Last night I checked out the first episode of CBS’ Hawaii Five-0 revamp, a show I really wanted to like. I dig cop shows in exotic locales; and I dig pretty much every member of that cast whose name doesn’t rhyme with Malex Mo Mofflin. But I did not dig Hawaii Five-0, because there wasn’t a single element about it that wasn’t wanly familiar: not the gunfights, not the friction between the two male leads, not the loose cannon law enforcement, and really not even the location. I may watch the show again later in the season if I get word that it’s lightened up or become more original, but for now I can think of no good reason to tune in.
Now Terriers, on the other hand… well, let me just say this: After my H50 experience, I popped in my screener for tonight’s third Terriers episode, “Change Partners,” and I can honestly say that this isn’t anything I’ve seen before.
At first it’s familiar, yes. In keeping with the “every case needs a narrative justification” approach that made last week’s “Dog And Pony” such a treat, Hank stumbles into a job—once again—because of his efforts to buy back his old house from his ex-wife. Last week, Hank needed money; this week he needs a lending institution to guarantee his mortgage. But Hank’s not so good a credit risk. He “retired” from the police force a year before he was pension-eligible, and he runs his P.I. business without a license, so that he won’t have to deal with people checking up on him and digging into his records. (“Much like a mortgage company might,” suggests the man from the mortgage company.)
Just when Hank’s ready to slump out the door, defeated, the company’s vice-president Armond Foster (played by Big Love’s Shawn Doyle) comes out and offers Hank a deal. He’ll set Hank up with a mortgage if Hank will do a little gumshoe-ing for him. In particular, he wants Hank to tail his wife Miriam (played by Dollhouse’s Olivia Williams) and provide definitive proof that she’s cheating on him. So far, typical detective show stuff.
But then Hank follows Mrs. Foster and finds nothing, which angers Mr. Foster because he knows for a fact his wife slept with another man that night—because she confessed to him. So Hank follows Miriam some more, only this time she catches him, and explains the situation. She did cheat on Armond, once, at his behest, and the humiliation of it so excited him that he asked her to keep doing it. Only she can’t bring herself to, so she lies to her husband and says she’s screwing other men even when she isn’t. And that’s when Hank has his bright idea: He’ll get Britt to pose with Miriam in compromising positions, and thus keep Armond Foster happily miserable.
Like I said: this is a private detective plot that hasn’t been done a hundred times already. Even more surprising? It comes from the pen of Phoef Sutton, a veteran TV writer/producer best known for his extensive work on Cheers and Boston Legal, two shows that aren’t especially Terriers-like. And yet “Change Partners” is right in line with the first two episodes, in that it’s odd and unpredictable and clever—and thematically consistent to boot.
In particular, “Change Partners” asks the one question that seems to be haunting our heroes so far: Why stay in a shitty situation? Both guys have made major changes in their lives: Hank has kicked booze (for now at least), while Britt has put aside a shady past. But as Hank’s AA buddy noted last week, even without alcohol fueling him Hank keeps putting himself in places he shouldn’t be. (Like his ex-wife’s house, for example.) He’s driven by sentimentality and loyalty and impulse, just as we all are. Just as Miriam is. She can’t leave Armond because despite his sickness, he’s a good man. And besides, she has a sickness of her own: she’s a chronic caregiver.
Carrying the theme of change and recidivism even further, “Change Partners” delivers a huge chunk of the Britt and Hank origin story (something that, after last week’s tease, I’d assumed would be trickling out over the rest of the season). We learn that Britt used to be a full-time burglar, and that he befriended Hank after Hank caught him burgling and gave him a break. We learn also that Britt’s girlfriend Katie knows all this already. When one of Britt’s old crime buddies, Ray, holds up a bar where Britt’s drinking, he takes Britt’s wallet and tracks him down, to see if Britt’s still up for doing some crimes. When Ray realizes that he can’t use the general fact of Britt being a burglar as blackmail material—“Shit, I used to hook,” Katie jokes—he instead threatens to tell the story of how Britt happened to meet Katie in the first place.
Britt’s solution? He pretends to give in to Ray and agree to participate in a heist, but when the two meet in a dark alley at night, Britt brings a gun that Ray discovers and pulls out of Britt’s waistband. Then Britt uses that gun to fake-rob a bar where Hank is hanging out, and Hank hands that now-Ray-fingerprinted-gun over to the cops, thus busting Britt’s old pal. But Britt still feels obliged to spill the beans to Katie about what Ray would’ve told her: that he and Ray once robbed Katie’s apartment, and that Britt was so smitten by the pictures of her that he tracked her down and asked her out. Her response? She acts mad, but it’s just an act. The truth is: it turns her on.