For the Fox network, this is changeover time.
Ending their seasons are three scripted shows – one good, one not and one surprisingly excellent. Their spring replacements are coming, but two of them will be back next season.
If you ignore animated ones (please don’t), Fox only has four scripted shows. Now come season-finales for “Animal Control” (shown here) and “Going Dutch” (9 and 9:30 p.m. Thursday, March 13) and “Doc” (9 p.m. Tuesday, March 18).
Here’s a glimpse at the three finales, plus a note on what’s next.
— “Animal Control” is the rare show that has it both ways – clever character comedy plus big sight gags.
The season started with a “zoo break,” with animals scattered around town. The team managed to catch all of them, except for an elusive penguin.
Now that’s resolved in funny, sight-gag scenes before the opening credits. Then we’re on to the character parts, centering on Frank (Joel McHale, shown here, left, in the season-opener).
He’s supposed to gather dogs for the new shelter, but has other issues. He links with his brother (whom he dislikes) to learn what happened to their dad (whom he likes even less). Also, he ponders his hollow romantic life.
Many romances get pondered here. This would be an excellent series-finale, but the show has been renewed. back. Over two short seasons, it’s become one of TV’s best comedies.
— “Going Dutch,” by comparison, is only good some of the time. The season-finale is not one of those times.
Col. Quinn (Denis Leary) is a self-obsessed guy who was demoted to the least-important U.S. military base, a support unit in the Netherlands.
He’s supposed to be in the TV/movie tradition of a charming rogue. Except often, the charm is gone.
The finale starts with him forgetting his daughter’s birthday. (How hard is it to remember July 3?) Then he comes up with a scheme to blackmail the general who exiled him. It’s a dark and mostly humorless episode, in a show that’s likely to be canceled.
— “Doc,” by comparison, has been terrific from the start.
The notion does seem a bit broad: After a car crash, a doctor has lost eight years of her medical and professional memories.
But that idea is played out with subtlety and nuance, as flashbacks show what Amy (Molly Parker) has forgotten: After her son’s death, she became cold and distant to everyone – her husband (now her ex-husband and the chief medical officer), their daughter and her co-workers.
All of that had faded from her memories. So had her secret romance with a younger doctdor (now the chief resident) and her suspicion that an error by
her colleague (now her immediate supervisor) led to a death.
The good news is that much of that peaks Tuesday; the better news is that “Doc” will be back next season.
— And next?\
The two comedies, alas, will be replaced by yet another reality show, “Farmer Wants a Wife.”
But on Tuesdays, “Doc” and a reality show (“Extracted”) will be replaced by the long-delayed starts of two solid dramas – “The Cleaning Lady” and “Alert: Missing Persons Unit.”