Animal Control

Joel McHale struck gold with this sitcom. I actually enjoyed the premise about animal control officers in Seattle, Washington. The unit is headed by a charming attractive woman, Emily. McHale is paired up with younger Shred who was an athlete and idealistic. There is another pair of officers with a female officer from New Zealand and an Asian Indian character Patel. The four of them get into all types of trouble like attacking rabbits, snakes, peacocks, raccoons, possums, squirrels etc. I think it's a fine sitcom model and I have a preference for the standard multi camera model. Unlike a studio sitcom, Animal Control works best outside the standard norms. I still look forward to it every week.

I genuinely enjoy these workplace comedies. And I love like 70% of anything that Joel McHale is in. I think it has enough potential to give it a chance to last 2-3 seasons in order to find its footing. Too many networks throw dozens of shows out there and see what sticks and abandon them before the reach their full potential (The Mick). I can only imagine if they'd cancel The Office or Parks and Rec in their infancy. The cast is diverse and they all seem like good enough comedy actors. I didn't recognize any of the writers which could bode well. I guess my gist is give the show time to breathe before dropping it.

Didn't expect much after reading many of these reviews, (some seem weirdly personal), but was surprised how funny I thought it was. It's not Seinfeld or MASH of course but not even close to some of the lame shows (I'm looking at you Night Court), but all I can suggest is try it because it's a pleasing cast, yes Joel McHale is pretty much Jeff Winger 2.0, but what's wrong with that? It kind of reminded me of Community in that I actually laughed out loud a couple of times and am looking forward to more episodes. Give it an opportunity, it won't be the first time a show that actually is funny gets canceled, but I plan on enjoying while I can.

I've been watching a half hour comedy series on FOX called "Animal Control".

I don't usually watch comedies these days. My life is hard and funny stuff usually falls flat for me. The salad days of Friends and Seinfeld are over. Big Bang was great but got sort of tedious in the last couple of years and I stopped watching it.

I've not seen The Office or Parks and Rec (I know... I know...)

At any rate, I've been enjoying Animal Control. It's goofy and dumb but has a lot of heart and charm. The characters aren't mean to each other, which is important for me. Basically almost all the characters are nice, but strange, people.

Plus there are animals! Lots of animals!

I'm not familiar at all with Joel McHale, who is the lead, but I like him a lot. I guess he was in another sitcom that is well-liked.

The most recent episode of Animal Control ends very sweetly with McHale's character sitting on his couch, cuddling a bunch of adorable rescue cats, and realizing he may be a "cat daddy" (what do you call a male "cat lady"?). It was (as I said) charming.

There are some really funny (goofy) animal-related scenes as the cast deal with "animal control" situations.

As I said I don't really watch comedies any more and it's weird being thrown into the genre. It's so different from what I have been watching -- intense dramas that go on and on.

So I recommend this. I do think you need to give it a few episodes if you start watching it... it calms down a bit after an initial phase that has the characters being sort of "extreme" in order to (I guess) establish their personalities.

I went into this show not expecting much, I loved community and Joel Mchale. Wasn't sure if it would be just a comedy or not and pleasantly it's also a bit of drama. This show took a few episodes to get into the characters but now I'm hooked and always want one more episode. Once the character Rick gets introduced is when it really started to pick up. Maybe its a little predictable but I genuinely appreciate having a show to watch that gives me something to look forward to. If you enjoy Upload, Brooklyn Nine Nine, Community or The Office then I believe you'll like this one too. Can't wait for the second season to come out.