for The Office, it’s not the same show it was just a few seasons ago when it was appointment television and it really could use a breath of fresh air.  That’s why it delights us to no end that Will Ferrell will be temping at the Scranton branch from the home office beginning tonight for four episodes.

D’Angelo Vickers (Ferrell) Will be Dry-Humped by Michael Scott (Carell) at Least Once Over the Next Three Weeks, but He Will Not Be Permanently Replacing Him.

Now, folks, please don’t be confused and don’t believe the rumors.  Ferrell is not replacing Carell on The Office (he was just kidding when he claimed that he was two weeks ago, EW), he is merely guest starring for four episodes and will be the interim branch manager when Carell departs for good on the third episode of the stint.  So basically, you get one episode of a solo Will Ferrell (whose character’s name is D’Angelo Vickers… and no, we’re not making that up, but that is so Will Ferrell) and three episodes with him and Carell (not a bad deal at all).  This is nothing more than a concerted effort to bring some excitement to the show and eyeballs on it in the home stretch, but yes, we do recognize the magnitude of awesomeness that we would have if Ferrell was going to be a permanent cast member.

Catherine Tate: Somebody We’ve Never Heard Of.

And Ferrell’s not the only big name who will be making the rounds at D.M. Over the rest of the season expect to see an appearance by perpetual atheist Ricky Gervais, who, of course co-created the British predecessor of The Office and stars as the Michael Scott character (David Brent) on the U.K. version.  Also appearing will be the perpetually unemployed Will Arnett (Running Wilde, Arrested Development), the perpetually whining and nasally funny-man Ray Romano (Men of a Certain Age, Everybody Loves Raymond, which is still my grandmother’s favorite show), the perpetually chicken-necked James Spader (Boston Legal… crap… what else has he done in the last two decades?  Oh, that’s right: Stargate.  Yeah, that’ll work), and the perpetually unrecognized, Catherine Tate (Dr. Who).  OK, we have to be honest on this one: other than her role as Donna for one season plus one episode on the incredibly awesome BBC hit, Doctor Who, we have no idea why she’s considered a guest “star.”  Sheesh… for Pete’s sake her iMDB listing doesn’t even have a photo of her, we had to look this one up! Quite frankly, though, and let this serve as a public service announcement for anyone outside the U.S. who wants to be famous here, if you’re only mildly famous in the U.K. then we really won’t be considering you a star on this side of the pond, as it were, until you make a sex tape and it gets “stolen” and “released without your permission.”  This is America, and that’s how we roll with our celebrities.  Sorry about that, and yes, as a society, we are that stupid.  But as an aside (and perhaps referring back to the previous comment about the tape?), we must say, this British gal certainly has a balcony you can perform Shakespeare off of, so that’s got to be worth tuning in for, right? Yes, we know we’re reaching… and we know that we’re being piggish.

From the Left: Ray Romano, James Spader, Will Arnett and Ricky Gervais. Let the Hilarity Ensue, Just Don’t Get Slapped in the Face by Spader’s Chicken Neck!

Anywho, despite our parodying of the guest stars, we really think that Carell leaving and these guests coming in at the end of this season is probably the best thing that could have happened for the show, because frankly we could have cared less if it had been canceled or not at the end of the season.  The show needed a shakeup and not having Michael Scott as the central character will change the entire atmosphere of it entirely.  Fortunately, these stars will be there to soften the blow and ease us through the transition of what was The Office to what will be The Office.  Now, we’re actually excited about the rest of this season and what’s to come for next season.  It’s a whole new office.

‘Terriers’ (F/X – Wednesdays, 10:00 p.m.)

 

 

Terriers from Creator/Executive Producer Ted Griffin (Ocean’s Eleven, Matchstick Men) and Executive Producer Shawn Ryan (The Shield), is a comedic drama starring Donal Logue (The Tao of Steve) and Michael Raymond-James (True Blood). It centers on “Hank Dolworth” (Logue), an ex-cop, who partners with his best friend “Britt Pollack” (Raymond-James) in an unlicensed private investigation business. – F/X

7 out of 10

Two weeks ago, my Dad was bemoaning the fact that there weren’t any private eye shows on television any more. He doesn’t have cable any more so he hasn’t seen Monk and he misses shows like Magnum P.I., Simon & Simon, Hardcastle & McCormick, Remington Steele and The Rockford Files (which I’m sure he’ll be happy to know is coming back). Well, if you like original private eye shows ike my Dad does, then Terriers is your type of show.

Terriers, on the surface hearkens back to the by-gone days of the classic buddy-detective shows but once you start getting into it, you realize it’s got a lot more going on with it than the classic procedural who done-its.

Hank Dolworth is a former detective for the Ocean Beach, California Police Department who was “dishonorably discharged” (I put that in quotes because it was mentioned in an episode but I don’t think they use that phrase outside the armed forces… whatever.) for reasons not mentioned as of yet, but one can assume it stems from the same issue that caused his marriage to end: his alcoholism.

This is important to note because Hank being a recovering alcoholic is an integral part of the character. We learn a lot about his personal character because of this skeleton in his closet that as any recovering will tell you, stays with you forever.  Hank seems like he’s on a continuous journey of redemption with everything he does.  

We see this in his approach to justice, where he often severely bends the rules to see that the right bad guys are put behind bars and it’s obvious that he is trying to make up for what he sees as his failings while he was with the police. From almost the opening scene of the pilot it’s obvious that he still deeply loves his ex-wife, Gretchen (Kimberly Quinn) constant attempts to make things right with his ex-wife , even going so far as not only buying the house they lived in together so that she could move on, but even knocking down the wall between the family room and the dining room that she had asked him to do five years earlier.  It was a pointless gesture, because he has just moved into the house and she was moved out but it was obvious that Hank is trying to make amends for everything, even for that.  

Now, on to the lighter side:  Hank’s partner, Britt, is there for one reason and one reason only as far as I can see it: to provide some kind of balance to Hank and comic relief for the audience.  Despite how the show is being billed, it’s not a comedy at all.  It’s a decent crime drama but what keeps you coming back is the back-and-forth between Hank and Britt.  The dialogue is very clever and all of the characters are very well-written and what’s refreshing is the often “shades of gray” approach to all of them, even some of the bad guys.

All in all, Terriers grew on me by the second episode and it’s the type of show that works perfectly on a network like F/X with only 13 episodes per season.

Watch  full episodes of Terriers, here.