The Trailer for FX's Terriers: A Shaggy Dog Story

For a certain group of the population -- all television critics on Twitter, for instance -- the name Shawn Ryan means "Must See TV"; the veteran showrunner made The Shield for FX and, as such, has a lifetime pass. Good thing, then, since from the looks of his new FX series Terriers, he's going to need some slack.

Veteran actor Donal Logue stars as Eddie Vedder look-alike Hank Dolworth, a former San Diego police detective exiled from the force and doomed to working as an unlicensed private investigator. Hank's got a partner (Michael Raymond-James), an ex-wife, a femme fatale and a bunch of maybe-dangerous cases. He's also got a sit-com-y sense of humor that doesn't seem misplaced coming out of the mouth of the dude who starred in Grounded for Life for multiple seasons.

Ryan was able to turn the recognizable Michael Chiklis into Vic Mackey on The Shield, because Vic was so vastly different from anything Chiklis had done. That doesn't appear to be the case here -- Hank is Donal Logue, or at least the Donal Logue audiences have come to know over the past two decades. That's a problem. With so many other options hitting television this fall, are you really going to find time for something that appears so banal, even with the name "Shawn Ryan" plastered up front? Well, maybe. There is that lifetime pass...

VERDICT: DVR once.